Trump’s stash of classified documents is way worse than Biden’s

The vehemence with which the right – including newly-elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy – have latched onto the “Biden steals classified White House documents” narrative is predictable, ironic… and exhausting. The thing is, no one except the most rabid Fox-watchers actually think Biden’s documents drama and Trump’s are even in the same neighborhood, when it comes to culpability. 

I mean….right? Biden’s removal of classified documents from the White House shouldn’t have happened, but it was a pretty clear case of unfortunate mishandling paired with very unfortunate timing. 

Biden has stated that he had no knowledge of the presence of the documents, and immediately notified the National Archives upon their discovery, handing them over voluntarily. Trump’s situation was…something else. Like, multiple ignored FBI requests, lies, subpoenas, false assurances, all ending with “oh, no, I declassified them all in my head so it’s cool.”  He had nuclear information marked top secret. In his hotel. On purpose!  One was a mistake, and the other was a deliberate – and ongoing – act of malice, done with criminal intent. 

That said, it’s still not a great situation for Biden. McCarthy suggested earlier this week that Congress should launch its own probe into the president, and Representative James Comer, the newly-installed chair of the House Oversight Committee, also indicated that an investigation into Biden is on the way. 

You guys, this was supposed to be it! The Mar-a-lago documents were supposed to be The Thing that finally got Trump indicted. I believed it. But I also believed that Bob Mueller would save us, and look how that turned out. 

The problem with the Biden documents is that they’re a super-valuable – for the right – distraction and take a lot of air out of the tires of the Trump indictment, especially since more documents keep trickling out. This very much appears to be another mistake by the Biden team – let’s hold on announcements until we’ve got it all sorted, my friends – but a mistake is what it is. And yet the right is all over this opportunity to bang the gongs and yell “impeachment,” essentially creating a mirage in which the two events are equivalent. 

Like I said, it’s exhausting. And to me, what all this speaks to is the American people’s fundamental distrust of the entirety of the political machine – on both sides. 

We’re about to enter a presidential race where the most likely candidates will be white men in the sunset of their lives, both of whom are embroiled in scandals that call into question their trustworthiness, and at this point, I think that’s all we want: To finally feel confident that someone – anyone – is telling us the truth.