During an MSNBC interview over the weekend, far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said that investigations into Democrat President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal are just a “political game.”
Omar made the comments after claiming that Republicans defended former President Donald Trump after he “literally stole classified documents.”
Omar claimed that Trump “refused to turn them over, lied about having them, made up some story about how he declassified them, [and] had to have his house raided in order for those documents to be found.”
Omar then claimed that those same Republicans “are now only interested in investigating Biden, who has cooperated, whose own staff and former staff have themselves turned these documents in.”
“You have to understand, Republicans aren’t really interested in upholding the law, in following security protocols,” she continued. “What they’re interested in is playing a political game in now only wanting to investigate Biden.”
Omar added that she was “glad that there is a special prosecutor that’s been appointed to investigate this… because any time there is a deviance in regard to security protocols, that should be taken serious, it should be investigated.”
Lawyers for Biden found the first set of about 10 classified documents from the Obama-Biden administration in a locked closet in offices of the Biden Penn Center in Washington, an office Biden began working at occasionally in 2017 after his vice presidency ended, on November 2 – just days before the midterm elections.
On December 20, Biden’s lawyers found additional classified documents in the president’s garage and his private library during an inspection of his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The discovery of the classified documents was not revealed to the public until CBS News released a report on November’s discovery of classified documents on January 9 – more than two months later. The White House then confirmed the report, but didn’t mention the additional classified documents found in December.
On January 9, CBS News was the first to report on November’s discovery of classified documents, bringing the case to public attention. The White House then publicly confirmed the inquiry, saying that the administration was cooperating with the DOJ and NARA, but didn’t mention the additional classified documents found in December.
On January 11, Biden’s lawyers discovered another classified document at his Delaware home, and informed the Department of Justice the next day. This was in addition to the set of classified documents discoverd in December.
On January 12, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that a special council had been assigned to investigate the incident, and revealed the discovery of the batch of classified documents in December.
Later that day, Biden’s team discovered an additional five classified documents during another search of Biden’s private library of his Delaware home. The White House announced this discovery on January 14.
White House lawyer Richard Sauber announced the discovery of the additional five classified documents in a statement.
“While I was transferring it to the DOJ officials who accompanied me, five additional pages with classification markings were discovered among the material with it, for a total of six pages,” Sauber said. “The DOJ officials with me immediately took possession of them.”
Notably, Sauber has previously said that the White House was “confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”
As noted by the Associated Press, “Sauber’s statement did not explain why the White House waited two days to provide an updated accounting of the number of classified records. The White House is already facing scrutiny for waiting more than two months to acknowledge the discovery of the initial group of documents at the Biden office.”