Classified Info For Dubious Eyes

President Joe Biden of the United States and his immediate predecessor Donald Trump are embroiled in serious controversies on account of their acts of storing in unauthorised locations documents officially stamped as classified. That highly important documents should be improperly — rather, unlawfully — be kept in such manner might invite being treated as an illegal act of serious consequence. Trump did so when he was out of the White House while Joe Biden committed the act even five years after he was no longer vice-president. 

Both Biden and Trump seem to have committed “error” in judgement when they were in office and out of it. Biden was Barak Obama’s vice-president, and he maintained silence all these years, including more than a year into the presidency. It just shows how they function as leaders of the “greatest democracy” that wants the world to acknowledge its major agendas and decisions for universal adherence. 

Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president, too, seems to be in the pipeline for investigation entailing a case similar to those of Biden and Trump. Special counsels have been appointed to investigate the cases. Except for their die hard supporters, not many might turn too disheartened over the former presidents’ difficulties. Trump dug his heels in deep and for long, rejected subpoena before a search warrant was formally slapped to enter his home at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. 

Biden’s act is no less dubious in that he had all the time to make amends, but he didn’t bother to do so. He just left things drift, apparently in the belief that the long hand of investigations would not trace him. The issue has divided many Americans on partisan lines, mainly standing by party lines. Democratic Party supporters interpret the issues differently for Biden and Trump. Likewise, Trump’s supporters, who had tried to play down the conducting of a criminal inquiry, are now watching how the two cases would be treated by the Justice Department.

In the past, too, the Justice Department had to deal with government officials and others, including Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA Director David Petraeus who were found to have mishandled classified information. Biden has been trying to assert his relevance as an effective leader by giving the impression that he is serious about seeking a second term in office. Trump has since quite some time announced his intention of contesting the 2024 presidential election.

Public opinion polls show Biden’s job approval ratings plunge to his presidency’s all-time low at about 40 per cent. Why his team suppressed that information regarding the unauthorised handling of the classified documents until well after the November 8 midterm elections, that is, six days after the discovery of the misplacement exposes his weakness, if not duplicity.

The uproar created by his party members should have jolted Biden into positive action by declaring the “misplacement” of the classified documents that “happened” to land at his private property. Republicans led by House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy call for Congressional investigation into the classified leak implicating Biden. Approaches to issues are defined by greed for economic profits and also a desire to ensure posterity treats them as able and interesting personalities who served their nation well.

It’s a widespread practice among bigwigs to collect and pile up scraps of notes and documents with the potential of aiding the compilation of memoirs, biographies and autography works. Speeches, taped conversations, newspaper clippings and a variety of other information laden documents come to their assistance in producing books, often projecting their best sides and defending situations that entangled them in controversies. 

Candid narratives constructed to honestly describe and detail what happened, why and how, including the effects specific incidents, plans and policies, approaches and the like make significant contributions to understanding issues and individual policies. Perspectives are personal, but honesty should aid to make a narrative rich and rewarding to the reader, listener or viewer. After his defeat to Democratic Party’s John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, Richard Nixon, two-time vice-president under Dwight Eisenhower, was obsessed with documenting everything he discussed at the White House once he came to power in 1969. 

Conversations with Nixon’s staff members, secretaries and other visitors were taped. This came to public light in the wake of the Watergate scandals involving the case of the Democratic Party’s office premises at Washington DC’s Watergate building having been wiretapped by the president’s close associates in the course of the 1972 election campaign. The miles of tapes, among other more serious things, showed how bad mouthed a president of the “greatest” democracy could be.

New age

Things change with the passage of time.  Kennedy’s dalliances were ignored by the white House press corps. Some of Kennedy’s predecessors, too, had such affairs that were supposed to have been discreetly allowed to go unreported in the American fourth estate. Likewise, previous presidents were not probed for storing classified documents even after leaving the White House. They had their eyes on their versions of world views, and what and why they took certain decisions. 

The Trumps and the Bidens just happen to be executive heads at a time when the public and press are no longer blind to the wrong doings of their leaders. In fact, the American press regularly ignores such stories even today. Foreign leaders that choose to differ strongly with Washington get exposed to American press disclosures regarding “allegations” of drunkenness, “womanising” and so on — but not their own Leader. Classified documents served as rich sources of authoritative information that could be interpreted by virtue of being a former president of a superpower nation. This way they became authors and ensured an additional space in “history” while also being rewarded with attractive remunerative packages. 

Biden and his successors could still do the same making copies of notes not yet officially signed and stamped “classified”. His staff members could supply him with “notes” that would in his post-presidential years serve as well for book writing and lucrative lecture tours. The dubious decision would, however, be unethical. But the general tendency among political somebodies is to go ahead with actions they want kept secret, their chief task being not to be found on the wrong act technically.

(Professor Kharel specialises in political communication.)