The White House accused Republicans on Monday of “playing politics” over President Joe Biden‘s burgeoning classified documents scandal. The documents were found at a private D.C. office and at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Attorneys working for either Biden personally or for the White House have found classified documents on at least four separate occasions and in different places — at an office the president used at the Penn Biden Center, a University of Pennsylvania-affiliated think tank in Washington, and at Biden’s home. The first discovery happened at the think tank on November 2, less than a week before the 2022 midterm elections.
“House Republicans are playing politics in a shamelessly hypocritical attempt to attack President Biden,” White House spokesman Ian Sams told Fox News.
House Republicans, meanwhile, are investigating the matter. Over the weekend, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) called on the White House to release visitor logs from Biden’s house in Wilmington. The White House responded Monday by saying no such logs exist.
“House Republicans have no credibility,” Sams continued. “Their demands should be met with skepticism and they should face questions themselves about why they are politicizing this issue and admitting they actually do not care about the underlying classified material.”
Sams was referring to comments made by Comer on Sunday in which the committee chairman said his “biggest concern” is the “discrepancy in how former President Trump was treated” versus Biden over allegations of improperly storing classified documents.
“As President Biden has said repeatedly, he takes classified information seriously, which is why he immediately directed his team to ensure the documents were sent back to the government,” Sams said.
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped former U.S. District Attorney Robert Hur to serve as special counsel and investigate the classified documents recovered from Biden’s office and home.
In August, a team of FBI agents raided Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, and confiscated boxes of materials including government documents from Trump’s time as president, news clippings, and gifts. In November, Garland assigned a special counsel to take over the Department of Justice investigation into Trump over the Mar-a-Lago documents.
Biden has faced bipartisan blowback on Capitol Hill over the classified document drama. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said over the weekend that the situation regarding the classified documents connected to Biden should be investigated to determine the risk to national security.
“We have asked for an assessment in the intelligence community of the Mar-a-Lago documents. I think we ought to get that same assessment of the documents found in the [Penn Biden Center], as well as the home of President Biden,” Schiff said. “I’d like to know what the [Intelligence Community’s] assessment is, whether there was any risk of exposure and what the harm would be and whether any mitigation needs to be done. I think that would be appropriate and consistent with what we requested in the case of Mar-a-Lago.”