President Joe Biden’s "I have no regrets" response to the ongoing classified documents scandal has been excoriated by a legal expert on conservative US media as “infuriating”.
All the 46th POTUS could come up with when highly classified material surfaced in his former office, and the garage and library at his Wilmington, Delaware, home, was to first quip he was "surprised", and later tell the press:
"We're fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly... I think you're going to find there's nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no ‘there’ there."
When reporters tried to grill Biden over why the discovery of the first batch of documents at the Penn Biden Center was not disclosed to the public at the time when it was made (which was a few days before the 2022 midterm elections), the president took on an affronted tone and even chided them. The subsequent discovery of classified papers in his garage was further dismissed by Biden with a remark that it is a locked garage that also housed his beloved 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. Biden’ remarks had come after he had been stonewalling the press for days.
All these “choice” statements amid a serious probe into potential mishandling of classified material was slammed as ranging from “baffling” and “downright infuriating,” to “remarkably moronic” by legal scholar Jonathan Turley.
Turley underscored that “Either the president believes that Special Counsel Robert K. Hur will paper over the entire affair or he is doing his best to force his hand with a criminal charge.”
He also pointed out that, as a criminal defense attorney, he would have been "mortified" if his client were to similarly publicly dismiss the seriousness of a potential crime.
As the investigation into the potential mishandling by the Democratic president of sensitive material dating back to his time as vice president continues, overseen by special counsel Robert K. Hur, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, recent polls have shown that most citizens view Biden's conduct as negligent, underscored Turley.
"While the president has no regrets, the public overwhelmingly does... Roughly two-thirds believe that Congress should investigate the president, including a majority of Democrats. Sixty percent believe that he acted inappropriately with classified material," the legal expert remarked.
The fact that Joe Biden opted for a display of "total and absolute denial of regret or responsibility" did not come as a surprise for Jonathan Turley. It was "classic Biden," he believed, adding:
"Biden has always been better at expressing revulsion than responsibility," he said.
Furthermore, by failing to show due appreciation for the seriousness of the ongoing investigation, the 80-year old president was making special counsel Hur "look like a stooge or cipher," concluded Turley.
The excoriating assessment of Joe Biden's response to the entire classified documents row so far comes as the US Department of Justice found six more classified documents during a search of President Joe Biden's family home this week, according to the president's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer. The search is being conducted by special counsel Robert K. Hur, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The documents were found at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware during a 12-hour search.
"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," Bauer said. "Some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President.”
The new stash of sensitive docs set off a wave of scathing comments among the GOP. Some Republicans in Congress accused the White House of lying on multiple occasions.
Former President Donald Trump commented on Truth Social on Saturday evening:
"They created this Documents mess for themselves by being so totally DERANGED about me, and I did NOTHING WRONG!!!"
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas tweed "AGAIN?!?"
On Twitter, the GOP House Oversight Committee queried if the “scavenger hunt” was over yet.
Screenshot of the Twitter account of House Oversight Committee.
© Photo : Twitter
Other Republicans, such as Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen, Rick Scott, R-Fla., made similar Twitter posts, questioning how Joe Biden has still not offered any explanation for the fact that there were classified documents in his house for years.
Screenshot of Twitter account of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
© Photo : Twitter
Screenshot of Twitter account of Sen, Rick Scott, R-Fla.
© Photo : Twitter
Screenshot of Twitter account of Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill.
© Photo : Twitter
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on January 20 stated that his caucus planned to "dig hard" into the potential mishandling of the documents by Joe Biden.