Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice earlier today in Washington, as John Lausch, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, looks on.
The main difference between the Biden and Trump document discoveries, of course, is that the Biden documents were discovered and reported to the Justice Department by Biden’s own lawyers, while the Trump documents were requested by the National Archives, and after Trump’s refusal to produce them, found by the FBI over the objections of Trump and his lawyers.
That’s obviously a huge difference, but how much of a difference that will make in the politics of the next six months—or, alas, longer—remains to be seen.
The Biden discoveries come at the very moment that House Republicans are gearing up for their public inquisitions of Hunter Biden and whoever and whatever else they think can enable them to make hay. One potential saving grace is that if they decide to request or even subpoena testimony from Biden for his unknowing possession of these documents, they’ll be obliged by public opinion to do the same for Trump, whose possession may not have been quite so unknowing. Regardless, the Biden document “scandal” will likely top Fox News for many months—and if Biden chooses to run for re-election, as he has reportedly decided to do, perhaps every night between now and Election Day 2024.
The question isn’t whether it will further enrage the Republican enragees—and, lest there be any doubt, you really can’t be a Republican today unless you’re an enragee—but whether swing voters will downgrade their already dubious assessment of the current president. Even if they don’t believe there was anything nefarious in Biden’s unknowing possession of these documents, it may confirm their perception of Biden as an aged duffer who isn’t in control of things he should be in control of. Count on the smarter Republicans to make that argument, too, since it would help them even if swing voters don’t believe, as the MAGA base does, that Biden’s document possession was part of a satanic plot. Democrats will have to work very hard to lift whatever veil of suspicion hangs over Biden’s intentions and his capabilities.
In sum, the odds on Biden’s re-election have just gotten a little steeper, which may cause Democrats who’ve decided not to seek the presidency in 2024—that’s pretty much everyone but Biden—to hold open the possibility of running in the unlikely event that Biden decides not to give it a go. Since today’s news is unlikely to deter him, however, this means that there’s yet another hill he’ll have to climb to continue his White House tenure.
So: Not good news.
