During an interview with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy discussed President Biden’s classified document scandal and how the discovery of mishandled classified documents in Biden’s possession was hidden for more than two months.
Lawyers for Biden initially found the first set of about 10 classified documents from the Obama-Biden administration in a locked closet in offices of the Biden Penn Center in Washington, an office Biden began working at occasionally in 2017 after his vice presidency ended, on November 2 – just a few days before the midterm elections. Additional sets of classified documents were found by Biden’s lawyers in his garage and his private library in December.
The discovery of the classified documents was not revealed to the public until CBS News released a report on the first discovery on January 9, more than two months later. The White House then confirmed the report, but didn’t mention the additional classified documents found in December. More sets of classified documents mishandled by Biden have continued to be found in his possession.
Doocy discussed the situation with Kurtz on Fox News’ “Media Buzz.”
“So, Peter, at Thursday’s white house briefing it was painful to watch, it went on for quite a long time,” Kurtz said. “One correspondent after another stood up and pounded the press secretary on not providing the straight story, the full story, especially on timing… I had the impression that many of your colleagues were genuinely upset and perhaps felt that they had been played. I’ve never seen a briefing like this in the administration. How did it seem to you in that room?”
“I’ve noticed over the last two years that if there’s the one thing the White House press corps as a whole gets really upset about, it is issues of access to the president or to events and transparency,” Doocy responded. “And when you’re hearing one thing from the White House and another thing from the attorney general and they do not link up, it seems like around here these decisions of transparency, or what they say is transparency, maybe isn’t really.”
“Well, by our count there were at least 13 times that Karine Jean-Pierre said it was an ongoing process, so she couldn’t comment, at least 18 times I would refer you to the Justice Department or the White House counsel’s office knowing full well they’re not commenting either,” Kurtz said. “I felt some sympathy for her because they’re not letting her go beyond anything that the president’s already said.”
“Especially because she revealed the following day that she was not involved in the decision to sit on this,” Doocy responded. “Somebody in Biden World has known about this for more than two months before they went public with it. She revealed on Friday that was not her call. And so somebody around here is making decisions about — because it’s not just legal strategy, it is communications strategy, it’s PR for the president. And whoever it is behind the curtain, pushing that button, pulling that string, we still don’t know. But, hey, we’re being referred to the Justice Department and the special counsel, so we can ask them too.”
