Republican Party leader Ronna McDaniel on Friday branded President Joe Biden a hypocrite over his handling of classified documents, saying he had “no regrets” after previously insisting he takes the issue seriously.
A day earlier, the President shrugged off the significance of a scandal that had seen his White House bombarded with questions about who knew what and when.
And he implied that the American people don’t understand the media’s obsession with it.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel told : “For weeks, Joe Biden and his team have insisted he takes classified documents ‘seriously’.
“Now Biden says he has no regrets that several classified documents were kept for several years in multiple insecure locations where untold numbers of people had access to them.
“Biden is a hypocrite who cannot be trusted. In his own words, how could anyone be so irresponsible?”
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel criticized Biden’s comments on the documents. “Biden is a hypocrite who cannot be trusted,” she told
Bidens and his allies have tried to contrast the discovery of a “handful” of files in his Washington office and home in Delaware with the thousands of documents in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Biden himself said of Trump, “How someone can be so irresponsible,” words that haunt him time and time again.
On Thursday, Biden expressed his frustration at being asked about the documents over and over again.
“I’ll answer your question, but here’s the deal,” he told a reporter who raised the issue after touring through storm-hit northern California.
‘You know what frankly bugs me is that we have a serious problem here that we’re talking about, talking about what’s going on.
“And the American people don’t quite understand why you’re not asking me questions about it.”
On Thursday, during a visit to California, Biden said, “I think you’ll find there’s nothing there. I regret nothing. I follow what the lawyers told me, what they want me to do.”
At least a few documents were found in Biden’s garage at his home in Wilmington, Delaware
How the government documents scandal has played out since secret records were found in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center on Nov. 2
Polls suggest otherwise. A Portal/Ipsos poll released this morning found his approval rating was just 40 percent, nearly the lowest of his presidency, despite recent positive headlines about falling inflation and mid-election successes last November.
And a Yahoo News/YouGov poll found nearly two-thirds of Americans wanted Congress to investigate how documents got into their homes and offices.
But Biden downplayed the idea that it was anything but an administrative error.
“We found that a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” he told reporters.
“We immediately turned them over to the archives and the Justice Department.
“We are fully cooperating and look forward to resolving this quickly. I think you’ll find there’s nothing there.
‘I regret nothing. I follow what the lawyers told me, what they want me to do. That’s exactly what we do.
“There is no there.”
Biden toured the California storm damage with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday. He later said he was frustrated when the press asked about other issues during the trip
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley described Biden’s response as “annoying.”
“He first distracted by using the California victims. He then denied any real responsibility,” he wrote in a blog post.
He followed in a tweet.
“While Biden’s ‘Corvette standard’ for keeping classified documents was confusing, his ‘no regrets’ statement is downright annoying,” he said. “It’s also remarkably stupid having a special counsel on the ground.”
Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway compared the episode to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Joe Biden says ‘There’s nothing there’ and ‘I have no regrets’ reminds me that he said I don’t apologize after the deadly and disastrous withdrawal,” she told Fox News.
“Lawyers don’t like it when their clients use such absolute language. “I didn’t pull the trigger, there’s nothing, I don’t regret anything.” ‘
“But we as a public should be very concerned about a president who has promised transparency and accountability and is failing to deliver. With each passing day, more mainstream media is leaving Joe Biden on this issue.