'No regrets': Biden on classified documents

STORY: “No regrets” -- that’s what U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday about his handling of classified documents found at his home and former office.

"We immediately turned them over to the archives at the Justice Department. We're fully cooperating, looking forward to getting this resolved quickly. I think you're going to find there's nothing there. I have no regrets."

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week named a special counsel to investigate the matter, after the classified material was found at Biden's Delaware home and a Washington, D.C., office he used before becoming president.

The White House has largely been on the defensive since the initial revelations on Jan. 9 that the documents had been discovered.

Biden was responding to media questions during a trip to inspect the storm damage in California.

He sounded a note of annoyance that reporters were focusing on the document controversy instead.

“What quite frankly bugs me is that we have a serious problem here we’re talking about, talking about what’s going on. And the American people don’t quite understand why you don’t ask me questions about that.”

On his trip, Biden toured parts of the state worst hit by three weeks of deadly storms known as atmospheric rivers, which unleashed flooding and mudslides on a region long plagued by drought and wildfires.

At Seacliff State Beach along the Santa Cruz coastline, he stressed the concerns of the role global heating played in worsening extreme weather events.

"If anybody doubts that the climate is changing, then they must have been asleep during the last couple of years.”