Is It Fair To Compare Biden’s And Trumps Classified Documents Scandals?

2024 Election

Is It Fair To Compare Biden's And Trumps Classified Documents Scandals?

A FiveThirtyEight Chat

Jan. 24, 2023, at 3:19 PM

Welcome to FiveThirtyEights politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, senior elections analyst): President Biden is in hot water over the discovery of classified documents from the Obama administration in his possession. In November, attorneys for the president discovered a handful of documents with classified markings on them at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and immediately contacted the National Archives, who took back possession of the documents the next day. However, we didnt learn this until a couple weeks ago, and since then, Biden aides have found more pages of classified material at Bidens home in Delaware, and Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to look into the matter impartially. And this past week, at Bidens invitation, the Justice Department searched Bidens Delaware home and took away six additional items, some with classified markings.