False Equivalency

Stunning hypocrisy by FOX et al even by their pitiful standards, all the screaming about Biden docs while giving Trump a pass.

I’m fine with them going nuts on Biden but at least acknowledge Trump shouldn’t have taken 300 classified docs, including 25 top secret, and for 18 months refused to return them all.

Where’s the Biden raid, they holler. Sure, if they can prove probable cause there are more Biden docs they can get a judge to issue a search warrant. They had probable cause Trump lawyers lied there were no more documents, and they were right.

Plus, a judge ordered search based on probable cause evidence is not a “raid”. So sick of loose use of that word.

And please spare me this declassification canard. Despite several courts asking for it not a single Trump lawyer has ever dared to try proving or even asserting he declassified anything.

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

29 thoughts on “False Equivalency”

  1. PBS Newshour‘s Jonathon and David’s take:

    Geoff Bennett:
    So, Jonathan, let’s start with this news this past week.
    Democrats found themselves in a real tough spot in trying to handle the revelations that President Biden mishandled classified documents. The latest reporting is that they’re roughly 20 documents found across his private home in Delaware and a private office here in Washington, some marked top secret.
    He is now facing, arguably, the worst political crisis of his presidency.
    Jonathan Capehart:
    Worst political crisis.
    Can we just put this into perspective, especially — I mean, we’re talking about this as the worst political crisis because of his predecessor, former President Trump, and his classified documents problem, hundreds of classified documents at the highest classified markings. And we’re talking about 20 documents, classified documents, from when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States.
    This is apples and basketballs. I mean, these two — those two objects are spherical in nature, and that’s all they have in common. And I think we need to — I know politics doesn’t do nuance. And most people don’t do nuance. But we have to do nuance in this case. This happens more frequently than we realize, or we even want to appreciate.
    Plenty of national security lawyers and experts have gone on the record to say that this happens more often than not. The other thing — and the biggest difference here and why I downplayed this notion that this is a big political crisis for the president — and that is, the sitting president, his people found the documents, brought them — alerted the Archives. The Archives alerted the Justice Department.
    They then go and do another search and bring forth more — more documents. They have been — they have been cooperating. They have been transparent, whereas, when we talk about the former president, the reason why we even know that there were all those documents there was because he kept defying the National Archives’ requests to return the documents, and the DOJ, because Archives has been — had been in touch with the Archives, conducted a search.
    People call it a raid. I keep my feet on the ground. It was a search. But the FBI just doesn’t show up in search someone’s home without cause. That is not what happened here. The former president stands accused of basically obstruction of justice. That is not what’s happening here with President Biden.
    Geoff Bennett:
    David, understanding the key differences, both in terms of how these documents came to light, the volume, and the point that Jonathan makes, the responses, the different — very different responses of both men, what do you see as the political fallout?
    Because this is a huge opening for House Republicans, who are feverishly focused on investigations right now.
    David Brooks:
    Yes, I guess I would say, not as bad as Trump is not the moral standard our Sunday schoolteachers dream for us.
    (LAUGHTER)
    Jonathan Capehart:
    And yet here we are.
    (LAUGHTER)
    David Brooks:
    So, but it’s — it’s not as bad as Trump. It’s not in the same ballpark .I wouldn’t go apples to — but I would — apples or grapes and something.
    But it’s bad. People who have had clearances say that it’s very clear. If you have classified documents, you go in a separate room. You have an entirely different computer system. They make it very clear where you can’t take them, which is out.
    And so a lot of people get their careers ruined when they are sloppy with this stuff. And so what Joe Biden or somebody in Joe Biden’s office did, we don’t know, was sloppy and pretty irresponsible. And so we know some of the documents had to be moved at least twice, because the office where they were found in D.C. was not open when he left the vice presidency.
    So they were moved around in a way they just shouldn’t have been. And so should we prosecute it? We don’t know, but I can’t imagine. The standard for Hillary Clinton was, unless you behave in a way that seems unpatriotic and malicious, we’re not going to prosecute. That was sort of the Hillary Clinton standard.
    But it should bother us that we now have three top government officials, Clinton, Trump and Biden, who seem to have done this. And that’s just not how government is supposed to work.
    [continues]

  3. Seth takes a closer look at Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing a special counsel to look into the classified documents that were found at Biden’s home and office from his time as vice president.

