The Biden-Pence Scenario: How Donald Trump and the FBI Have Analyzed the Biden Case (And Why Do They Still Do)
Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 25 books, including the New York Times best-seller, “Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lie and Legend About Our Past”. Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
The president’s attorneys gave their consent for the FBI to conduct a search of Biden’s house earlier this month according to people briefed on the matter. During that search, “six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials.”
But, as evidenced by the latest revelations, this is not simply an inside Washington story. It is not one that will be gone soon. While Pence’s disclosure certainly takes the heat off Biden, this scandal is bad news for Biden’s brand name.
And new polling makes this clear. A majority of Americans approve of the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the case of classified documents found at the Biden home and office. The difference between the Biden and Trump cases seems to be grasped by Americans in a CNN poll. The majority of Americans disapprove of the way Biden has handled the situation, but still only 34% think he has done something illegal. In regards to Trump, 50% of Americans think he has done something illegal.
Biden, who had been Trump’s foil in 2020, has now mishandled the issue. And with Pence thrown into the mix, Trump’s team believes the latest developments could help support their argument that this should be treated as an administrative issue, rather than a criminal one.
Biden has a lot to lose when it comes to reputation. Biden has the greatest assets due to the fact that he is a straight shooter who can be trusted. Like former President Jimmy Carter, who cast himself as an upstanding candidate after Watergate, Biden ran for president in 2020 as the seasoned “adult in the room” after the tumult of the Trump years.
We’re now seeing the first major blow to that image, with more attacks sure to come now that the Republicans who have gained control of the House are vowing to investigate everything from Hunter Biden to the president’s border policies.
Regardless of what House Republicans will find, if anything, they are capable of redirecting our attention to negative attacks on Biden and further damaging his reputation. If the Democrats think these sorts of stories do not have legs, then they should ask Hillary Clinton’s emails, which the GOP used to undermine her reputation right through the election.
The Democrats will discuss the issue of whether to challenge Biden in the primaries or if he should run for reelection as a result of the turmoil.
All the controversy can distract the public and media from the real issues, such as military support forUkraine or the slowing of inflation.
There are lots of ways this could go down for Biden if there are more revelations about his handling of classified documents.
But he and his supporters shouldn’t discount the significant political impact this story can have. It has already opened the door to questions about his prospects in 2024 and given a laggard Trump campaign something to crow about.
The Penn Biden Center and the Investigation of the White House’s Investigation into the Donald’s Pro-President’s Controversy
An FBI assessment that the Department of Justice described in a recent statement was part of the search at the Penn Biden Center. Attorney General Garland said the FBI began an assessment on November 9 to understand whether classified information was mishandled in violation of federal law.
The revelation raises more questions about whether the White House and Biden have been open about the investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents.
The Biden team gave the archives four boxes of unclassified materials from the Penn Biden Center office out of an abundance of caution, a source said. The Penn Biden Center left extra boxes which were given to the archives on November 8.
The purpose of the visit was likely to ensure that nothing was left in the office and assess how the documents were stored, according to a former Justice Department official.
The Archives then informed the FBI on November 4 about the discovery of classified materials after examining the four boxes of documents, according to the source familiar with the matter.
binders that were held at the president’s campaign attorney’s office in Boston that were also handed over to the Archives were examined by the FBI. The source said the binders were not filled with classified materials.
More than 300 classified records have been recovered for Trump. The Justice Department is the one that gets the documents returned voluntarily to NARA and turned over under a subpoena.
The documents of Biden were marked with the highest level of classification. Some of those documents had an “SCI” designation, which stands for “sensitive compartmented information” and refers to extremely sensitive material gleaned from US intelligence sources.
Attorney General Merrick Garland brought on special prosecutors to investigate Biden and Trump. Jack Smith, who was appointed in November, is investigating the Trump matter. Robert Hur was appointed to investigate the Biden matter in January.
The Trump investigation has progressed the farthest. Federal prosecutors tried to hold Trump in contempt when he didn’t comply with their requests, after they got a subpoena. CNN has reported that there is an active grand jury in Washington, DC, and that there was testimony from witnesses recently.
Short said that the FBI could look into Vice President Mike Pence’s home for any additional classified material in the future.
When he travels across the nation, he probably doesn’t hear concerns about the documents. “I think he hears encouragement from people as he travels.”
He thinks that waiting until the end of the process is better for him because most candidates who get in early don’t fare too well.