'There's No There There': US President Joe Biden Downplays Mishandled Classified Documents

US Classified Documents Issue: The US President emphasised that he was “fully cooperating” and expressed frustration that the issue was coming up as he surveyed coastal storm damage in California.

US President Joe Biden speaks on after looking at storm damage, and speaking to those affected in Seacliff, California, on January 19, 2023.

Source : AFP

New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on Thursday tried to downplay the discovery of classified documents and official records at his home and former office as he said there is “no there there” when he was persistently questioned about the matter. This comes as the White House disclosed that Biden's attorneys found classified documents at his residence.

“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden said told the media when questioned during a tour of the damage from storms in California. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department,” he added, as per the Associated Press.

The US President emphasised that he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”

“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there,” he said, as per the AP. “There’s no there there.”

As per AP's report, Biden expressed frustration that the issue was coming up as he surveyed coastal storm damage, saying to reporters that it “bugs me” that he was being asked about the handling of the classified material even as “we have a serious problem here” in California.

“Why you don’t ask me questions about that?” he stressed.

Biden also stated that he has “no regrets” over how and when the public learned about the documents. “I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do,” he said, as per the report.

The White House disclosed that Biden attorneys found classified documents and official records on four occasions in recent months — on November 2 at the offices of the Penn Biden Center in Washington, then on December 20 during follow-up searches in the garage of the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and on January 11 and 12 in the president’s home library.

The discovery came as a federal probe is underway into former US President Donald Trump, who the Justice Department accused of taking hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government.

On the contrary, Biden willingly turned over the documents when they were found.

The issue is, however, wearing on the president and his aides, who have maintained that they acted swiftly and appropriately when the documents were discovered, and are working to be as transparent as possible even as key questions remain unanswered.

The US President’s team has faced flak for fragmented disclosures as the public wasn’t notified about the documents until early January and after that the additional findings dripped out slowly.