While many on the left side of the aisle have suggested that former President Donald Trump’s storage of purportedly-classified documents at his estate in Mar-a-Lago is some sort of treasonous and unforgivable offense, at least Trump knew they were there.
He told us, straight up, that he declassified them and took them to Mar-a-Lago. While there is some debate about whether or not he’ll try to make the legal argument for declassification anytime soon, at least he understood that these sensitive-if-nothing-else documents were in his possession.
As it turns out, Joe Biden had no earthly idea.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was surprised by the news that “boxes” of classified documents were discovered in an office he used after leaving the vice presidency, claiming ignorance of the existence of the materials.
“I was briefed about this discovery, and surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office,” Biden said, reacting for the first time to the news during a press event in Mexico City on Tuesday.
What? Did someone plant them there, Joe?
But Biden suggested that Americans should not doubt his respect for classified documents.
“People know I take classified documents, classified information seriously,” Biden said, detailing that the documents found were in a “locked” closet of his old office.
Biden claimed that he has no idea what was there.
“I don’t know what’s in the documents. My lawyers have not suggested I not ask what documents they were,” Biden said, speaking carefully from his notes, noting there were “boxes” of documents that were turned over to the archives.
If nationally-sensitive documents are going to be away from their proper home, it’s far more preferable for the person in possession of them to be aware of that fact than not.
