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Originally Posted by Monahammer
If Biden treated top secret documents incorrectly, he should be punished. There's still a huge if there. I don't see anything wrong with that statement at all.
Trump most certainly mistreated top secret documents. He should also be punished. I personally think that he is most deserving of the punishment codified for the treason he committed.
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This. Best take. Biden should be punished to the full extent of the law (at the time the documents were obtained) just like any other citizen.
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Originally Posted by curves2000
If we go back to the Hillary Clinton email scandal from the election years ago, this is similar, if not way worse because of what we don't actually know about the material and the communication what was in them.
A lot of people don't really understand the background story with regards the Hillary Clinton Blackberry/email scandal and think it's a small thing but it wasn't.
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Okay, I'm curious. Would love to hear your take on an issue that boiled down to a policy violation and an action to cover-up a procedural error by the third party supporting her personal email server. What exactly was so egregious here that it wasn't a small thing, because I see the same or worse every day in local and state government.
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The rules and the laws apply to everybody, not just the little minions like us. Whatever reason, Democrats and Republicans like to think it doesn't and play these games and have (insert political media) feed us with their garbage.
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They clearly don't apply to everybody. Those in more senior and powerful positions routinely get away with transgressions that would get lesser people fired or arrested. There SHOULD be a more consistent application of such rules and laws, but the reality is there is preference given to those who are in positions of power - and this happens at every level of government. I could tell you stories that would straighten your pubes.
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I just think we need real journalism asking real questions about the people who have their power. Not some 60 second clip of some idiot who can't breath properly explain to us why breaking the rules in a less bad scenario is ok cause the other sides idiot was worse.
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Agreed 1000%!!! The role of media used to be to speak truth to power. Now they are a promo tool. They suck up to those in power because if they don't they are refused access. It used to be that if a politician refused access to a journalist that they would get raked over the coals and get booted from office. Now it is viewed as a badge of honor if you can duck the media and refuse access.
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Originally Posted by DoubleK
I think the Americans need to revisit handling and control of classified documents.
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No, curves is right in saying that the rules just need to be applied fairly, equitably, and judiciously. All of these politicians are schooled on how to handle such data, they just need to follow through.
On the Biden issue, we need more information. These people have a number of aides who put information and briefings together for them and then handle the docs after the fact. This could very much be a situation of classified materials being filed after a brief and forgotten about after moving on to a new assignment or workspace. Seen this happen a lot. The issue here, as with all handling of classified materials, will be intent. Trump REMOVED materials with intent and was not doing so related to his duties of office. Biden appears to have had these documents as part of the execution of the duties of his office and has turned them over as soon as they were discovered. Intent will matter here. There is purposeful intent on one individual's part and no intent on the other. Biden may get a slap on the wrist for failure to follow document handling policy but Trump should face criminal charges for actual breaking of the law, and it is all based strictly on intent.