5 indisputable facts on Joe Biden's classified documents problem

What we definitely know.

Ever since it came to light that Joe Biden, then the former vice president of the United States, retained classified documents in a think tank office and his garage in Wilmington, Delaware, it’s been very hard to distinguish fact from fiction on the issue.

Republicans — led by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan — have insisted that Biden (and the Justice Department) is guilty of a double standard, that former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida was raided to recover classified documents while no such alleged persecution has been visited on the current president.

“So-called classified documents are found at President Trump’s house,” tweeted Jordan recently. “The FBI raids his home. Classified documents are found at President Biden’s home. No raid.”

Democrats, meanwhile, have tried to play down the whole thing — insisting that comparing what Biden did in regards classified documents to what Trump did is a gross mischaracterization and oversimplification.

“Reporters know scandal sells,” tweeted Democratic consultant Eric Schultz of Biden’s classified documents issue. “They overhyped Solyndra, IRS/targeting, GSA conferences, Benghazi talking points — each called Obama’s Watergate. But nothing scandalous ever uncovered. The problem is later, when there’s real impropriety, reporters have already been crying wolf.”

So, you could be forgiven for wondering what exactly is true in all of this. Which is where I come in.

Below are 5 indisputable facts about the Biden classified documents imbroglio.

1. Biden waited months before going public with the classified documents news. Classified docs were discovered in Biden’s think tank office — a post VP gig — on November 2. By November 4, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had alerted the Justice Department to the fact that classified documents had been turned over by Biden’s lawyers.

   Within 5 days, the DOJ had opened an investigation into whether any laws were broken. In December, more classified documents were found — this time at Biden’s home in Wilmington.

   But, it wasn’t until January 9 that the public learned of all of this — when CBS broke the news. (For a detailed timeline of what happened when, check this one out from Time Magazine.)

2. The White House has not been forthcoming on the issue. Since we learned of the existence of the classified documents, Biden and his White House have provided very little in the way of new information or context. Here’s CNN on that point:

   As the saga burst into public view last week, the White House was still exceptionally selective in what it shared – leading to a torrent of questions and criticism about how much it is revealing, and when.

   Biden himself has chafed at how much he is able to reveal publicly, telling reporters twice last week he hoped to say more.

   But, he hasn’t said more. Even when asked directly by reporters. And neither, really, has the White House.

   And that relative silence comes even as Richard Stauber, a White House lawyer, reported over the weekend that he had found even more classified documents in a subsequent search of Biden’s Wilmington home.

   Asked about Stauber’s discovery, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this on Tuesday: "I'm going to let this ongoing review that is happening, this legal process that is happening and let that process continue under the special counsel. I'm not going to comment from here."

   Which, well, ok. But the way that the White House has handled the whole thing has created more questions than answers. Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker told CNN that White House “needs to be fully transparent” about the documents — and how they wound up where they did.

3. What Biden did and what Donald Trump did are not the same. Here’s a good way to think about the difference between what Biden did inre classified docs and what Donald Trump did — via Garrett Graff:

   “Biden found items he didn't know were in his shopping bag when he left the store and returned them, while Trump systematically looted the store, ran out the door, and failed to stop for police in a high-speed pursuit.”

   Remember that Biden — or more accurately Biden’s lawyers — self reported that they had found classified documents. The Trump team repeatedly refused requests to turn over the documents to NARA prior to the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.

   As recently as Wednesday, Trump was still downplaying what he had taken — without authorization — from the White House. “These were just ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them, but they were a ‘cool’ keepsake,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

4. Fact #3 won’t matter to lots of people. Here’s why: a) Both Biden and Trump wound up in possession of classified documents they weren’t supposed to have after leaving their respective offices b) Neither man was forthcoming about why they had the documents c) the DOJ has appointed special counsels to look into each matter and decide whether any laws were broken.

   For the average news consumer, those similarities — fueled by the spin coming out of Republican world by the likes of Jordan and his allies — will be plenty for them to conclude that Trump and Biden were caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing around classified documents.

   Which is true! — sort of. There’s no question that Biden and Trump should not have had the classified documents that have been found on their respective properties.

   But per point #3, the difference in the way the two men responded to the classified docs information is RADICALLY different. Politics tends to beat all subtlety out of debates like this one and Republicans are already hard at work to equate the two — and, in so doing, cancel out the issue for the 2024 campaign.

5. This is all bad news for Joe Biden, politically speaking. Prior to the classified documents story breaking, Biden was clearly on an upswing. His poll numbers had approached or matched their previous highs and he was in the midst of a clear pivot the to the ideological middle ahead of a likely 2024 race. (Witness his infrastructure event with Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell earlier this month.)

   Now, Biden is under investigation by a special counsel. (Whether or not you think the special counsel will find any serious violation is a different debate.)

   And NO president wants to spend even a single day — particularly as Biden looks to be gearing up to run for president again — under the watchful eye of a special counsel.

   Then there’s this: The focus of the first few weeks of the new year in Washington was all on Republicans and their inability to line up behind a speaker. The GOP looked lost and leaderless. It was a great image for Biden in particular and Democrats more broadly.

   That focus on Republicans is now gone. Reporters are all over the classified docs story and, per point #2 above, the White House doesn’t have any good answers — at least not yet.

   Has the document story slowed Biden’s momentum or halted it completely? Hard to say as we are still in the very early stages of all of this. But, what’s beyond debate is that it is not a problem Biden and his team want to have to be dealing with right now.