By Victor Davis Hanson
Donald Trump for now certainly seems to have had more documents labeled classified at Mar-a-Lago in Florida than did Joe Biden at his various homes in Delaware.
Yet otherwise, the comparisons between the two cases, contrary to popular punditry, hardly favor Biden.
First, a stranger would face a far greater challenge entering a post-presidential Mar-a-Lago than a pre-presidential Joe Biden’s home, office, or garage—or who knows where?
Secret service agents and private security were stationed at Mar-a-Lago. Prior to the 2020 presidential election they were not at citizen Biden’s various troves for most of 2017-2020 much less prior to 2009.
Second, we seem to forget that for much of the developing controversy, Joe Biden’s own team was investigating Joe Biden.
On the other hand, the Biden Administration’s Justice Department and the FBI were not just investigating Trump as an outside party, but as a former president—and possible 2024 presidential candidate and opponent of Biden himself.
Remember, the narrative of the first Democratic impeachment of Donald Trump was the allegation that Trump had used his powers of the presidency to investigate Joe Biden and his family, a likely 2020 challenger to Trump’s reelection bid.
Third, no one in a position of government authority had passed judgment on Joe Biden’s alleged security violations.
That was not the case of the still alleged violations of Donald Trump.
Joe Biden, as president, had weighed in, during his own Justice Department’s ongoing investigations of Trump. Indeed, he proclaimed the former president to be guilty: “How could anyone be that irresponsible?” In contrast, he also dismissed the ongoing investigation of himself with “There is no there, there.”
Fourth, Trump is certainly right that as president he had a far more substantial claim of declassification rights than did Biden who took the papers out either as a senator or vice president.
Fifth, the FBI was not merely asymmetrical in melodramatically raiding the Trump home while allowing Biden lawyers to inspect various Biden stashes. The FBI also leaked the purported contents of the subjects of the Trump classified documents (falsely spreading the lie of “nuclear codes” and “nuclear secrets”) in a way it has not with the Biden cache.
The FBI went so far as to scatter the documents on the floor for a fake news photo-op as if the papers were so messily arrayed when they arrived.
So far, the FBI has come lightly and belatedly to the Biden case without the SWAT team get-up, and only under pressure from the public and the Republican opposition.
Six, Biden did not “self-report.” Biden’s team did not call the relevant government authorities the minute they discovered the classified documents in Biden’s office and home and garage.
In truth, Biden, or someone close to Biden, certainly knew that he or someone close to him had illegally removed classified documents when he left the vice presidency in 2017—or years earlier as a senator.
For at least the last six years—at least—Biden has felt no compunction to confess to authorities he illegally was in possession of classified documents.
That seems rather odd when every time someone asks the White House a question about his STOLEN documents, they can’t comment because of an “ongoing investigation”. Trump’s investigations have been “ongoing” investigations since he announced his candidacy in 2016.
For some reason, despite a proclivity to leak rumors about Trump’s documents, we still haven’t heard what his documents actually concerned. Why? Because, more than likely, they were almost all about “Crossfire Hurrican”, the government’s seditious attempt to carry out a coup against Trump. Trump had demanded those documents be declassified and released, yet for some reason, the FBI never did. It’s not surprising the FBI wanted those documents back.
A further difference is with the means of collecting the documents. Of course, idiot Biden was allowed to police up his classified documents (until it was suspected he might not be fully honest about their searches and the FBI decided to take a look for themselves and, son of a bitch, they caught them lying) while Trump’s home was raided, replete with CNN coverage. But, aside from that, while the FBI allowed idiot Biden’s flunkies to self-search, self-disclose and accompany them in THEIR search, NO ONE was allowed to witness the FBI’s search. Given the level of credibility and trustworthiness the FBI and DOJ have demonstrated lately, who would be surprised if the FBI slipped a few little enhancements into what they confiscated?
Bottom line is, Trump had every right to have his documents but idiot Biden, ever the lying thief, STOLE his.