President Joe Biden‘s classified documents scandal could have been a one-week story, experts say, rather than the dragged-out saga it has become amid a steady drip of revelations.
“People in the public eye should always confront bad news head-on,” said Jeffrey McCall, a communications professor at DePauw University. “This could have been a story with a very short lifespan. Instead, the drip, drip, drip and refusal to explain the situation, let alone express regret, has led to understandable, continued suspicion amongst the public and the media that there are broader implications to this mess.”
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The controversy dates to Nov. 2, when classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center think tank in Washington, D.C. But the public didn’t learn about that until it was leaked to the media more than two months later, and a series of leaks has kept the story in the spotlight since then.
Experts previously told the Washington Examiner that the Biden administration should have had all of Biden’s homes and office space searched immediately after that first document was found. Instead, his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, house wasn’t searched until this week, and the White House will not say whether all searches have been completed even now.
The latest news came Wednesday morning when CBS News reported that President Joe Biden‘s Rehoboth Beach home was being searched by the FBI. That came just one day after the same outlet reported that the Penn Biden Center in Washington was searched by the FBI in November.
The administration has come under intense fire from reporters of all stripes over its refusal to substantively answer any questions about the scandal. McCall argues this may be because most of the press previously went easy on Biden.
“It is possible that the Biden inner circle just figured the mainstream media would continue to cover for the administration and generally spike the documents mess as well,” McCall said.
That has not happened, leading to particular scrutiny of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. In one briefing, she referred reporters asking about the documents to White House counsel 25 separate times, and some have openly begun questioning her credibility.
Rather than deflecting questions, the administration would do well to reassure the public, argues University of Central Florida public administrator professor Naim Kapucu.
“Citizens need to understand that the mishandling of the documents did not cause any damage to national interest, as well as how proper actions are being taken so this will not happen again,” he said. “Timely and transparent handling of this is critical.”
The administration has attempted to downplay the situation, with communications director Kate Bedingfield saying Biden was focused on things that matter.
But polls show the public is indeed concerned about the matter.
An NBC News poll found that an equal percentage of people, 67%, are now as concerned about Biden’s classified documents as they are about former President Donald Trump‘s.
The situation is compounded by Biden’s reaction when classified documents were found at Trump’s Florida home last year. Biden wondered aloud at the time how anyone could be that irresponsible. The administration also was criticized for failing to disclose the situation until after the midterm elections.
However, the widening scope of the classified documents scandal may work in Biden’s favor. In addition to his White House predecessor, documents have been found in the possession of former Vice President Mike Pence, and the FBI will reportedly search his home as well.
That, along with the public’s generally low attention span, may save Biden, according to Sarah Lawrence College politics professor Samuel Abrams.
“What’s interesting is that they’ve played it fairly well here in that they’re just hoping the wider news cycle drowns it out,” Abrams said. “It sparks a lot of outrage very quickly, you get some chatter, and then it seems to fade away.”
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Abrams says he’s seen it with his own students, who often pay attention to the issue just long enough for something else, like policing or climate change, to take its place. In this respect, he argues the scandal may never really blow up into the wider American conscience, a fact the White House may be banking on.
“They’re playing it absolutely right,” he said. “They’re reading the tea leaves, and they’re realizing that nothing is sticking. You have to ask what would actually stick.”
