Democrats want answers from the White House regarding stashes of classified documents improperly held by President Biden since the Obama administration, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California said.
Porter, speaking with reporters after a town hall event Tuesday, was asked about her role in the House Oversight Committee and the ongoing investigation into Biden’s illicit storage of classified documents at his private residence, inside his garage, and in the office of his think tank.
Rep. Katie Porter speaks to supporters, volunteers and staff at an election night party at the Hilton Orange County Hotel on Nov. 8, 2022, in Costa Mesa, California.
(Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
“So I definitely think that we want to get answers from the White House,” Porter said.
Porter, however, wouldn’t say if she will sign on to a request from Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer for records related to the classified documents.
“I don’t know if that document request – I have not reviewed the line by line of the request that Chairman [James] Comer made – but I definitely think we want answers. Classified documents belong in classified settings, and I think you heard me say oversight is not a partisan thing. Good oversight means you’re willing to hold any rule breaker to account.”
Comer, a Kentucky Republican, sent a letter Sunday to White House chief of staff Ron Klain requesting more documents and communications related to the discoveries of multiple Obama-era classified documents in several locations at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.
President Biden walks to the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 16, 2023, after returning from a weekend in Wilmington.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Porter went on to say there has been “much broader abuse of classified information” by former President Donald Trump.
“I don’t have all the facts about President Biden’s classified information,” Porter continued. “We don’t have all the facts, sadly, because of obstruction yet about President Trump’s much broader abuse of classified information. But we should be asking for answers in a respectful way, and we should be expecting to get honest ones.”
An empty Secret Service guard shack located outside the access road leading to President Joe Biden’s private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 19, 2019.
(Peter Doocy/Fox News)
Biden again ignored reporters’ questions on Tuesday as they tried to get him to address the classified documents from his time as vice president that were recently found at his Delaware home and the Penn Biden Center.
Biden had a meeting with Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and after the two leaders delivered brief remarks, reporters began hurling questions at the president. They were all met with silence.
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Rep. Katie Porter reads a book in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2023.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The same thing happened three times last week. First, Biden refused to answer questions about the documents on Monday, Jan. 9.
Then the following day, Jan. 10, the president did not acknowledge questions after his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
