Commentary
President Biden was more than willing to respond when 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley asked him about the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence to collect documents.
“How could that happen? “How one … anyone could be that irresponsible? What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods? Totally irresponsible.” President Biden, CBS 60 Minutes, September 18, 2022
Last week, when questioned about the discovery of classified documents found in a closet of his Biden Penn Center office during a press session in Mexico City, I’m sure Biden thought he could bat it away and that would be that.
“Let me get rid of the easy one first. People know I take classified documents and classified information seriously,” he said as he read from a card with information no doubt provided by his legal counsel.
Back in the U.S. to assure Americans that all was well on the economy and his effort to tackle inflation was as planned, he floated questionable data, but he knew, of course, that he would be pressed for answers regarding a discovery of additional classified documents in his Wilmington, Delaware garage next to his coveted vintage Corvette.
We know that because he shifted from the Teleprompter to his usual hand-held note card to respond to a question by Fox’s Peter Ducey: “Mr. President, classified … classified material next to your Corvette. What were you thinking?
Mumbling through a remark saying that he hoped he would get a chance to speak on all this, “God willing, soon,” he again reiterated, “As I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously.” Yeah, right.
His incompetent press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, didn’t help matters as she insisted, “Look, as the lawyers said, we have been working closely with the Department of Justice. We’re trying to do this by the book.”
As expected by the likes of George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley and former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, Attorney General Merrick Garland had no choice but to name a special counsel to investigate Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. He had named one to investigate Trump’s Mar-a-Lago cache of documents.
Republicans wasted no time in drawing the differences between the Justice Department and FBI handling of the Trump and Biden cases.
While dozens of armed FBI agents and a number of unmarked SUV’s raided former President Trump’s quarters at Mar-a Lago in an unprecedented action during his absence, spending hours at the scene cracking a safe and rummaging through clothing areas used by the former first lady, and Baron the couple’s son, Garland noted simply that “the FBI went to the location (Biden’s Wilmington residence) and searched those documents.”
The raid on Mar-a-Lago was further evidence of the politicization of the Justice Department, decidedly another effort to paint Trump as a bad actor just prior to the midterms.
We know now that the first discovery of documents at the Biden Penn Center was reported to the DOJ on November 2, 2022, but not disclosed until just this week, for fear that it would place Biden in the same position as Trump during the midterms.
The headline on Rep. James Comer’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal spelled it out: “Get Ready for Republican Oversight,” speaking of the House Oversight Committee he now heads.
His colleague, Rep. Jim Jordan, who now heads the House Judiciary Committee, has revealed plans to address the abuse of power with a select committee on the Weaponization of Government.
Yes, folks, the chickens have come home to roost.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
