Just Last Week Biden Dodged Questions About the FBI Searching His Beach House
TownhallFeb 01, 2023
FBI Searches Biden's Delaware Home, No Classified Documents Found
Image copyright: The Daily Times/USA Today [via ABC News]
The Facts
After a 3.5-hour FBI search of US Pres. Joe Biden's home in Rehoboth Beach, Del. on Wednesday, Biden's lawyer Bob Bauer said the "planned search" found no classified documents, but agents took "for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President."
This comes as classified documents were discovered at one of Biden's other homes and a private office. According to Bauer, the FBI "sought to do this work without advance public notice" and the president "will continue to fully support and facilitate" the investigation.
The Spin
Republican narrative
After already waiting weeks to reveal the original batch of classified documents found in Biden's DC office, the FBI again took its sweet time to finally search his Rehoboth Beach house. You would think the FBI would want to quickly sweep the house after discovering that Hunter Biden was using his father's Wilmington mansion as an unofficial office to conduct business with some of the same countries cited in the documents. The hypocrisy after the treatment of Trump is dumbfounding.
Democratic narrative
There’s a big difference between the Trump and Biden cases. Trump violated the law by possessing classified papers and attempting to cover up his actions. The former president is facing a serious investigation because he knowingly held sensitive information and actively worked to keep it from the archives. Biden did neither of those things and is being fully cooperative with the investigation, so GOP claims of hypocrisy are unfounded.
Cynical narrative
Neither Trump nor Biden should have ever mishandled any classified information, and both should be investigated per the severity of their violations. However, the "overclassification" of US government documents has been raised for over a decade, and the bureaucracy of the federal government has produced an administrative nightmare. There must be accountability and reforms to a flawed classification system.
