The persistent updates regarding classified documents found throughout President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware in recent weeks have fueled an ongoing scandal that first erupted when government secrets were discovered at his former office in D.C.
Although many on the left have attempted to portray the controversy as somehow not as serious as a stash of classified documents found in one location of former President Donald Trump’s residence in Florida, the American people are apparently not convinced.
🚨Joe Biden CAUGHT funneling THOUSANDS of boxes of documents— CLASSIFIED?!
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 30, 2023
A recent survey found that more than half of Democrats are worried about the situation involving Biden and about two-thirds of respondents overall say his handling of classified documents is “concerning.” That is about the same percentage that expressed similar concerns about Trump.
While partisan pundits and many in the mainstream media continue to circle the wagons around the president, a few notable figures on the left have been willing to unequivocally denounce his apparently lax approach to handling such sensitive information.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who served during the Obama administration, did not give Biden a pass during an NBC interview with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday.
“I think it’s about people being more responsible,” he told Todd when asked how he would respond to the overlapping scandals. “I think there’s an element of carelessness. In some cases, there may be intent to take the documents. I think maybe we ought to take a look at the way transitions take place so that there’s a more orderly process for these classified documents.”
As for his experience in the federal government, Gates referenced the Defense Department’s rigid rule that no classified documents ever leave the Pentagon.
Of course, this was not the first time that the Obama-era Cabinet secretary expressed disapproval of Biden’s actions. During the same interview, he criticized the current administration’s response to Ukraine.
“A lot of this could’ve been done sooner,” Gates said of Biden’s recent commitment to send U.S. tanks to Ukraine as that nation fends off a Russian invasion. “And, you know, they’re talking about it potentially being six months, a year, or more before the Abrams tanks get there. I think the key thing about the Abrams tank decision was that it unlocked Germans being able to provide.”
Years before the 2020 election, he shared his opinion that Biden had been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
In the wake of a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan during Biden’s first year in office, Gates made it clear that he believed the mission had been handled poorly.
