biden classified documents - HeadlinesCurator

Former Vice President Mike Pence took a thinly veiled swipe at President Biden’s handling of classified documents Friday — while also telling a Florida audience that he and former President Donald Trump “went our separate ways.”

Pence, 63, implicitly blasted Biden’s more than two-month-long public concealment of the discovery of classified records from his vice presidency — while also addressing recently uncovered secret papers at Pence’s Indiana home.

“While I was not aware that the classified documents were in our personal residence, let me be clear, those classified documents should not have been in my personal residence,” the former Hoosier State governor said. “Mistakes were made and I take full responsibility.”

“Our national security depends on the proper handling of classified and sensitive materials. And I know that when errors are made, it’s important that they be resolved swiftly and disclosed,” he went on, drawing a contrast with Biden.

Boxes of classified documents were found in Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in August.

Mike Pence said he takes “full responsibility” for classified documents found at his Indiana home.

“My only hope is that the American people look at our conduct in this matter and that they see that we acted above politics and put the national interest first,” Pence added while promoting his book “So Help Me God” at the Florida International University in Miami.

Pence is a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate and acknowledged that he and his former boss Trump, 76 — who launched a 2024 comeback bid in November — are no longer allied after Trump “returned” to rhetoric claiming the 2020 election results were fraudulent.

“[Trump] and I actually parted amicably at the close the administration. In the months that followed, we spoke from time to time, but when the president returned to some of the rhetoric that he was using before that fateful day in January of 2021, I just decided it would be best if we went our separate ways and we have,” Pence said.

While vice president, Pence defied Trump’s demand that he unilaterally reject swing-state electors for Biden while presiding over the counting of Electoral College votes, provoking Trump’s rage as a mob stormed the Capitol to disrupt the proceedings.

Pence publicly revealed Tuesday that he had found classified records at his home — eight days after what he said was the Jan. 16 discovery at his Indiana residence. His attorney informed the National Archives on Jan. 18 and the FBI retrieved them Jan. 19.

Biden, by contrast, did not publicly disclose for more than two months the discovery on Nov. 2 of classified documents dating to his vice presidency at his former Penn Biden Center office in Washington. The cache was found six days before the midterm elections and reportedly included “top secret” documents dealing with Iran and Ukraine.

A timeline of how the Biden classified documents scandal unfolded

Sept. 18, 2022 – Biden calls Trump “totally irresponsible” for storing top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago
Nov. 2, 2022 – Biden’s attorneys find classified documents stashed at the Penn Biden Center in Washington

Nov. 4, 2022 — The National Archives contacts the Justice Department, saying the documents have been found and secured in an Archives facility
Nov. 8, 2022 — Democrats perform better than expected in the midterm elections, losing a net of just nine seats in the House of Representatives and gaining a seat in the Senate
Nov. 9, 2022 — The FBI begins an “assessment” of whether the classified material was mishandled in violation of federal law
Nov. 14, 2022 — Garland assigns Chicago US Attorney John Lausch to lead an initial investigation to determine whether Garland should appoint a special counsel

Nov. 18, 2022 – Garland announces special counsel in Trump case

Dec. 20, 2022 — Biden’s personal attorney tells Lausch more classified documents have been found in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington, Del. home
Jan. 5, 2022 — Lausch advises Garland to appoint a special counsel

Jan. 9, 2023 – The public is first told of the mishandled Biden documents
Jan. 10, 2023 – Biden makes first public statement about Penn documents
Jan. 11, 2023 — Classified documents reported found at second location
Morning of Jan. 12, 2023 — Biden attorney tells Lausch one additional classified document found at the Wilmington home
Morning of Jan. 12, 2023 — White House, Biden confirm documents found in garage
Afternoon of Jan. 12, 2023 – Garland appoints special counsel to investigate Biden documents

Biden kept his own discovery under wraps until Jan. 9 when CBS News broke the story.

Classified records also were found Dec. 20 inside Biden’s Wilmington, Del., garage next to his prized classic Corvette. In at least three additional searches of the home, including week by the FBI, more classified documents were found from Biden’s vice presidency and Senate years.

Classified documents were discovered at President Biden’s Delaware home where he keeps his 1967 Corvette.

Although Biden in September chastised Trump as “irresponsible” for keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., which the FBI raided Aug. 8, Biden has defended his own conduct.

“My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” Biden snapped at reporters this month when asked about the improper storage.

Special counsel Robert Hur is investigating whether Biden or anyone in his orbit broke the law. A different special counsel, Jack Smith, is investigating Trump’s handling of documents. It’s unclear how or whether the Justice Department will review Pence’s conduct.

