Senior Democrats are becoming increasingly dismayed by the endless revelations of classified documents being hoarded by President Joe Biden and the bungled responses from the White House on the issue.
AP reports the line of Democratic lawmakers booked for the Sunday news shows found themselves quizzed about the latest developments in the perpetual drama that has engulfed Biden’s presidency.
Most appeared barely 24 hours after a search Friday of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, by the FBI found yet more documents with classified markings and took possession of some of his handwritten notes, as Breitbart News reported.
Biden should be “embarrassed by the situation,” lamented Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, telling CNN the president had ceded the moral high ground on an issue that has already entangled former President Donald Trump.
Durbin went on to say responsibility for the litany of deceptions and half-truths ultimately lies at Biden’s feet:
“Well, of course. Let’s be honest about it. When that information is found, it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it because it’s not supposed to happen. … The elected official bears ultimate responsibility,” Durbin said.
Special counsels appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland are investigating the latest cases.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who appeared on both CNN and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said the president “should have a lot of regrets. … You just might as well say, ‘Listen, it’s irresponsible.’” The president told reporters on Thursday he had “no regrets” over how and when the public learned about the documents and that there was “no there there.”
The U.S. Justice Department is less than convinced by that assurance and has since announced it might well keep on looking.
The new chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who was interviewed on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” said he took Biden “at his word when the first set of documents were found. … But now this is gone from just simply being irresponsible to downright scary.”
White House officials are reportedly suspicious about how Biden’s classified document scandal was leaked so quickly to the press after just a select inner group of White House and DOJ officials knew about the initial violation(s).