House Republicans are gearing up for “war” after classified documents were discovered in Joe Biden’s Delaware home, a political analyst has told Express.co.uk.
The escalating political crisis has given ammunition to the opposition, who are eager to remind the President he branded Donald Trump “totally irresponsible” after classified files were found at his predecessor’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Biden, 80, said he was “surprised” at the discovery – made two months after 10 classified files labelled ‘Top Secret’ were Found locked in a closet at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington DC.
It places the President in a vulnerable position as he enters the second half of his term in the Oval Office.
Republicans are now calling for an FBI raid on Biden’s properties – like the August raid on Trump’s Florida home.
“There is a war in Ukraine and there is another war front in the United States, and Republicans are bringing out their big artillery to pound the Democrats,” said political scientist Daniel Drache, of York University in Toronto.
Although Biden says he did not intentionally withhold the papers, it doesn’t matter much in American politics where “appearances are everything”, according to Prof Drache.
He said: “It’s a f*** up right? The government runs on paper and somehow these papers ended up in a storage locker for a couple of years. But I think that isn’t the whole story.”
The GOP is now in control of Congress and is able to launch investigations as well as issue subpoenas. This latest gaffe gives them more ammunition.
Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw slammed the President for his handling of the documents and demanded a Congressional investigation take place as a result.
“Now, we learn that Biden kept additional classified materials at his home in Delaware in his GARAGE. Yet there was no raid. No ransacking of Biden’s home. Nothing,” Crenshaw said in a tweet.
He added: “This is hypocrisy at the highest level and it’s dangerous. The appointment of a special counsel must be supplemented by a full-scale congressional investigation.”
Both the retrieved bundles date back to Biden’s time serving as Vice-President to Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2017.
In a press conference on Thursday, Biden was asked how classified documents could be left “next to your corvette”.
He responded: “By the way, my corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like it’s sitting out in the street.”
READ MORE: Second bundle of classified documents found at Biden home
The President then confirmed again, when prompted, that the documents were in a locked garage “as well as my corvette”.
He added: “But as I said earlier this week, people know that I take classified documents and classified material seriously. I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.”
Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed US attorney for the district of Maryland, has been selected as special counsel leading the investigation. He takes over the from John Lausch, the top Justice Department prosecutor in Chicago.
Prof Drache added: “It looks similar [to what is happening with Trump]. So it is similar, right? I think it’s part of Biden’s troubles.”
Those troubles appear to be growing. Just yesterday, House Republicans opened their long promised investigation into Hunter Biden, the President’s youngest son.
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GOP Representatives demanded financial information they have deemed “suspicious” as well as testimony from Twitter executives over the company’s handling of an October 2022 story in The New York Post they claim was suppressed on the platform for political reasons.
The deep dive into his family’s affairs could amount to an explosive showdown with the White House ahead of the 2024 election cycle.
However, Prof Drache said that he believes the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents is different to that of Trump, who had more than 325 files seized from Mar-a-Lago.
Of the documents recovered in Biden’s private addresses, Drache said: “This seems to be very small. [There was] no act of insubordination or withholding and it seems to be some kind of error. But I think that, for the general public, it’s confusing.”
However, Attorney General Merrick Garland said an official probe is “in the public interest” after documents were recovered from Biden’s addresses.