Trump incongruously defended Pence this week, writing on social media, “Mike Pence is an innocent man. He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!”

Read original article here

The White House press corps is fed up with Karine Jean-Pierre’s stonewalling about the classified documents scandal that has enveloped the Biden administration, with some reporters calling the press secretary’s regular briefings a “painful waste of time.”

“She is arguably the least effective White House press secretary of the television era,” one correspondent told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter Wednesday, though the person added the pejorative did not apply to press secretaries for former President Donald Trump.

Since Jan. 9, when the White House confirmed that sensitive materials had been found at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, and the president’s Wilmington, Del. home, Jean-Pierre has stuck to her talking points, and refused to let officials from the Justice Department or White House Counsel’s office face the press amid the ongoing special counsel investigation.

That hasn’t sat well with journalists, who have grilled Jean-Pierre day after day about the White House’s lack of transparency.

White House correspondents say they are at wit’s end with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s evasions about the Biden classified documents.

AFP via Getty Images

White House correspondents are frustrated at the lack of details about the Biden classified documents at daily briefings by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

“You just get the feeling that you’re wasting your time and whatever is in front of her in the binder is all she is going to say, no matter how many times you ask the question,” another reporter told CNN. “It’s just a painful waste of time.”

Jean-Pierre, the first black person and first openly gay person to serve as the chief White House press rep, has been widely mocked online for appearing to refer exclusively to a thick binder for talking points in response to reporter questions.

But her ongoing evasions over the documents have drawn the open ire of reporters for outlets that span the political spectrum.

Classified documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and at President Biden’s Delaware home where he parks his 1967 Corvette.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the daily briefing on Wednesday.

“I think you can tell the temperature has gone up a lot in the last few days,” one reporter told CNN.

At Wednesday’s briefing, Jacqui Heinrich of Fox News accused the administration of creating an “information blackout” — while Jean-Pierre tried to shut down another reporter’s line of questioning by attempting to call on someone else.

“I just commented. I just commented,” Jean-Pierre insisted to the reporter, Jon Decker of Gray Television, after she referred another of his questions to the Justice Department. “We’re moving on…. I already answered your question.”

“You really didn’t,” Decker said.

“Well, I — I did,” Jean-Pierre insisted.

“You didn’t,” Decker shot back, to which Jean-Pierre responded: “It’s your opinion. It’s your opinion. It’s your opinion. That is your opinion.”

Most galling, according to the CNN report, is that Jean-Pierre failed to notify the press corps last Friday that more classified documents had been recovered the night before at Biden’s home in Delaware.

The cover of the New York Post on Tuesday about how the White House won’t reveal visitors to President Biden’s Delaware home.

”On Friday, you stood here, though, and were asked about this documents issue, by our count, some 18 times,” ABC News’ Cecilia Vega pressed Jean-Pierre on Tuesday. “At that point, the president’s lawyers had found these five additional pages of classified documents. So, did you not know on Friday that those documents had been found when you were at the podium? Or are you being directed by someone to not be forthcoming on this issue?”

Jean-Pierre said she had been “forthcoming from this podium,” pointing out that she repeated what the White House counsel’s office said in a previously released statement.

“Right. And we had that statement, so we knew what was in it,” Vega said.

At Tuesday’s briefing, Jean-Pierre admitted that she was also unaware of the discovery of the documents at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2 and only learned about them when CBS News reported on the find Jan. 9.

”There is the expectation that when you say something, it’s going to be true,” one reporter told CNN. “That’s been the biggest credibility hit for her, it’s answering a question in a way that ends up not being true.”

“She is really liked, personally,” another reporter put it more bluntly, “but that shouldn’t be an excuse for her competence professionally.”

The White House defended Jean-Pierre, insisting to CNN she was restricted about what she can say because of the Justice Department probe, though NBC News reported this week the DOJ has not prevented the White House from talking about the probe’s underlying facts if it wishes.

An administration official said Jean-Pierre is acting in a manner that’s consistent with “prior White House press secretaries from both parties who have responsibly respected ongoing DOJ investigations and referred to the relevant authorities.”

The White House aide said the press secretary was ”wisely and appropriately affirming the White House’s position of total cooperation and being careful not to go further to respect the integrity of an investigation.”

”If reporters are concerned about substance and getting facts shared with them, they have had venues for that,” the official went on.

Read original article here

HeadlinesCurator

Tag Archives: biden classified documents

Pence jabs at Biden on classified docs, says he and Trump are done

A timeline of how the Biden classified documents scandal unfolded

White House reporters out of patience with Jean-Pierre over docs: CNN

The Ultimate News Site