The way the White House has informed the public about the discovery of documents with classified markings at President Biden's former office and his home in Delaware has angered West Wing staffers, officials from across the Biden administration, and Democratic Party officials more broadly, according to CBS News.
Those who spoke with CBS News on the condition of anonymity in order to speak openly about the matter and preserve their professional relationships feel that the president's cherished promises of transparency and competent management of the government were undermined by the decision not to announce the discovery of the documents sooner.
They also worry that the White House's ability to confirm even the most basic details will be greatly constrained now that a special counsel probe is under way.
A Friday statement from a Democrat close to the White House claimed, "They're attempting to put lipstick on a pig." The issue is that they were only given one stick of lipstick and 50 pigs this week.
According to a Northeastern Democratic Party official who is close to the president and his top staff, "There isn't really a comparison to be made between the Biden and Trump document situations. But why on earth didn't they publish the news earlier, perhaps before the holidays? And why didn't they release the entire narrative at once rather than piecemeal with each new document found? Simply said, it was not handled at all well."
Some Democrats in the House are speaking out more about their worries about the situation.
"That wasn't supposed to happen. It requires investigation, which is already being done, "Democratic representative from California Zoe Lofgren stated on MSNBC on Saturday. "As a result, we will have to wait to learn all the specifics, but I have no doubt that we will. Since I haven't spoken to him, I can only assume he is angry about it, but who could be?"
In a broader sense, Rep. Matt Cartwright, a centrist Democrat from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the president is from, said on Fox News that the federal government needs to "review how departing presidents and vice presidents are going about organising the archiving of their documents, both classified and unclassified, because this can't go on."
He continued, "You're talking about people who are all lining up, they're rewriting their resumes, they're sending them out for new jobs, they're not thinking about, you know, business at hand, it seems to me. Whether it's President Trump leaving office or Vice President Biden leaving office.
The president's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, defended the public announcement of the discovery of the materials in a statement released on Saturday "attempted to strike a balance between the necessity of public transparency where appropriate and the standards and restrictions required to maintain the integrity of the investigation. The public publication of information pertaining to the inquiry while it is continuing must be avoided due to these factors."
The White House Counsel's office, which is in charge of defending the president in official affairs, announced in a separate statement that it will direct any future press queries about the specifics of the ongoing investigation and discovery of the papers to the Justice Department.
Many Democrats are especially sensitive to media reports that contrast the materials found at Mr. Biden's former workplace and Delaware estate with the National Archives' protracted efforts to obtain hundreds of classified documents from former President Donald Trump over the course of several months.
According to Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, "comparing Biden's collaboration to Trump's obstruction is like comparing apples with arsenic."
The Democrat-aligned organisation is intended to act as a neutral force in the upcoming onslaught of House Republican oversight investigations, supporting the president and congressional Democrats.
She urged them to say that the president "is cooperating fully" while Trump "repeatedly obstructed efforts to retrieve sensitive documents to the point the Department of Justice had to obtain and execute a search warrant." Herrig sent updated suggested talking points to prominent party activists and frequent television guests on Friday.
The Biden and Trump cases were described by Herrig as, "Interaction vs. Blockade. Stolen vs. misplaced. Subpoena versus voluntary. Instant vs Search Warrant"
Given Mr. Biden's prior criticism of Trump's handling of secret information, another Democrat who advised Mr. Biden's 2020 campaign and has worked in campaign politics in the South and West for decades called the current predicament "hypocritical."
This Democrat, however, claimed that the White House was "sharp" in its reaction to recent positive economic data showing a further decline in inflation and growing Republican calls for cutting federal entitlement programmes in exchange for raising the country's debt ceiling, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned must be done by early June.
This Democrat stated that the president's political standing should improve if he remains committed to boosting the economy. "Do the documents in Trump's home or Biden's garage truly interest the general populace in America? Not in my opinion. They appear to be more concerned with egg carton costs, in my opinion."
