Washington Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. That seems to be US President Joe Biden’s motto in the files affair. On Friday, US Republicans in the House of Representatives asked him to bring forward his annual State of the Union address. They want to summon him to Congress on February 7, weeks ahead of schedule. The President will be happy to accept the “prompt invitation,” the White House said. After that, Biden said goodbye to the weekend, went to church and made phone calls.
From a purely legal point of view, Biden has little to fear. The American Presidential Records Act stipulates that Presidents and Vice Presidents must hand over all documents to the National Archives. According to White House Attorney Richard Sauber, however, the files were “accidentally” kept, and Biden himself was unaware of them before his attorneys found them. Also, an incumbent president cannot be impeached.
But the outcome of the public interpretation battle is unpredictable. Because the affair falls into a sensitive phase in which Biden is dependent on the support of his party: The President has already indicated that he wants to run for the White House again, and an official announcement is expected in the spring. But at the latest when the second file was found in Biden’s private house, the file scandal became a “political problem,” Biden biographer Chris Whipple told the Handelsblatt. “When you find classified documents in someone’s garage, it becomes harder to believe that person didn’t know about it.”
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“A huge gift to Donald Trump”
David Axelrod, a former top adviser to Obama, called the affair “embarrassing” to the Reuters news agency. A few months ago, Biden had criticized his predecessor Donald Trump for handling confidential material as “irresponsible”. Biden’s handful of papers may be banal compared to the 33 boxes of government files that authorities had dragged from Trump’s estate – but still “a huge gift to Donald Trump,” said Axelrod.
Right-wing conservative circles are now spreading their own theory on the documentary drama: Biden’s own people would have spread the investigation of the files to the media to prevent another candidacy. Sean Hannity, Fox News’ mouthpiece with an audience of millions, asked: “Could it be that maybe someone doesn’t want Joe to run for re-election?” Dozens of right-wing portals and influencers followed suit. There is no evidence for this.
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So far, however, Democrats continue to support Biden. “I think President Biden handled that correctly,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN. “He’s cooperating with the prosecutor. When the documents were found, his team immediately notified the National Archives.” Mark Warner, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made a similar statement.
Why was the White House silent for months?
The Democrats are hoping that Biden’s political successes will get more attention in the medium term than his filing breakdown. However, the communication from the White House in Washington causes a shake of the head. “He has to say, ‘I screwed up, I apologize,'” former White House Counsel to Democratic President Bill Clinton, Lanny Davis, told NBC.
Biden biographer Whipple also sees a problem in the “hesitant communication”. New details come to light bit by bit, only on Saturday did the White House have to correct the number of documents discovered upwards. “The White House should have been more transparent from the start and not dodged every question,” says Whipple.
In fact, the timing of the incidents themselves and the communication about them raises questions.
Chronology of Joe Biden’s filing affair
Taking center stage is the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, where the first installment of the files surfaced. Amy Gutmann, then President of the University of Pennsylvania and now US Ambassador to Germany, played a key role in the think tank. According to the US news channel CBS, files of the highest security level “Top Secret” were also discovered in Biden’s office in the think tank, which he used after the end of his time as Vice President – in early November 2022, just six days before the important congressional elections.
The documents were handed over to the National Archives, and the Ministry of Justice initiated investigations. The second batch of files was found at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, including in the garage, on Dec. 20, according to attorney Sauber.
However, the White House only went public last week after the broadcaster CBS reported on the investigation. The new Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, accused Biden of a cover-up: “He knew about this incident when he went into Election Day. He knew about it and said nothing. This is exactly what causes America not to trust its government.”
Special Counsel Hur should now clear up the files affair. The 49-year-old is a Republican and was nominated by Trump in 2018 for the job of prosecutor in Maryland. Democrats backed the promotion at the time. “Thoroughly and impartially” he will approach his task, said Hur on Thursday. According to the Washington Post, he will soon begin with surveys.
Hur will report to the House Judiciary Committee, which also wants to investigate the filing affair. “The American people deserve transparency and accountability from our highest executive branch officials,” wrote Jim Jordan, a hardliner and Trump confidante who has gained influence with the new Republican majority. The so-called House Oversight Committee, which deals with government powers, also announced investigations.
The affair is likely to tie up many resources. The fact that the President no longer wants to leave anything to chance is shown by the fact that he has hired his personal lawyer Bob Bauer to handle the legal crisis management. Bauer was already Obama’s attorney in the White House. For now, Biden is optimistic. “We’ll see how this all plays out,” he said. “I am confident.”
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