The discovery of a new trove of classified documents in President Biden’s Delaware home has brought renewed focus to the White House’s refusal to release visitor logs from his private residences.
The White House Counsel’s Office searched Biden’s two residences in Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington, Delaware, this week after a collection of Obama-era classified documents was discovered at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, D.C.
White House lawyers said Thursday they immediately contacted the Department of Justice when they discovered a second batch of classified documents housed in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home.
Bided answered a question Thursday from Fox News reporter Peter Doocy by claiming the classified documents were in a locked garage with his Corvette.
President Biden responds to reporters questions after speaking about the economy in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
HUNTER BIDEN, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: MYSTERY SWIRLS AROUND PENN BIDEN CENTER
“Mr. President, classified material next to your Corvette – what were you thinking?” Doocy asked.
“By the way, my Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK?” the president fired back. “So it’s not like they’re sitting out in the street.”
The revelations brought into focus the Biden White House’s past refusal to produce visitor logs from the president’s Delaware homes.
Joe Biden recalls memories of his father and son, Beau, in the front seat of his vintage Corvette Stingray.
(Joe Biden 2020)
Joe Biden backs his Corvette into a garage in a campaign video released Aug. 5, 2020.
(Joe Biden for President)
The Biden administration has released visitor logs to the White House, but has kept secret the identities of those who have visited Biden in Delaware, where the president has traveled over 50 times since taking office.
Fox News Digital asked the White House in October 2021 if it has records of who met with the president at his Delaware homes. If no such records exist, Fox News Digital asked, why is the White House not keeping track of who is meeting the president?
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Former U.S Vice president Joe Biden speaks at the University of Pennsylvania’s Irvine Auditorium February 19, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The White House dodged the questions at the time, instead taking aim at the Trump administration over the handling of their White House visitor’s logs.
“President Biden is proud to lead the most transparent administration in American history, and to have restored the practice of releasing visitors logs after it was discontinued by his predecessor,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said at the time.
“We also respect that it’s always the role of evenhanded news outlets to advocate for more transparency,” he continued. “Are you able to show me the articles Fox ran asking the Trump Administration for visitors to the White House, and for his private properties?”
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The Trump administration drew harsh criticism over its approach to visitor’s logs, which White Houses traditionally have made public.
The Trump administration kept the former president’s White House visitors logs under lock and key, arguing that executive privilege allowed them to do so and breaking precedent.
Fox News Digital’s Houston Keene and Stephen Sorace contributed reporting.