Democrats have a big problem.
President Joe Biden has been caught out with classified documents all over — and the feds just keep finding more. In the latest revelation, word leaked out that some of the docs stretch back to his days in the Senate.
At first, Democrats pooh-poohed the scandal (“He did the right thing,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Pete Aguilar of California said). But that’s starting to change, especially after the feds spent nine hours scouring Biden’s Delaware home, finding even more documents.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said over the weekend that Biden should be “embarrassed by the situation.” Durbin also said the president no longer holds the moral high ground on an issue that ensnared former President Donald Trump, as Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed special counsels to probe both cases.
“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 on CNN.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has been a thorn in Biden’s side, said the president “should have a lot of regrets. … You just might as well say, ‘Listen, it’s irresponsible.'”
The move away from Biden came after he defended his actions — after 68 days of silence and even before the latest batch of documents were discovered.
“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department. We’re fully cooperating, looking forward to getting this resolved quickly,” Biden said.
“I think you’re gonna’ find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no there there,” Biden said.
But Democrats are still equivocating, saying Trump’s situation is worse than Biden’s. “It is outrageous that either occurred,” Durbin said. “But the reaction by the former president and the current president could not be in sharper contrast.”
Manchin did much the same, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “It’s just hard to believe that in the United States of America, we have a former president and a current president that are basically in the same situation. How does this happen?”
Liberal news sites like the Associated Press have also sought to differentiate between the two presidents, with the wire service writing on Monday that “Biden voluntarily allowed the FBI into his home on Friday.” They often forget that Trump was not given that option, with federal agents descending on Mar-a-Lago in the dead of night with a warrant.
With Republicans taking over the House in the mid-term elections, investigations into Biden are definitely coming. And with the president expected to soon announce his intention to run again in 2024, Durbin and others worry that Biden will be severely weakened by the scandal.
“We have to worry, since this new group that has taken over control of the House of Representatives has promised us endless investigations, confrontations, impeachments and chaos, what is going to happen,” Durbin said.
One Republican thinks the Biden scandal is an intentional scheme to weaken the president.
“I mean, there’s an element of this where it’s Joe Biden’s lawyer who turns this information over, it’s Joe Biden’s own Justice Department that’s appointed a special counsel to investigate him,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told Fox News Digital.
“There’s an element to this that feels like the Democrats are taking out Joe Biden,” Gaetz said. “I don’t know that that’s the case, but I don’t know that it’s not.”
“Maybe the Democrats have realized that Joe Biden is not useful to them anymore, and they just assume toss him out and get a younger crop of candidates engaged in the next presidential race,” he said. “But just as Joe Biden is hardening the cement around his decision to run for president again, they start looking for what classified documents might have been tucked away eight years ago.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.