Governing means walking the ledge, even when things seem to be going pretty well. Last Christmas, shortly before completing his second year in office, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, had reason to celebrate, both in economic matters and in domestic and foreign policy.
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Inflation was beginning to subside and the economy, although slowed down, was no longer marching towards a recession like the one that will occur in other rich countries. In the November parliamentary elections, the Democrats of his party had secured a majority in the Senate and, in the House, although they had lost control, the advantage was that the aggressive Trumpist opponents – the hard core of the Republican caucus – had obtained many fewer seats than expected.
As if that were not enough, former President Donald Trump — Biden’s main adversary — was plunged into a scandal over the discovery, in August, at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, of hundreds of classified documents that, illegally , he removed from the White House before leaving it in January 2020.
On the international front, Biden was emerging as the great winner of the Ukraine crisis, while another of his adversaries, Russian President Vladimir Putin, was bogged down in the costly and failed invasion: the Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, not only they have not stood up to him but have pushed back the Russian troops, largely thanks to the military support given by Biden.
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It is a commitment to accountability in particularly sensitive matters
But everything changed for the US president in a few days. After a series of media versions, the White House ended up accepting the discovery, in an old private office of Biden, in Washington DC, as well as in his private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, of a couple of dozen documents marked as ‘Reserved’, with information that, according to the researchers, “could be considered sensitive” for the security of the United States.
Months ago, when it was confirmed that Trump had removed hundreds of secret documents from the White House and had taken them to his home in Mar-a-Lago, where the FBI found them, Biden had called his predecessor “irresponsible.” Now those words have been turned against him..
On January 12, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur as Special Agent to investigate the case. “This is,” Garland said, “a commitment to accountability on particularly sensitive issues.”
It was by order of that special agent that the FBI searched, for more than 13 hours, Biden’s house in Delaware, last Thursday, and found more folders with reserved papers, which doubled the amount compared to what was found by his lawyers weeks before, in the same residence and in the former office of the president in the capital.
Similar is not the same
Although the news was appearing little by little, the information confirmed by the White House and, now, by the FBI, indicates that, in a first discovery made by Biden’s lawyers last year, 12 documents appeared with the label ‘Reserved’ , in the office that he held before running for president, and which belonged to the Penn Biden think tank.
The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement is a foundation attached to the University of Pennsylvania. It was born under the impulse of Biden, after he left his position as vice president at the end of Barack Obama’s double term. Among Biden’s plans was gathering documents for a future library like the ones that, upon withdrawing from him, many leaders of the United States erect to guarantee his memory and his legacy.
According to versions of those close to the president, this may explain the existence of the most sensitive documents, as well as thousands more that were not labeled as reserved, all of them linked to Biden’s 36 years as a senator —eight of them as president of the powerful foreign relations committee—and eight as vice president. It is a documentary heritage of great value.
For many years, figures who have passed through the Presidency and other high State positions have collected thousands of copies of documents that have passed through their hands and that have to do with the issues they handled.
The law says that the originals must go to the National Archives in Washington, where a group of experts classifies, digitizes and archives them. Those that come with the reserve seal must, by law, maintain that condition for decades, until their embargo period expires or until a decision by the President declassifies them and allows their publication.
The legislation determines that, of the documents classified as reserved, no former high-ranking official can even keep copies, since doing so puts national security at risk, since if they are in his personal office or at home, someone can steal them, disclose them or deliver them to agents in other countries.
The Penn Biden Center had already been the subject of controversy, when media outlets identified with the American right, such as Fox News, denounced that the foundation had indirectly benefited from more than 54 million dollars in donations from Chinese businessmen to the University of Pennsylvania.
Shortly after Biden’s arrival at the White House, the center decided to close the Washington office, which had served primarily as the personal office of the current president. It was during the definitive dismantling of that office that Biden’s lawyers found the first package of classified documents.
Later, between December and January, those same lawyers examined Biden’s personal office at his Delaware home, and came across five more classified documents. Faced with this situation, prosecutor Garland appointed special agent Hur, who ordered a search of the house that lasted more than half a day. At the end, six more folders with confidential documents had appeared.
the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden administration time records, including a small number of documents marked ‘reserved’
Initially, the Biden administration downplayed the significance of the findings and wanted to be very cooperative with the FBI. “The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden administration time records, including a small number of documents marked ‘reserved,'” he explained in those moments Richard Sauber, adviser to the president.
And while the number of secret papers in Biden’s possession — less than 25 — is far fewer than the hundreds of documents discovered at Trump’s Florida residence, the truth is that the White House looks uncomfortable with what happened. “Similar is not the same,” Democratic spokesmen have said in defense of the president, but in private, Democratic congressmen who had been particularly harsh with former President Trump now acknowledge that Biden’s situation is delicate.
“Minimizing the case of the documents in the old Washington DC office and in the Delaware house, because they are much fewer than those found in Trump’s possession, is equivalent to minimizing a theft because the amount stolen is small,” he commented last Friday. , under reservation of identity, a legislator from the President’s party.
The Chamber, on the attack
Biden’s situation is especially delicate due to what has happened in recent months in the House of Representatives. Following the November congressional elections, the president’s Democrats lost their majorities, leaving the new lower house comprised of 222 Republicans and 212 Democrats.
The result was much less favorable to the Republicans than the polls announced, which instead of the ten seats in which the difference remained, spoke of more than fifty. The Democrats were also pleased that, of the 222 Republicans, barely a sixth are made up of Trumpist radicals, and this gave rise to the hope of smooth negotiations between the White House and the Republican majority in the House.
But in January, when the Republicans had to choose the new president of that House, the candidate Kevin McCarthy —a 58-year-old Californian with rather moderate ideas— the voting lasted as few times in history, since thirty of the 222 Republicans , refused to vote for him and thus McCarthy did not get the necessary votes.
It took 15 votes for him to finally be enthroned. But this only happened because the Californian made commitments with the small Trumpist nucleus that include preventing the Government from raising the debt ceiling of the federal State -with which Biden will have to tighten his belt, especially in terms of social spending-, as well how to stop new aid to Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion.
It’s time to exercise control over the president’s policy
“It is time to exercise control over the president’s policy,” McCarthy announced after being elected, to wink at the Trumpists. It is clear that Biden will face stiff opposition in the House on the aforementioned funding issues, but also that Republican representatives will now be able to launch an investigation into the secret documents found in the President’s old office and private residence.
The luck for the president is that he has the majority in the Senate, a body that has the last word if an eventual judicial process against Biden, promoted by the Democrats in the House, were to advance. But, even so, it is clear that the clear horizon that, in December, Biden glimpsed for the second half of his term, in January has been loaded with clouds. And, at any moment, those clouds can turn from gray to black.
MAURICIO VARGAS LINARES
EL TIEMPO analyst
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