Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who is now the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a member of the GOP, compared the increasing amount of confidential documents discovered at President Biden’s residence in Delaware to the Watergate scandal that caused President Richard Nixon to step down.
Biden stood firm saying “I think you’re gonna find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no there there. Thank you.”
Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons told Martha Raddatz of ABC News “Well, the important point there, Martha, is that he had no idea.” In the same interview, Rep. McCall pointed out “this broke a week before the midterm elections, and they swept it under the rug…now we’re just finding out.”
McCall continued “You know, Watergate started as a very small burglary, and it led to the president of the United States resigning. So I don’t know what’s there until we see the documents. The way I look at it, my wife is a Naval intelligence analyst,” McCaul explained. “If she took one document home, classified, she would be prosecuted; me, I would be prosecuted.”
In September of last year, CBS News’ “60 Minutes” conducted an interview with Biden and questioned him about the confidential documents found at the former President Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
“60 Minutes” asked, “The FBI spread the documents out on a floor to make a record of what was found. When you saw the photograph of the top-secret documents laid out on the floor at Mar-a-Lago, what did you think to yourself looking at that image?”
Biden exclaimed, “How could that possibly happen? How anyone could be that irresponsible. And I thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods? By that I mean, names of people who helped, or et cetera. And it’s just totally irresponsible.”
The classified document scandal continues to get worse.
On Friday, more classified documents were found at Biden’s home in Delaware after a 13 hour search.
Initially, news outlets widely reported that only six classified documents were found in the home.
“Six more Classified Documents were discovered at Joe Biden’s Wilmington home during a search conducted by The Department of Justice,” tweeted Alx on Twitter.
“THEY JUST FOUND SIX MORE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS AT JOE BIDEN’S HOUSE!” the House Judiciary GOP Twitter account posted.
🚨THEY JUST FOUND SIX MORE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS AT JOE BIDEN’S HOUSE!
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) January 22, 2023
One Twitter user pointed out however that President Biden’s attorney Bob Bauer’s statement was deceptively worded to trick the public into thinking there were only six classified documents when there may have been much more.
“They did not find “six more classified documents”. They found materials “including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials”,” tweeted Hans Mahncke.
“This is extremely crafty legalese,” he continued. “Huge red flag. “Six items” could mean 1000 documents for all we know.”
Upon reading the statement more closely, Mahncke was right.
“DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President,” Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, said in a statement. “DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years.”
They did not find "six more classified documents". They found materials "including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials".
This is extremely crafty legalese. Huge red flag. "Six items" could mean 1000 documents for all we know. https://t.co/rrzqQTzaDj pic.twitter.com/e6ECJZJRD1
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) January 22, 2023
The deceptive wording by Biden’s lawyer was also picked up by top news outlets who quietly edited their headlines.
Politico and Axios have made some changes lol pic.twitter.com/RGb6GFSqgy
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) January 22, 2023
Other Twitter users raised questions about the extremely long 13 hour search at Biden’s home.
“Are we ignoring that it was a 12 hour, 45 minute search?” one user asked. “That’s a very long search for what they are calling a “cooperative” search. Something doesn’t add up.”
Are we ignoring that it was a 12 hour, 45 minute search? That's a very long search for what they are calling a "cooperative" search. Something doesn't add up.
— TwoSevenNiner (@TheReal279) January 22, 2023
Some of the those materials found in Biden's home were from his days in the Senate, yet no one seems interested in the cache of documents spanning decades Biden gave the U of Del. Which, by the way, are still off limits.
— Slap Happy Sister (@EnBolden2) January 22, 2023