  4. quotes from the guardian‘s report what tv comics had to say:

    “Well, fuck,” said the Late Night host. “Obviously it’s not great for Biden that there’s a special counsel looking into the storage of classified documents from his time as vice-president. Although there are huge differences between this and Trump’s case.”
    For one, Biden’s team found a small number of documents in two locations, including the garage where his Corvette is parked in Delaware, which his team immediately returned.
    “I guess if you’re going to store classified documents somewhere, you might as well do it next to your kickass Corvette, you know?” Meyers mused. “So that when you eventually find them, you can brag that you have a Corvette.”
    […]
    “I know you’re retirement age, are you starting a collection? They’re classified documents not spoons from the Delaware train museum. Find another fun thing!”
    Biden’s team has been cooperative, Colbert noted, and lawyers say it happens all the time. “Counterpoint: maybe it shouldn’t,” he added. “Maybe, and I don’t know if we have the technology, but maybe when you check out a document, there’s some kind of card that gets stamped, and then if you don’t return the document on time, there’s an overdue document fee that you have to pay, or you’re not allowed to check out the next exciting volume of Nancy Drew and the Status of Iran’s Nuclear Program.”
    […]
    And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel also touched on Biden’s classified documents issue. “There are significant differences between this situation with Biden and the 15 boxes of documents Tanny Soprano left laying around his golf club and refused to give back,” he explained. “It’s definitely embarrassing to Joe Biden, and the gang at Fox News wasted no time rubbing it in.”
    But he had to wonder: “Which is more dangerous, Joe Biden having classified documents in his garage, or Joe Biden having the keys to a Corvette?”

  6. There is one more detail that is obviously not being talked about by the media.  The Biden property has a full blown SCIF, super duper double secret hole that was active while he was VEEP and is active now.  The big question continues to be how were the ten or twenty (quantity unknown to the public so far) documents not be in the SCIF.  Just for trivia answers, SCIFS are basically a room or set of rooms, or even a building, carefully shielded to prevent viewing or listening to or electronically (word used loosely as there are non-electronic tools too).  They are also rated highest level of classification to be in them.  You do not do Top Secret (TS) in a SCIF rated for Secret (S).  Also, there are other classifications which are not the DoD types (TS, S, C).  SCIF are also called “Vaults”.  Oh the laughs we have about living in vaults.  The funny ones are so good I cannot talk about those.  So there you go, a short briefing about SCIF’s.

  7. There being a special prosecuter and an investigation probably
    means the little Gym Jordan Inquisition committee is stymied somewhat in their quest to harass Biden.  “Nope, sorry–investigation don’tcha know”.

  8. “obviously not being talked about by the media”

    BB, why?
    is this rather important bit of info left out because of limitations to media imposed by gov’t or self-imposed or because an omission makes for sexier stories?

  9. excerpt from yesterday’s

    Joe Biden’s Delaware home is now a player in document drama – CW Atlanta (cbsnews.com)

    The White House confirmed Thursday that classified records were found in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home, as well as an adjacent room that the president later identified as his personal library. The disclosure came three days after the White House said similarly classified materials were located at Biden’s former institute in Washington. The discoveries, taken together, prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to tap a special counsel to oversee the matter.
    […]
    So far in his presidency, Biden has spent part or all of 194 days in his home state of Delaware, spending most weekends in either at his Wilmington home or in Rehoboth Beach, where he owns a $2.7 million home, according to an Associated Press tally. He will head to Wilmington again this weekend.
    Despite an onslaught of criticism, particularly from Republicans, for regularly escaping to the state, White House officials say the time spent in Wilmington is important for a president who traveled home nightly during the 36 years he served as senator. Biden also can stand up presidential operations at home, where he regularly meets with advisers, and an aide from the National Security Council travels with the president during Wilmington weekends.
    “Every president can work from anywhere they are, because that is how presidencies are equipped,” former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in February 2022, as Russia began invading Ukraine and Biden was preparing for another weekend in Wilmington. She confirmed that Biden can make secure calls from “anywhere he is, yes.”

