Macbeth was Right

"It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

-- Macbeth, William Shakespeare 

The other day, a friend asked if I was going to write about the classified documents found at Biden’s old office.  No, I said.  I had no interest.  It’s not a story.  It’s ridiculous.

Though on the surface this article is a story about that, it really isn’t.  It’s about the insanity of it.

I completely understand why Republicans will do everything they can to make a Big Story of this.  Trump is being investigated for refusing to return top secret-level classified documents, he is drowning in trouble, at risk of several indictments, no Republican in Congress has complained about anything he's done.  And so Republicans will keep this alive as long as they can, because it’s all they’ve got, even though what they've "got" is nothing.  But for all that sound and fury, whatever the House GOP does, whatever the DOJ does, even if a Special Counsel is appointed, however long Republicans are able to keep the story alive, this is the bottom line:  President Biden is NOT going to get indicted for a crime because of what happened.  But Trump is at serious risk of getting indicted for a crime because of what he did.  That’s the difference.  And it’s a massive difference.

By the way, the funniest thing about the story is when Republicans (including Trump, of course) point out “Look what Joe Biden did!!!  He must be investigated by Congress!!!”  Now, there is only one reason to say that.  Because you want people to think he did something wrong, even illegal – but if so, I'm not sure Republicans grasp that they're saying they believe what Trump did was wrong, too, even illegal.  It’s idiotic.

There’s also no comparison.  None.  Zero.

Furthermore, as Republicans are crying out that Biden be investigated -- in fact, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) even suggested that Dr. Jill Biden should be investigated! -- if they really, truly, sincerely, honestly want to suggest that the two situations are the very same, and that both deserve the exact same attention…the reality is that no Democrat in Congress has ever called for a Congressional investigation of Trump’s actions.  So, yeah, let’s treat them as the same, Republicans cry.  But of course, they’re not even remotely the same.

There is no comparison.  None.  Zero.

At worst, Joe Biden had material he shouldn’t have, forgot about it, the National Archives (NARA) didn’t even know anything is missing, Biden lawyers found it, told NARA and immediately returned it.

At best, Trump took boxes of classified material, the National Archives knew it was taken, asked for it back, Trump refused, NARA kept asking to get it back for over a year, Trump continued to refuse, NARA got a subpoena, Trump returned a few things and said that was everything, NARA knew there was a great deal still missing, kept asking, Trump kept refusing, the National Archives finally got the Justice Department involved, went to court to provide evidence to a judge why they needed a search warrant, received a search warrant, got the many boxes of material, Trump sued to get it back, the courts ruled in favor of the DOJ, and more classified material was found in a storage locker.

The first, at worst, is a bad, stupid screw-up.  The second, at best, is a federal crime.  At worse is espionage.

It’s an unfortunate, stupid, sloppy bungle by the Biden team.  But that’s it.  They returned the material.  Immediately.  But the GOP will do what they can to make it seem worse and horrible -- while out of the other side of its butt pretend that Trump, though, didn't do anything wrong because…blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Blah.

But that’s it, those are my only thoughts on the subject.  I’ll leave it to attorney Andrew McCarthy to have the final word.  I was going to give Karl Rove the last word, after he explained in detail why the two situations are nothing alike (which infuriated Trump), since I never figured I’d have a situation where I could give Karl Rove the final word – but I like McCarthy’s position even more.

Andrew McCarthy is a conservative Republican lawyer who does analysis for Fox “News” and the conservative magazine National Review.  He was having a written exchange with Rep. James Comer (R-TN) who chairs the House Oversight Committee and wants people to think this is all a Big Deal and insisted that the National Archives was showing great political bias that must be investigated.

McCarthy wrote that it’s not unreasonable to “wonder” about political bias at the National Archives.  And then, in an eloquence I can't match, the conservative McCarthy added --

“But, that said, it is asinine for Comer to compare NARA’s handling of the Biden and Trump situations as if the two were analogous.”

We’ll leave it at “asinine.”