The reporter asked Biden if he regretted not announcing earlier that a first installment of classified government documents had been discovered in private rooms in November.
The White House has been criticized for its information policy. It was only announced over the weekend that more documents were discovered at Biden’s private home in the US state of Delaware. Documents had already been found there and in Biden’s private quarters in the capital, Washington. The White House only admitted this after media reports. On Tuesday, the White House defended its hesitant release of information about classified documents. Due to Justice Department investigations, information can only be released on a limited basis, a spokesperson said. It is natural for new information to emerge gradually during an investigation.
The documents date from Biden’s time as vice president under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. The White House has repeatedly emphasized that Biden’s lawyers immediately turned the documents over to the National Archives, which is responsible for safekeeping. Biden-appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland hired a special investigator last week to investigate the incident. Biden traveled to California on Thursday to get a glimpse of the destruction after devastating storms.