Manchin: Biden handling of classified documents ‘totally irresponsible’

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday called President Biden’s handling of classified documents “totally irresponsible” amid recent discoveries of materials from Biden’s time as vice president and as a senator in an old office and at his Delaware home.

“It’s unbelievable how this could happen. It’s totally irresponsible,” Manchin said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

After Biden’s team turned over a handful of documents with classified markings found at the president’s former office at a think tank in Washington, D.C., subsequent searches found more materials at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Del.

Department of Justice officials discovered six more such documents during what Biden’s attorneys called a “consensual” search of his home on Friday.

The president has come under scrutiny for the document discoveries, with many looking at the matter in light of an FBI search over the summer that found hundreds of classified documents at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

Manchin on Sunday also lauded Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of a special counsel to look into the Biden document discovery and argued against trying the matter in a “political kangaroo court.” Garland has also appointed a special counsel in Trump’s case.

“Let’s wait and see. Some people are taking sides. ‘OK, it was more egregious than what President Trump did or what President Biden did.’ And maybe that’s true. I don’t know. Maybe it’s not true. Let’s find out,” Manchin said.

“I’m willing to find out from the people that are looking at it, finding all these different documents and looking at the classifications and if it’s harmful, could have been harmful or was it harmful, and make determinations.”

The West Virginia senator, who made headlines for holding up some of Biden’s legislative priorities in the last Congress, said whether this issue affects Biden’s reelection plans is a “personal decision” for the president to make.

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