Joe Biden kept classified materials at multiple locations creating another embarrassing situation for the White House. Mr. Biden took a holier-than-thou position last summer when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago over suspicion that Trump had sensitive materials, declaring that he’s the master handler at caretaking such secrets. Flashforward to 2023, and he’s forced the Department of Justice to send officials on a treasure hunt after classified files were discovered at a DC office he used upon leaving the Obama administration. Worst yet, the latest collection of documents was found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home, inside the residence and the garage.
The Democrats know they’re screwed regarding crisis management and communications—they’ve spent months hammering Trump, even though he legally could take files since he has declassification authority. Biden does not. Former Vice President Mike Pence said he found classified materials, part of a proactive search in the wake of the Biden scandal. His office will turn them over to the National Archives. Yet, the Left can’t weaponize this development because even Jimmy Carter found classified materials in his home. So, after all the lecturing and preaching, the latest liberal media defense will probably be along the lines of “everybody’s doing it” (via Associated Press):
At least three presidents. A vice president, a secretary of state, an attorney general. The mishandling of classified documents is not a problem unique to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The matter of classified records and who, exactly, has hung onto them got more complicated Tuesday as news surfaced that former Vice President Mike Pence also had such records in his possession after he left office. Like Biden, Pence willingly turned them over to authorities after they were discovered during a search he requested, according to his lawyer and aides.
The revelations have thrust the issue of proper handling of documents — an otherwise low-key Washington process — into the middle of political discourse and laid bare an uncomfortable truth: Policies meant to control the handling of the nation’s secrets are haphazardly enforced among top officials and rely almost wholly on good faith.
It’s been a problem off and on for decades, from presidents to Cabinet members and staff across multiple administrations stretching as far back as Jimmy Carter.
[…]
Former President Jimmy Carter found classified materials at his home in Plains, Georgia, on at least one occasion and returned them to the National Archives, according to the same person who spoke of regular occurrences of mishandled documents. The person did not provide details on the timing of the discovery.
An aide to the Carter Center provided no details when asked about that account of Carter discovering documents at his home after leaving office in 1981. It’s notable that Carter signed the Presidential Records Act in 1978 but it did not apply to records of his administration, taking effect years later when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. Before Reagan, presidential records were generally considered the private property of the president individually. Nonetheless, Carter invited federal archivists to assist his White House in organizing his records in preparation for their eventual repository at his presidential library in Georgia.
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True, but you people thought this was the first time this had ever occurred post-Mar-a-Lago raid. You all insinuated that Donald Trump was the first to become engulfed in a classified document entanglement, albeit politically motivated. Yes, the National Archives overclassifies everything—we’ve been saying that for months, but now your guys, who couldn’t even take them, are in trouble, so the goalposts are moved. We’ve seen this movie before. Like the Friday the 13th franchise, after the third one—it just becomes nonsensical, but that’s a hallmark characteristic of the swamp, DC life, and politics. Also, it does rehash Joe Biden’s rank hypocrisy here since he torpedoed Carter’s CIA nominee, Ted Sorenson, over—you guessed it—mishandling classified materials.
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