News/Commentary

Biden snipes at anchor who compared him to Trump on secret docs: ‘There’s degrees of irresponsibility…’

February 25, 2023 | | Print Article

President Joe Biden caught an attitude when, during an ABC News interview that aired Friday, the interviewer dared to compare his classified documents scandal to the one being faced by former President Donald Trump.

The back-and-forth exchange began with interviewer David Muir, an anchor at ABC News, bringing up Trump’s own scandal.

“You and the former president are both now under investigation by the Justice Department for the discovery of these classified documents. I know that you believe these two cases are very different, but I do remember something you said after the discovery at Mar-a-Lago,” he said.

“You said, ‘I thought data that was in there may compromise sources and methods and names of people who help and it’s just totally irresponsible.’ Can you assure the American people that none of the documents discovered in your garage or at your old office compromised sources or methods or U.S intelligence?” he added.

Fair question, right? Yet the president refused to answer it.

Listen:

“I’ve been advised by counsel to let the Justice Department make that decision, to not try to alter the case in anyway. There’s been very few documents that have been found in my possession, meaning in my home,” he said.

“All the stuff that was moved out of my Senate office over the years … I don’t know of anything that is marked like it was [with Trump’s documents], you know, top secret, highly classified. But I’m told not to comment on that because I don’t even know what they confiscated,” he added.

It’s at this point that Muir sought to corner the president with an astute point.

“There are many who will understand why you can’t comment while your lawyers are saying not to comment. They also saw you, though, comment on former President Trump. And so at the very least …,” he said before being cut off by the president.

“Because look, here’s what they were showing. You guys were showing on television things lying on the ground that said top secret, code word,” the president replied, referencing the infamous photo the FBI took of classified documents lying all over the floor in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.

“And the difference is every single solitary thing I’ve been asked to do, I’ve done voluntarily. I’ve invited the Justice Department to come into every aspect of any place that I had any control of. There was no need for search warrants.  What do you need? Just come. Whatever you want, whatever you want, wherever you want to go, you can go. That was totally different,” he added.

Justifiably not satisfied with this answer, Muir doubled down on his line of questioning.

“You called the Trump discovery ‘irresponsible.’ Is there something irresponsible here, though, too?” he asked.

This time the president replied, albeit with an attitude.

“You know, you’re a good lawyer, but you’re trying to make a comparison. There’s degrees of irresponsibility that are, they can be significant degrees of responsibility. What… The way in which the boxes were packed up from my office, apparently not everything was gone through, as meticulous as it should have,” he said.

“But there was no intention. I opened up my home. All my homes. My homes, my home at the beach. And the home that I… My permanent home. And they spent hours and hours going through everything personal, everything I had. And that’s a fundamentally different thing. There’s nothing for me to hide,” he added.

It’s not clear how true it is that the feds rummaged “through everything.” It’s known for a fact they did with Trump, even going so far as to reportedly rummage through former first lady Melania Trump’s clothes closet.

All this said, the president did have a point in his argument that his scandal is different from Trump’s. Indeed, according to conservatives, his scandal is 10x worse.

The difference is that Trump took his batch of classified documents while president, i.e., while with the power to declassify the documents at a moment’s notice.

Biden, on the other hand, took his documents first as a senator and then later as a vice president. On both occasions, he lacked the authority to declassify anything.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

$10
$15
$25
$50
Other
$
Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles