They find more secret documents in Joe Biden’s house and the scandal grows

The president will spend the end of the year holidays Joe Biden He took his entire family to the island paradise of StCroix in the US Virgin Islands. He played golf, rode his bike, went to church, rested and seemed to be gaining momentum to make a crucial decision that he said he would make soon: whether or not to run for re-election in 2024when he could repeat a duel against the republican Donald Trump.

Biden, who at 80 he would be the oldest president in historyit had strengthened, after the legislative elections in November which had been much better than expected, with low inflation and growing popularity.

But, returning from his sunny Caribbean vacation, his prospects were dramatically dimmed in Washington when it was revealed his lawyers had found confidential documents in a Penn Biden Center officean analysis center he had founded in the capital after his stint as Barack Obama’s vice president.

Since then, other documents marked confidential have been found in the garage, next to his old green Corvette, and in a bedroom at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

And, when it was officially said that the request had been “completed”, More secret papers appeared in his house this Saturday, where the president has been confined during the pandemic and spends most weekends.

This was revealed by the presidency’s lawyer, Richard Sauber, who had to explain how new objects had been found in the family residence on Thursday, which were “five additional pages with classification marks”more than previously announced.

As the White House tries to cushion the shock of these revelations, they are undoubtedly unexpectedly complicating Biden’s ambitions, which will soon have to define his political future.

The Justice Department has already appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the case, Robert Hur, who will move forward on the matter, which only began to be officially unveiled little by little as the press began to publish it.

Beyond the judicial problems that Biden could cause, the suspicions due to the lack of transparency on the case and delays in disclosure tarnish its mandate.

Compare with Trump

Republicans are already pointing out that the president did the same thing as Donald Trump, who brought nearly 300 secret documents to his home in Mar a Lago that they were forcibly confiscated by the FBI and that he is a hypocrite.

At the time Biden had been very hard on the tycoon: “How can one be so irresponsible?” He said when asked about the matter, adding that he was worried that there was “information that could compromise the sources and methods”.

The White House says a “mistake” was made and speaks of documents “inadvertently out of place”.

Furthermore, Sauber remarked that Biden’s lawyers acted “immediately and voluntarily” to turn over any documents that were found to the Justice Department and the National Archives, a way to detach himself from the inevitable comparisons with the Trump casewho first denied having the material and then refused to hand it over until the FBI raided his home.

Matthew ConnelliColumbia University professor and author of a book on the history of classified documents, wrote in The New York Times that the official in charge of the matter himself acknowledged that the number of secret documents that are generated every year is immense and that it is no longer possible to count how many there really are.

He explained that “the secret has a power of its own. It allows executive branch officials to classify and then hide not only dangerous information that could threaten national security, but also many things they simply prefer to hide from the public.”

Beyond the scandal with the documents, the start of the year promises to be difficult for the president due to another very delicate issue: the world’s leading economic power could go into default if the Republicans block the increase in the debt, discussion that will generate fierce fighting in the coming months.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday called on Congress to act “in a timely manner” to “increase or suspend” the federal debt limit because failure to do so could cause the country to default.

Under the Constitution, any kind of debt assumption must be authorized by Congress. The United States periodically exceeds this limit and Democrats and Republicans generally agree that they can temporarily increase or suspend it due to the consequences that a refusal would generate.

In 2011, for example, during the Obama presidency, the lack of agreement led the rating agency S&P to downgrade the country’s debt rating from AAA – the highest rating – to AA+ in an unprecedented way.

Today the ceiling is US$ 31.4 trillion and right now the Government is only US$ 78,000 million short of reaching that figure, which -Yellen underlined- has caused her area to start taking emergency accounting measures at starting next Thursday to extend the arrival to the limit, a “patch” that could last until June or a little more.

The political struggle over the debt is expected to be very tough, especially in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by the opposition, itself controlled by a group of radical Republicans trying to impose their agenda. Republicans insist that the only way to get through the cap increase is through spending cuts, something Democrats reject. Congress will be a battlefield.