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This morning I told you about the “small” number of classified documents found in an office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Republicans, naturally, compared the armed raid at President Trump’s Florida home to the Biden classified document stramash. Within hours, maybe milliseconds, talking points had gone out from the Democrat Media Industrial Complex overlords that this was completely different from the raid on the former guy’s Mar-a-Lago home. And, all the sheep said, “Amen”.
We know that there is not a snowball’s chance in Hale that the Media Industrial Complex could allow Joe Biden and the former guy to be compared. Not a joke, that would be malarkey. So the talking points went out. From CNN:
The new controversy so far appears to be on a smaller scale than the more than 100 classified documents – some bearing the highest designations of government secrecy – taken from Trump’s resort at Mar-a-Lago after a court-approved search by FBI agents. And Biden appears to be cooperating with the National Archives and the Justice Department in a way that Trump failed to do and unlike the former president he is not being investigated for possible obstruction of justice.
Bradley Moss, a security clearances expert, told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday that so far, and if no more problematic evidence emerges, the current president team’s conduct was different because of “the cooperation and the absence of obstruction in which they have engaged compared to what Donald Trump did.”
“So far, it’s completely apples to oranges here,” said Moss, who is the deputy executive director of the James Madison Project.
From Newsweek/MSN:
While parallels could be drawn between the handling of classified documents by both President Biden and former President Trump, there are several crucial differences between the two cases.
We do not know yet what the classified documents found in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center contain, their level of classification, or how many they are, while we do know how many were found in Trump’s possession.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to Biden, said in a statement on Monday: “The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings…The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives.”
At MSNBC, Rachel Maddow put on her most condescending smirk to sermonize:
Rachel Maddow rushes to defend Biden over classified docs, commits sin that she accuses Republicans of: 'Whataboutism' https://t.co/4KrwUFTLG9, the opposite is true, look a little deeper
— Stan Mathews (@StanMathews10) January 10, 2023
Yahoo News doubled down on the talking points, the situations are worlds apart:
The early facts we know from the discovery of “several classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president” by Biden’s lawyers while packing up his former office at the Penn Biden Center show very little similarity to the discovery and recovery of hundreds of classified documents found to have been kept by former President Donald Trump at his personal residence in Mar-a-Lago. The immediate and transparent actions by Biden’s lawyers make the likelihood of any criminal culpability very low.
The recovery from Trump of highly sensitive documents pertaining to national security—including ones related to nuclear secrets—came after more than a year of requests, negotiations, grand jury subpoenas and meetings between Trump’s representatives, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Justice Department that culminated in a criminal search warrant being executed on Trump’s home.
Dan Abrams of News Nation says it’s very different legally:
Dan Abrams give Merrick Garland credit. One simp soyboy gives another simp soyboy credit. No joke, it’s a fact.
Is it really so different. Back in August 2022, Jihad Watch wrote:
It is peculiar that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was dramatically raided at this particular time, in a stunningly unprecedented act by the FBI, when National Archives had already inventoried the contents of Trump’s boxes back in February. The National Archives was quoted as stating in February that it was “in the process of inventorying the contents of the boxes,” and also insisted that the process was “part of a MUTUAL ongoing effort to retrieve presidential documents, not a raid.”
Most of the mainstream media were quick to report last night that Eric Trump told Fox News that the FBI raid was conducted over documents sought by National Archives, but they left out the most important part of Eric’s statement: Donald Trump’s full cooperation, as well as Eric’s.
It’s not so peculiar when we keep in mind that we are dealing with the beast that is the Democrat Media Industrial Complex. How dare President Trump use every lever in the law to let him keep his papers. The Talking Points Directive are to repeat they are not the same until all the sheep comply.
Featured Image: Dean Jackson/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons
Cameron says: In his defense, Biden forgot he had them there.
Carol Marks says: Rachel Maddow is still on air?
Bucky says: Notice how this story came up to monopolize the news cycle just as the GOP House was set to announce investigations of the Bidens. DOJ will step in with an “investigation” which will put a lid on any information releases for a couple of years until Garland says “nothing to see here”>
Scott says: and unlike the former president he is not being investigated As he should be, for possible obstruction of justice… there, FIFY…
That Maddow is one UGLY dude…
gnome says: Now I see why the word “field” needs to be expunged from the language. Can you imagine the horror of a “person entitled to reparations”* when the conversation could include reference to classified (slaves were classified – field or house – horror) documents (slaves were denied the dignity of documents). The mind boggles if the subject of chain of command or, even more horrific, chain of custody, ever arises. Better to pretend it never happened.
*Not sure about that “person” since slaves were denied personhood, but since the alternatives* N(anything) or blacks, are now forbidden, and reparations will smooth a lot of paths I’m going with it.
*Alternatives – work it out for yourself. I’m fairly sure alterindigenes won’t pass muster.
Johann Amadeus Metesky says: So Trump went through the legal process to try and retain possession of documents that the National Archive knew about, while Biden simply kept documents of which the National Archives were unaware?
Deoxy says: Also, Trump (having been President) had the complete authority to declassify the documents in question (and indeed, publicly stated, when he was President, that they now officially were), while Biden never did.
*EVERY SINGLE DIFFERENCE* about these two cases breaks in Trump’s favor… well, except that Biden’s a Democrat.
JPS says: “Whataboutism.” I was making that charge satirically:
– Trump improperly retained classified documents.
– So did Biden.
– You can’t say that! That’s whataboutism!
Who taught these people to “reason” this way?
I’m also enjoying the explanations that this is completely different and only a hack would compare the two.
Deoxy says: ““So far, it’s completely apples to oranges here,” said Moss, who is the deputy executive director of the James Madison Project.”
Well, that’s true.
Trump was President, publicly stated the documents were no longer classified (while he was President!)*, was entirely up front about having them, was working with the National Archive
Biden was VICE President and had no declassification authority, took documents that were still classified, and effectively hid them from the National Archives for several years.
So yeah, it is, indeed, “completely apples to oranges here,” just *ENTIRELY* in Trump’s favor, not Biden’s.
* Also, there’s actually a legal argument, *put forth long before Trump was President*, that since the President is the final authority on classification of documents, any documents he takes with him when he leaves are inherently declassified.
Fullmoon says: So, same thing, only different?
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