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Today in Focus

Biden, Trump and the classified documents

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.5778 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The discovery of batches of classified documents on Joe Biden’s property presents a headache for the president – but his case is quite different from that of Donald Trump, reports David Smith in Washington. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is The Guardian.

0:10.8

Today, yet another scandal involving a president and classified documents.

0:15.6

Why Joe Biden's case is not quite the same as Donald Trump's?

0:30.8

Of all the challenges in American president faces, wars, pandemics, recessions,

0:36.1

one that gets less attention but keeps rearing its head is paperwork.

0:40.9

Last November, a Joe Biden's think tank in Washington, DC,

0:45.6

aides to the US president were packing up and they found something that should not have been there.

0:50.4

In a lot of closets, they discovered what has been described as, quote,

0:55.3

a small number of documents with classified markings.

0:58.2

And some breaking news. CBS News has learned that classified documents belonging to President Biden

1:05.2

from his time as Vice President were discovered at the Penn-Biden Center, a policy resource.

1:10.4

This only became public for media reports in early January and the White House had to acknowledge

1:16.4

that these documents were found and as you can imagine that triggered an immediate outcry.

1:21.3

Where's the FBI? There should be battering rams knocking down his door.

1:25.5

Strange, bizarre, crazy news week. A lot of hypocrisy on display.

1:30.1

It's in a time for them to go when guns are blazing into the house and find out what Joe Biden's got.

1:37.1

A lot of unanswered questions over how the documents got there, exactly how many of them there are,

1:43.0

what might be in these documents at a press conference in Mexico City where Biden was having a

1:48.4

meeting with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. He claimed to be innocent.

1:53.0

People know I take classified documents to class over information seriously.

2:02.4

It's a good old fashioned presidential scandal that doesn't leave you

2:06.0

despairing for the state of democracy. But it could be good news for someone who does.

...

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