President Biden on ‘60 Minutes’.Photo: Eric Kerchner/60 Minutes
PresidentJoe Bidenhas broken his silence about the investigation intoDonald Trump’s handling of classified documents.
In an interview with60 Minutes' Scott Pelley on Sunday evening, Bidenreiterated the White House’s previous claimsthat he is never briefed about updates in the investigation, and has learned new details of the case at the same time as the American people.
“I have not asked for the specifics of those documents,” he told Pelley, “because I don’t want to get myself in the middle of whether or not the Justice Department should move or not move on certain actions they could take.”
Biden continued: “I agreed I would not tell them what to do and not in fact engage in telling them how to prosecute or not.”
Biden’s stance that it is not his place to get involved with Justice Department investigations is decidedly different from his predecessor’s, who at times seemed to treat the DOJas an extension of the executive branch. (Under oath before a House committee in June, three DOJ officials testified about the daily pressure Trump allegedly put on them after the 2020 presidential election to investigate voter fraud. According to testimony, when it became clear the DOJ could not find any evidence of fraud in the election, Trump directed them to “just say it was corrupt.")
JOSE ROMERO/US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE/AFP via Getty Images
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During Biden’s sit-down with60 Minutes, Pelley asked the president how he reacted when he saw the publicized image of several classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Biden said he was left wondering “how that could possibly happen” and “how anyone could be that irresponsible.”
“I thought, ‘What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?'” Biden said. “It’s just totally irresponsible.”
In other parts of Biden’s conversation on60 Minutes, he discussed inflation, theCOVID-19 pandemic, violent foreign governments, his plans for 2024, and whether criticisms of his age and mental fitness are fair.
source: people.com
