Jan.18

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

White House Explains Itself

The Biden White House holds press conferences on a near-daily basis. You might think that would be a given, but not all presidential administrations do it that way. These days, the White House press corps invariably peppers Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre with endless questions about the classified documents found at Joe Biden's various offices. Not only do the reporters want to know what the documents were and how they ended up where they did, they also want to know why the White House (apparently) kept a lid on the story for a couple of months.

In view of the daily barrage, the administration decided the time had come to explain itself. Unfortunately, for those who want to know everything RIGHT NOW, the White House explained itself by explaining that it can't explain itself, at least not at the moment. The administration's position is that while an investigation is ongoing—one that the White House is cooperating fully with—it is not appropriate to comment publicly.

Needless to say, this is not going to satisfy anyone in the press corps. The coverage of this story has been... extraordinary. And by "extraordinary," we really mean "questionable." Nature abhors a vacuum, and in the absence of new information, there have been some really outlandish pieces from various media outlets. You expect this kind of coverage from Fox, where the headlines have included "Why Biden's documents mess could be one of the biggest political scandals in American history" and "Biden may be at greater risk of criminal jeopardy than Trump in documents scandal." But even the non-right-wing media has been going overboard with its coverage. A few examples:

• Time: "We Elected Biden to Be Better Than This"
  
  
• Bloomberg: "Biden Missteps on Secret Papers Create Self-Inflicted Crisis
  
  
• CNN: "The week everything changed for the Biden White House"
  
  
• CNN: "'Unforced errors': A White House facing a fresh crisis"

We aren't the only ones who noticed that the coverage has been a wee bit overwrought. Democratic operative James Carville appeared on MSNBC and decreed: "[T]he national press can't help but make fools of themselves. It happened in Whitewater, it happened in the e-mail scandal, and it's happening now. I can't stop these people. It's not my anointed job in the world to stop the national press from making a fool of themselves."

In any event, here are the thoughts we have about the situation as it currently stands:

• The Biden documents situation and the Donald Trump documents situation were, and are, apples and oranges. As former prosecutor and current Politico contributor Renato Mariotti points out, Biden's situation is actually much more comparable to Hillary Clinton's e-mails.
  
  
• Consistent with that, it is entirely possible that this could become a lingering scandal. After all, Clinton's e-mails certainly did. And the Republican Party is going to do everything possible to keep Filegate going, both as a "defense" of Donald Trump and because every previous "scandal" failed to stick to Biden.
  
  On the other hand, maybe it won't linger. Remember, for example, how many pundits said that Afghanistan was fatal for Team Joe. Not so much, as it turns out. Whatever happens, there is no possible way to know where this is headed, and thus no basis for think pieces about how "everything has changed" for this administration, or how Biden's reelection hopes are fatally wounded. Let's wait and see.
  
  
• As to the White House's zip-the-lip approach, and its explanation for same, we find that to be credible. If the administration starts spilling details, assuming it even has them, that could create problems in terms of classified information coming out, or it could be seen as trying to influence the course of the investigation. As much as the press corps wants fodder for tomorrow's 1A stories, there is no need to rush here. Even if we make the assumption that voters need to know the full truth as they evaluate Biden's reelection bid, the investigation will be completed well before the 2024 election. If the White House fails to speak frankly at that point, THEN it's time for criticism about not being fully truthful.

Anyhow, this story certainly looks like it's in a holding pattern at this point, and will be for many weeks (or months), regardless of all the eyeball-grabbing headlines. (Z)