CNN's defense of Biden's alleged incompetence in handling classified documents—”Under 12 Total”—collapsed on Wednesday after another set of documents that had been classified by the government was located in a different area.
Mainstream media outlets jumped to Biden's side when it became clear that ten documents bearing classified markings were discovered in Biden's old office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Biden Center), which was established in 2018.
The documents were said to contain briefings on intelligence and military details on Iran, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom during Biden's tenure in the vice presidency. The president is the only person with the authority to declassify documents.
CNN attempted to present Biden's alleged incompetence with classified documents as less serious than former President Donald Trump's supposed misuse of classified documents, even though Trump had declassification authorization, which was not the case with Biden when he was vice president. CNN could not have been certain that the documents discovered in the Penn Biden Center were the only ones that were mishandled by Biden.
In contrast, NBC News reported Wednesday that at least one more set of classified documents had been discovered by Biden's staff in a different location that is linked to him.
A little over an hour before the publication of that report, during the Wednesday White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to answer questions on whether then-Vice President Biden had used other offices where classified documents might have been kept.
In 2022, after Trump's private home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, was searched by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), Biden ripped into Trump, claiming he was unreliable in his handling of classified papers.
There haven't been any investigations into or raids on Biden's home or private offices. His legal counsel and assistants were given the task of finding classified documents that could be misused by Biden or lost at various places he occupied or used. It's unclear if any of them have the security clearances that are required to manage classified information.
