It seems like every President has a scandal at some point during their time in office. Some, like Nixon’s Watergate and Trump’s January 6th Insurrection, are more severe than others, but all scandals are still noteworthy nonetheless! In this case, the issue presides with classified documents being found in President Joe Biden’s places of residence on multiple occasions (albeit the fact that these documents date back to Biden’s term as Vice President under Barack Obama). Funnily enough, every President since Nixon has had a special Prosecutor investigating them, with the sole exception being President Obama, who served from 2008-2016.
In terms of these prosecutors, the most recent before Biden was Robert S. Mueller III, who was appointed to investigate the Trump campaigns ties with Russia. Upon receiving the news, Trump notably exclaimed, “Oh, my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency.” However, this wasn’t a public proclamation of guilt – instead, he knew how intrusive the special prosecutor’s methods were, and how they could absolutely derail Presidential proceedings from taking place. Additionally, the unwanted media attention into both your personal and professional life adds a lot of undue stress to a job that is already takes quite a toll on your mental health.
This whole ordeal started back in early November, when personal attorneys unexpectedly discovered Obama-Biden administration records at Washington D.C.’s Penn Biden Center. From there, this small notice has slowly evolved into a full-fledged investigation, with both the Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland taking actions to search further Biden-affiliated locations in the attempt to secure the private proceedings of the U.S. government and national security as a whole.
Over the past few months, additional classified documents have been uncovered, including Wilmington, and locations that the investigatory team refuses to disclose. Regardless of how many more documents are found, the issue remains ever-present. Is this due to ignorance on Biden’s part? Simply forgetting with time and age? Perhaps a combination of both? Earlier, I mentioned how essentially every President in the past fifty years has run into trouble at some point. Also, it is an interesting coincidence that both Trump and Biden have now run into problems with classified documents in the past year (with Trump’s Mar-A-Lago FBI raid, if you recall).
What are your thoughts on this topic? Does this issue change the way you view President Biden? Will this issue become a defining part of Biden’s legacy? Or will this blow over in the coming months, as more important issues head to the forefront of America’s sociopolitical atmosphere?
It’s crazy to think that almost every president since Nixon has had an inquiry into a scandal. However sometimes I think these scandals are more used as political warfare than the president doing anything majorly wrong. There’s definitely been instances where a president has broken the law and should be punished for it, but the side that’s typically not in power will also try to use these scandals as means of hurting the president’s reputation. I haven’t read too much into the Biden documents, but I’ll definitely start looking into it more. It could definitely be careless on his part or his administration to leave classified documents in various places but I also think a lot of the right wing is using that hiccup as an opportunity to push an agenda that will make the opposing president look worse.
This was an interesting post. It really felt like a news article, so I could tell you put a lot of time and research into it! You brought up a lot of relevant details that I had not known previously. I think, because the president is such a prominent position, it does make sense why they are always being investigated, especially considering the highly politicized climate right now. I definitely have to do some more reading on this topic.
This was a good post to read! I think that especially with Trump’s new scandal on the rise now, people will quickly push this dilemma into the background. I find it astonishing that U.S. Presidents have that many scandals and are still respected. It’s almost as if people expect this to happen with every president nowadays. In europe this would never be pushed under the rug the way it is done here and I have to say, I’m confused on why there isn’t more uproar in regard to this.
When I first heard the story on the news I thought: how do you simply forget you’re in possession of classified documents? It can turn out to be a pretty big deal, but considering other issues have taken national stage, I think this investigation will ultimately fall into the shadows for the time being. Also, good point you made on every US president being involved in some sort of scandal. When you’re in such a prominent position, I guess it’s bound to happen some way or another (it’s basically a requirement now).
Cameron, informing blog post. I do not really keep up with politics or political news, so it is always good to get caught up on some information. I honestly do not have many opinions about Biden particularly and this instance or “offense.” I think that is media scandals gain enough traction and attract enough heat, they can seriously harm an individual’s reputation, regardless of the content of the scandal. In Biden’s case, I think this issue/scandal will slowly start to fade away.
This was a really helpful post, especially since this is a relevant topic that I know nothing about! I like how you included past examples in order to contextualize your issue. I also like how you went into details that a strictly factual news article may not include, such as the mental health aspect of this discussion. In my opinion, I feel like I’ve come to expect presidential scandals, as, like how you discussed, they have increased in frequency in recent decades. Because of this, I was not surprised to learned about Biden’s classified documents scandal.
I’m not going to lie, my faith in the American government is little to none. It doesn’t surprise me about Biden having classified documents from years past any more than it does that Trump was impeached or inspired the insurrection. I would be even less surprised to learn that other high ranking government officials also had confidential information stored away to be uncovered by the FBI in the coming months and years. This topic is wildly fascinating and I hope you look more into it!
I don’t think this issue necessarily changes anything because there are more pressing issues that affect the American people on a daily basis, but it shows how almost every official abuses their power in some way. The only reason it will become a defining part of his legacy is because scandals are a defining part of all president’s legacies. While it may blow over because of what dominates the news cycle, it definitely is an accountability issue that needs to be rectified.
That’s really interesting how almost every president in recent memory has had some sort of scandal associated with them. It makes me wonder though, have any of these scandals/security issues ever led to anything bad happening? For instance, even though the documents found in Bidens residence were classified, do they actually pose a significant risk or are they relatively benign? I suppose without them being released we wont ever know for sure, but it sure is interesting to ponder.