Democrat senator calls Biden lack of cooperation on classified documents 'outrageous'

March 31, 2023

Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said Wednesday that the lack of cooperation by the Biden administration about classified documents found at both Biden's residences and Mar-A-Lago is "outrageous."

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell asked, “Have you had access to the substance of the classified documents either from Mar-a-Lago, from Biden, from Pence, any of that?”

Warner said, “This is where the Biden administration gets an absolute failing grade. Their position is outrageous. You got Mike Pence saying yesterday as well. He would be happy to have the intelligence committee. He trusts us to look at those documents."

He continued:

You have this back and forth between the Justice Department, the attorney general publicly saying yesterday, he has no problem. That was what he said in one committee, then blaming it back on the director of National Intelligence. The Director of National Intelligence blaming it on the Justice Department.

Warner said the committee wasn't even dealing with whether the documents were mishandled, they just want to see the documents and determine whether any security risk was posed.

"That is a Justice Department-appropriate role," he said about any determination of mishandling. "We have a constitutional responsibility to see those documents, the classified ones, make a judgment, whether the intelligence community did appropriate protection and if those documents were to fall into the wrong hands, what kind of mitigation we could take. I am done with the lack of willingness for the administration to address this. Their position does not pass the smell test.”