  10. I just got back from a mini vacation to southern Florida. 3 days on the beach at Hollywood Florida. I stayed in one of the old hotels, probably older than I am, and stayed away from the big high rise, Margaritaville resort. My hotel did provide a beach chair and towel for those of us who wanted to get some sun time. I took the chair and headed to the beach. It was one of those sawed off, short folding chairs, About a foot off the ground. LOL, there was no way I was going to get down into that chair and if by chance I were to fall into it, I would have wallowed around on the ground for 15 minutes trying to get up. So scratch that and go set on the wall, read my book and people watch.
    Ya know….. 99% of the men and probably 95% of the women should have kept their shirts on. Just sayin’. I know what my belly looks like so I kept the shirt on. 
    Jack

  11. I did learn an important lesson, don’t eat raw seafood 2 hours before you plan to travel. Let me say this about the Southwest airline cabin attendants. They were helpful, friendly and very happy that my projectile vomiting was mostly directed into the toilet stool and what wasn’t, was contained in the toilet. I was very happy that I paid for the upgrade that got me in an aisle seat closer to the front. If I had been 2 steps back or 2 seconds slower, I wouldn’t have made it. The young lady managing the galley told me not everybody did and pointed out their trash can, that could be used as an alternative to the toilet.
    As I said they were very polite, helpful and sympathetic.  One of the young ladies brought me a cup of warm ginger ale to try because “ginger was good for the stomach” I was a little leery of putting anything in my stomach, but I sipped on it and it did seem to help.
    As I was leaving the plane, I thanked her for the ginger ale, told her it helped. Then smiled and said It looks like Grandma was right, she grinned back and said, “Grandma is always right”
    So with big smiles the other flight attendant and I gave each other a big thumbs up as I walked out of the plane,
    Jack

  12. A couple of other points on the Biden documents – He was VP not President.  He did not direct the packing of his office.  None of the classified documents found were Top Secret.  As far as we know at this point, he has not accessed any of those stored boxes prior to the opening and discovery reporting with notification to the Archives.

     

  13. More trivia about clearances.  You get a clearance to match what you are allowed to know.  For some years I had a TS investigation but only given an S because that was the level of material I needed to know.  You also only have a clearance for what you need to know, if you have an S you do not get to see or know all the Secret level material, just what you are to work with.  The President essentially does not have a clearance because that office/person is the originator of all classified material.
     
    One of the most difficult things to do is to avoid seeing or hearing about classified material outside of your access.  During the Wikileaks time there was tons of stuff being tossed around on the media.  I stopped watching television news even more than I had already cut back.  Newspapers, front section would be unread. 
    We would joke about it, but the truth is the last thing you want to do is be brought into classified material unintentionally.  I been there and it is not fun knowing more.  Just say that when you end up with a newly created level, only for you and one other person, your life does not get better.

  14. How do Republicans go after Biden without also smacking down tRUMPsky?  Could this be the thing that actually gets Orange Adolf? And, is getting rid of SFB actually OK with most of them?  

  17. …they’ll say whatever they have to say, they’ll kneel before whomever they have to kneel, they’ll feign whatever outrage they feel they must, or not, as long as they keep that office

  19. As long as Joe continues to be honest and cooperative, things should be fine… The Insurrectionists will continue to lie and distort… 

  20. …hold it long enough and then they might not need it, anymore.  Then they get honest:
     
     
    ”Retiring Senator Issues Harsh Words, Warnings to Colleagues in Fiery Final Remarks to Floor”
     
    ..gee, thanks 😒

  21. Santos picked all the right lies, he just lied about all the wrong things
     
    Rookies 🙄
     
    ✌️🤷‍♂️🇺🇸

  22. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/13/texas-prison-hunger-strike-solitary/

    “It’s been more than three days since Texas prisoners across the state began a hunger strike to protest indefinite solitary confinement, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has confirmed at least 72 people are still starving themselves.”

    “Thousands of prisoners are kept in solitary confinement in Texas. In November, more than 500 prisoners had been in isolation for more than a decade.”

    A decade!

    “Months before the strike, the starving men sent a proposal to prison officials and state lawmakers to change Texas’ practice of putting — and keeping — prisoners in solitary because they are affiliated with a gang, even if they have had good behavior behind bars. The proposal asked the prison system to shift from a “gang-status” solitary placement to “behavior-based,” and provide clear guidelines and firm timelines on how and when people in solitary would get out.”

    “Prison gangs, often organized by race, are extremely dangerous and cause much of the violence behind bars, according to Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Still, she said the prisoners’ demands are reasonable, especially as solitary confinement beyond 15 days is considered torture by international human rights standards.”

  26. And then there’s THIS jerkoff 
    What an ass wipe  
     
    DeSantis on Jim Crow: “The black kids had their schools, and the white kids had their schools. Everything was fine until the radical, leftist, socialists started the civil rights movement.

  28. Ok but he’s still a buttwipe. 

    And if he didn’t say it I’ll bet a dollar to an acorn he THINKS it.
    And: After all the lies they tell about me and mine–.screw ‘im.

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