The White House tried on Wednesday to avoid any conflict with reporters over documents that were found in President Joe Biden's personal office when he was vice president.
“Ed, we don’t need to have this. We work very well together. We don’t need to have this kind of confrontation,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during the daily briefing on Wednesday when reporter Ed O'Keefe asked her for information on the latest news regarding the documents.
Jean-Pierre did not have anything new to share with the press about the details of the classified documents discovered in the president’s old office.
“It is literally under review right now. As I am talking to you it is under review, so I am not going to get beyond the process. I am not going to get beyond what the president said,” she replied.
Biden admitted on Tuesday that he was “surprised” about the existence of the classified documents that had been found in his personal office at the University of Pennsylvania think tank in Washington, D.C., and didn't know what the documents contained.
“He has said he doesn't know what is in them,” Jean-Pierre continued. “So, there's no way for me to talk about the documents if he has said he doesn't know what's in them.”
Jean-Pierre stonewalled reporters who inquired about what the White House had learned about the documents, which were discovered days prior to the 2022 midterm elections.
When asked why American citizens should have confidence in the president to handle those documents, Jean-Pierre responded, “Because his lawyers, his team, did the right thing.”
Reporters also reminded Jean-Pierre of Biden's pledge of transparency in the course of his presidency, repeatedly asking why the White House had not revealed the president's knowledge about the documents and why it had waited several weeks before disclosing the facts regarding the discovery.
Jean-Pierre claimed that the White House had already been open and transparent.
“We released information that was very transparent,” she declared, referring back to a statement issued by White House lawyers about the incident.
“I know you all are going to have a lot of questions, I get that, and I understand that, but I'm not going to go beyond the process,” she concluded.
