Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner ripped the Biden administration on Wednesday for allegedly “dragging their feet” to provide some clarity on the document scandal.
Lawyers for President Joe Biden discovered classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in November, and subsequently more documents were found in December and January at his Delaware residence. The revelation came months after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Classified documents were also found at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence.
Warner, along with Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have called for bipartisan oversight about the national security threat posed by classified documents leaving their designated places. Both Warner and Rubio sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“Have you had access to the substance of the classified documents by either – from Mar-a-Lago, from Biden, from Pence, any of that?” MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell asked.
“This is where the Biden Administration gets an absolute failing grade. Their position is outrageous,” Warner said. “You got Mike Pence saying yesterday as well, he would be happy to have the intelligence community – he trusts us to look at those documents. You got this back and forth between the Justice Department, the attorney general publicly saying yesterday, he has no problem. That was what he said in one committee. Then blaming it back on the director of national intelligence. The director of national intelligence blaming it on the Justice Department. We don’t have any interest in looking into the mishandling of the documents, that is a Justice Department appropriate role.”
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“We have a constitutional responsibility to see those documents,” he continued. “The classified ones, make a judgment, whether the intelligence community did appropriate protection and if those documents were to fall into the wrong hands, what kind of mitigation we could take. And I am done with the lack of willingness for the administration to address this, their position does not pass the smell test.” (RELATED: ‘A Widespread Issue’: CNN Reporter Suggests ‘Amnesty’ Over Classified Documents)
“You know, if this was the Trump Administration and this is not a Democrat – Republican thing, every Democratic member of the intelligence community is outraged by this non-supportable position of the Biden Administration. So I don’t want to – I’m not a guy that comes on TV and makes threats, but I’m joining with my Republican colleagues and my colleagues, Democrat and Republican in the House. This position cannot stand, and they’re dragging their feet, it’s outrageous.”