All the attention has been on Joe Biden’s classified documents mishandling. But something more sinister is going on.
Because now Barack Obama is in hot water with what his official just admitted about him.
There is a pandemic going on. Evidence suggests that although this epidemic has been around for some time, it was only recently identified.
But the thing that’s spreading isn’t a biological agent or a disease. Instead, it’s the information about the handling—or mishandling—of secret materials by some of our most famous public leaders.
The horrific FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s residence in South Florida’s Mar-a-Lago Club in August was the catalyst for the entire situation.
The legality of Trump’s possession of the seized documents is still up for debate.
The same cannot be said of Joe Biden, the vice president during the Obama administration, and Mike Pence, the previous vice president, both of whom are now linked to document caches that they acknowledge to be illegally in their possession.
Even though Biden seemed to believe a secured garage door makes a difference in security, both Pence and Biden have stated they were “unaware” they had the documents.
Many now wonder who else will have an uncomfortable confession to make before the crisis is ended given the manner knowledge of the disease spread, which was revealed in late and piecemeal revelations by some of the actors involved.
Could former President Barack Obama be keeping some of his archives secret, for instance?
The Nation Archives and Records Administration assured the public that it had “assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017” in a statement on Aug. 12, not long after the raid on Trump’s Palm Beach estate.
However, it’s not quite obvious that the NARA understands exactly what records from earlier administrations it may be missing, as the drip-by-drip revelations regarding the Biden and Pence documents demonstrate.
Its track record is not flawless. Trump was able to remind NARA in October of a significant loss of private information from the Clinton administration due to carelessness, as The New York Times revealed in 2009.
That loss was acknowledged even by the NARA itself.
So, how is Obama’s staff responding to inquiries on the subject?
If the former president’s team is looking for any mishandled secret materials, they choose not to say whether they are doing it themselves.
Hannah Hankins, director of communications for Obama, told Fox News, “We have nothing for you at this time.”
That is not a solution. And it doesn’t appear great.
It appears to be a play for a time at best. At worst, it’s a blow-off, letting the American public know that Obama’s administration doesn’t feel required to respond to a question that is obvious and timely given the circumstances.
In light of the current national concerns surrounding records that directly affect the 44th president, common sense says that the former president is — or should be — making sure his house is in order.
He or his staff should either inform the American public that housecleaning is going place or provide an explanation for why they don’t think it’s necessary to do so, according to common politeness.
The lack of such an explanation merely fuels the most unfavorable assumptions. It’s such a simple question that even the Obama supporters in the mainstream media will eventually have to ask it.
Obama had the power to declassify records as president. He has not yet mentioned declassifying the documents Biden had in his possession, which would have benefited his troubled former vice president.
In December 2009, Obama did issue an executive order allowing vice presidents to declassify records that had been classified by the vice president. It is now unknown what records Biden had, thus it is impossible to say whether or not he could have gotten them declassified himself.
The scandal’s handling implies differently, though.
“Mishandled classified documents” is a bureaucratic euphemism for a major crime and security breach that has occurred.
Obama enjoys bragging about his scandal-free presidency. Perhaps “scandal-free” is just another way of saying “successful stonewalling.”
And perhaps this outbreak is still ongoing.
Stay tuned to the Federalist Wire.
