Biden’s ’68 days of silence’ on classified documents hoax

President Joe Biden and a small team of trusted advisers, including his sister Valerie, conspired to keep the discovery of classified documents secret, betting they could handle the problem quietly without it going public, an explosive new report claimed on friday.

For 68 days they succeeded. Then it exploded in their faces.

Biden and six of his closest advisers, all of whom were aware of the initial discovery of classified documents in the president’s DC think tank on November 2, gambled that they could keep the matter under wraps and deal with the Department of Justice in private.

They chose to remain silent and try to convince the Department of Justice that it was a simple mistake, unlike Donald Trump’s refusal to return classified material, at the request of the National Archives, stored on his property in Mar-a-Lago. . The New York Times informed.

But his plans fell through when CBS News reported the existence of the Biden documents on January 9, setting off a chain reaction that became a full-blown crisis for the White House, with Biden’s reputation taking a hit. , Republicans accused him of hypocrisy and even Democrats questioned the administration’s judgment on the matter.

Both attempts to control the story and handle the Justice Department failed: Attorney General Merrick Garland eventually appointed special counsel to investigate the matter as he did the Trump classified documents case.

Biden himself has dealt a personal blow, with his refusal to immediately disclose the discovery to the public, especially when the initial discovery was revealed to have been made six days before the 2022 midterm elections.

The president became defensive about the matter when asked about it in California on Thursday, chiding the media for not asking him about efforts the federal government was making to help the flood-damaged state.

“What, frankly, bothers me is that we have a serious problem here that we’re talking about, we’re talking about what’s going on, and the American people don’t understand why you don’t ask me about it.” he said.

He then read a prepared statement, where he said he has “no regrets” and “there’s nothing there.”

‘As we found out, we found a handful of documents that were failed, filed, by the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the Justice Department files. We are fully cooperating in the hope that this will be resolved quickly,” he said.

‘I think you’ll find there’s nothing there. I have no excuses. I am following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It is exactly what we are doing. There is no there there.’

Initial discussions about how to deal with the discovery were fierce between a core group of Biden loyalists led by the husband-and-wife team of Bob Bauer, who is Biden’s personal attorney, and Anita Dunn, who serves as senior counsel. in White. House.

Also in the discussions were Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens; White House senior adviser Mike Donilon; White House counsel Stuart Delery; and White House counsel Richard Sauber.

But the public beating has been on White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who in her daily press conferences is asked why the discovery was not disclosed publicly, the validity of the information she is giving to the public and what else is kept hidden.

Jean-Pierre admitted that she and her press team found out about the documents when CBS News asked about them for their story, which was two months after the initial discovery.

He also made a series of misstatements, including saying six times that the search for more documents is complete, only five more were found, which are compounding the White House’s public relations problems.

All of this, the lack of disclosures, the misstatements and Biden’s irritability, have contributed to the impression that the White House has been uncommunicative and that its strategy in this regard has been a mistake.

Even some Democrats question the wisdom of the White House’s decision-making on the matter.

“I definitely think we want to get answers from the White House,” said Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat.

Complicating the matter is the discovery of documents in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, Delaware, home.

That December 20 discovery was not made public until five days after the discovery of the think tank documents was disclosed, raising questions about why it was not disclosed when the White House confirmed the initial tranche of classified information.

The White House has repeatedly insisted that it is cooperating with the Department of Justice and following all legal procedures correctly. The administration argues that it was transparent with the federal government, promptly informing the National Archives of the materials, even if it did not disclose them to the general public.

Officials have not answered questions about why the discovery was kept secret from the American people for so long.

In all, there have been four discoveries of classified materials: at the Penn-Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, DC; in Biden’s garage at his Wilmington, Del., home; a document discovered in his ‘personal library’ in the same house and then four more documents found in his house.

They all date back to Biden’s time as Barack Obama’s vice president, but the White House won’t answer what topics the materials cover.

Administration officials had many opportunities to disclose each discovery.

But it was Garland who gave a timeline of when each discovery was made and when it was revealed to the Justice Department, demonstrating the long gap between when Biden’s team learned of the documents and when they publicly admitted their existence.

In the wake of the scandal, Biden’s approval rating is returning to the lowest numbers of his presidency, despite a strong performance by Democrats in the midterm elections and a growing economy.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll, conducted amid the fallout from the documents scandal, found that only 40 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s performance as president.

Politically, in addition to damaging Biden’s reputation, the White House’s handling of the matter has also taken the issue off the table for the 2024 presidential campaign.

Biden personally criticized Trump for withholding classified documents from his time in office.

‘How can that happen? How can someone be so irresponsible? And I thought, what data was there that might compromise the sources and the methods?’ he told CBS’s 60 Minutes at the time. ‘And it’s just… totally irresponsible.’

Now the White House is trying to compare their handling of the situation with that of Trump, in the hope that they are on the right track.

It was Anita Dunn, a longtime Democratic operative and Biden adviser who founded the powerful Democratic firm SKDKnickerbocker, who pushed that strategy, The New York Times informed.

She and other officials are betting that the public sees Biden and Trump differently, banking on Biden’s longstanding reputation as a public servant to ultimately come out in their favor.

Aides also say they are wary of speaking publicly about the case, as they don’t want to be seen as trying to influence the Justice Department.

Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, argued that public disclosures were limited in an effort not to influence the investigation.

‘The president’s personal lawyers have tried to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with established standards and limitations necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation. These considerations require avoiding public disclosure of details relevant to the investigation while it is ongoing,” he said in a statement this weekend.

It also added that “ongoing periodic public disclosures also present the risk that as more information develops, responses provided periodically may be incomplete.”

Ultimately, Biden aides hope that their cooperation with the Justice Department and trying to avoid the public appearance of influencing the investigation will pay off in their long-term favor.

Only time will tell if that bet has paid off.