President Joe Biden admitted Thursday that he has “no regrets” for improperly retaining classified documents.
After touring areas of California ravaged by recent winter storms, Biden was confronted by Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs about his classified documents scandal.
“Do you have any regret, sir?” Jacobs asked.
The question clearly frustrated the president. He said the issue “quite frankly bugs” him — that he would have to answer for retaining classified documents — and decried Jacobs for not asking him about weather events.
Jacobs followed up, “Do you have any regret, sir, that you did not reveal the existence of the documents back in November, before the midterms?”
“Look, we found a handful of documents that were filed in the wrong place. We immediately turned them over to the [National] Archives and the Justice Department. We’re fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly,” Biden responded.
“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets,” he added. “I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It’s exactly what we’re doing. There is no ‘there’ there.”
Biden’s declaration that he experiences no regret for improperly storing classified documents at his private office and residence is ironic. After all, when former President Donald Trump was under intense scrutiny for the same offense — storing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — Biden condemned Trump as “totally irresponsible.”
Jacobs’ question, meanwhile, hit at the heart of a critical question the White House has so far refused to answer.
When the White House disclosed last week that Biden’s personal attorneys had discovered a batch of classified documents at Biden’s post-vice presidential Washington office on Nov. 2, officials failed to mention the discovery of a second batch of classified documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence on Dec. 20. Indeed, the White House only admitted to the second discovery after NBC News first reported on its existence.
Former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur is investigating the discoveries as special counsel.