(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopolous” on Sunday that President Biden was “highly critical” of President Trump’s handling of classified documents, so the news that Biden is being investigated for the same thing just goes to show “if you live in a glass house, do not throw stones.”
ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Bacon to acknowledge that the cases are different.
“I mean they do both involve handling of classified documents, but in President Trump’s case, he essentially defied a subpoena. In this case, it appears at least that President Biden has, you know, voluntarily turned everything over,” Karl said.
“Well, I agree that they are different. In one case you have long-term negotiations where President Trump was not handing over the information, and then you have, on the other hand, classified information that’s been stored for six years, in one area where Chinese nationals have access, another where it’s in a garage. Who knows who had access to that, and the third batch was in the president’s home in Delaware,” Bacon said.
“I would just say they’re both wrong. Granted they’re different. What strikes me, though, is having President Biden be highly critical of President Trump, calling him irresponsible, and it just reminds me of that old adage, if you live in a glass house, do not throw stones, and I think the — President Biden was caught throwing stones,” he said.
Bacon said that he agrees with the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Biden, and he thinks the American people see how Trump was treated, and they want fairness.
“Granted the situations are different, but they’re both about classified information being in areas that’s illegal and the improper handling of highly classified information. So, I think it shows a sense of fairness to have a special counsel for both,” he said.
Karl asked whether there’s some hypocrisy in Republican reaction to Biden’s case. He pointed to Rep. Mike Turner, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
“When the Mar-a-Lago documents were discovered, he said it all sounded like a bookkeeping issue, and now, he’s demanding an immediate review and damage assessments in the case of the Biden documents,” Karl said.
“Well, I think you see hypocrisy on both sides of those who point fingers, and I just — we just got to acknowledge, classified information and I dealt with them for 30 years. I’m a retired general. I worked in the intelligence career field. I flew reconnaissance aircraft,” Bacon said.
“It’s not to be kept in vaults. We call them SCIFs, and having top secret special compartmented information in your garage or your resort or in an area where Chinese nationals have access, it’s all wrong, and we shouldn’t just be point fingers at the other side,” he said.
“So, I think there’s blame to go around to both sides of this, and I think if you’re an honest statesman, you just can’t point fingers to the other guy and deny that there was problems on our side as well,” the congressman said.
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Author: Melanie Arter