White House aides have reportedly admitted President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal will impact his expected 2024 campaign launch.
Whether Biden’s mishandling of classified materials will permanently derail his reelection announcement or not is unclear amid media speculation. But according to CNN’s and , Biden’s aides have acknowledged the scandal “will present a challenge… in anticipation of an expected announcement that he is seeking reelection” as early as February.
“Behind the scenes, sources said Biden’s grown frustrated at how the saga has played out, particularly the way his administration’s handling of the story has overtaken what had been a positive stretch,” CNN reported. “People close to the White House say there is currently a mood of quiet resignation among Biden aides — an ‘It is what it is’ mentality — as they, too, wait to learn if news of more misplaced classified documents will surface in the coming days.”
A Democrat strategist of presidential campaigns told Fox News the newly appointed special counsel is bad news for the White House. “It’s never good when there’s a special prosecutor appointed. It’s definitely not a place I’d want to be in as we try to put the pieces together of a re-election campaign,” the person said.
On Wednesday and Thursday, classified documents were unearthed by Biden’s attorneys at his residence in Wilmington. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, has raised questions about why Biden’s personal attorneys were looking for documents at the residence after a special counsel was appointed. The White House has remained silent on the issue.
David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama’s former political adviser, told Reuters that Biden’s “GarageGate” is a gift to former President Donald Trump, who has already announced a 2024 campaign.
“It basically … is a huge gift to Trump,” said Axelrod, who conceded the scandal was an “embarrassment” because Biden had criticized Trump for storing documents at Mar-a-Lago, which Trump said were declassified.
“He’s been on a huge run here. And he had a lot of momentum going, and this is a bump in the road,” Axelrod said. “My guess is when this thing shakes out that it’s going to be less than it appears today, but right now it’s a huge pain.”
On Monday, after Republicans demanded transparency, the White House and Secret Service claimed no visitor logs exist from President Joe Biden’s Delaware residence. “We don’t independently maintain our own visitor logs because it’s a private residence,” Secret Service Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, told the Guardian the House investigations into the White House’s coverup could foil Biden’s immediate reelection launch plans.
“This will be a burden to Biden in the short-run – he’s yoked by the constitution to a dysfunctional governing partner,” he said, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Boston Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld speculated the scandal could force Democrats to find a 2024 alternative to both Biden and Harris.
“With Joe Biden seriously crippled from the special counsel investigation into taken classified documents, Democrats will be scrambling to find alternatives to the current president and vice president,” he said.
Biden has stated his “intention” to run again, though no timeline has been set for an announcement.
Biden is 80 years old — the oldest president in U.S. history.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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