OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
CNN’s senior reporter Daniel Dale conducted a fact check of President Biden’s defense regarding the mishandling of classified documents, pointing out several discrepancies in Biden’s statements.
Dale highlighted that photos from the Special Counsel report contradicted Biden’s claim about storing documents in locked or lockable filing cabinets, and he refuted Biden’s assertion that none of the documents were highly classified.
CNN’s John Berman said, “While one thing that President Biden said is basically that he stored the documents in filing cabinets that could be locked. Let’s listen.”
Biden said in the clip, “All the stuff that was in my home was in filing cabinets that were either locked or able to be locked.”
Dale said, “Just not true.”
“John, this report from the Special Counsel includes photos. Those photos include shots of a box just sitting in President Biden’s Delaware garage. The special counsel described it as a badly damaged box sitting amid household detritus. So there was some material that was in cabinets, locked or lockable as the president said, but all of it’s certainly not in that open unsealed damage box included, according to the special counsel, highly sensitive top secret material about the war in Afghanistan,” explained the CNN analyst.
Berman said, “Okay, another claim that President Biden made. None of the documents were highly classified. Let’s listen.”
Biden says, “None of it was high classified, didn’t have any of that red stuff on it, you know what I mean, around the corners, none of that,” in the next clip.
Dale explained, “That claim that he didn’t have any material that was high classified is also not true.”
“John, this special counsel’s report says that the president possessed multiple highly classified documents that were indeed marked as being highly classified documents, including some marked as Top Secret/SCI — sensitive compartmented information. That is a very high level of classification,” continued Dale.
He continued, “For example, Special Counsel Hur discussed two Top Secret documents about Afghanistan found in that open unsealed damage box in the garage, one of which Hur said contains highly sensitive info about military programs and another that contains info about sensitive intelligence and sources and methods.”
“Now it’s not clear, John, if any of those Biden documents had those colored borders we saw on classified docs that former President Trump had, which I think is what President Biden was referring to when he talked about red around the corners,” added Dale.
“But still, whatever coloring these documents had, the special counsel says they were clearly marked as highly classified.”
Dale emphasized that the Special Counsel explicitly stated that Biden shared classified information with a ghostwriter, despite Biden’s denial.
Biden said in the clip, “I did not share classified information. I did not share with your ghostwriter. With my ghostwriter. Did not guarantee you did not. Counsel said he did not say that. He did not say that.”
“So he’s entitled to say he didn’t do it,” charged Dale.
“He can defend himself. But he also said the special counsel didn’t say that he did share that classified info with the ghostwriter. Except, John, the special counsel did say that explicitly. Hur wrote Mr. Biden shared information including some classified information from those notebooks with his ghostwriter. So there it is in black and white,” explained the analyst.
Dale concluded, “So he could cite the factual stuff Hur said, didn’t know it was intentional, et cetera, but declaring the special counsel just did not say what he said… is not a factual defense.”
Dale’s fact check dismantled Biden’s defense, indicating significant inconsistencies in the president’s statements.
President Joe Biden has been defended vigorously by major corporate news networks throughout his presidency.
But following the release of a damaging Special Counsel report on his classified documents scandal, CNN aired a brutal “fact check” of Biden’s defense for his illegal mishandling and dissemination of top secret information.
CNN’s senior reporter Daniel Dale, acting in the capacity of a “fact checker,” dismantled Biden’s defense point-by-point in a devastating takedown.
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