Biden news: President assesses storm damage in California as classified documents scandal hurts polls
President Biden’s visit comes as White House remains adamant it will not interfere in the ongoing investigation into classified documents
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President Joe Biden assessed storm damage in Santa Cruz County, California on Thursday accompanied by Governor Gavin Newsom. Mr Biden met first responders and locals impacted by the succession of storms that struck the region.
“If anybody doubts the climate is changing, then they must’ve been asleep for the last couple years,” the president said during remarks from a storm-damaged beach in the town of Capitola.
During the California tour, Mr Biden continued to defend how his office handled classified material, amid ongoing investigations from the DoJ.
“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. There’s no there there,” he said.
His visit comes a day shy of his second anniversary in the White House, and as the US hits the debt ceiling forcing the government to take “extraordinary measures to make payments on the national debt”.
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White House reporters are hitting dead ends when trying to establish if there was any national security risk from the classified documents found in the office formerly used by President Biden and at his Delaware home.
Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich tweets that both the White House and White House counsel referred her to the Department of Justice, where she was referred to the Special Counsel, which then declined to comment citing “longstanding practice”.
Biden given aerial tour of damage from ‘unprecedented storms'
Joining President Joe Biden aboard Marine One for an aerial tour of impacted areas of California are: Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Alex Padilla, Administrator Deanne Criswell of FEMA, Bruce Reed, Assistant to the President & Deputy Chief of Staff, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, Assistant to the President & Homeland Security Advisor & Deputy National Security Advisor.
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Trump bemoans ‘two standards of justice’, claiming Biden gets ‘white glove’ treatment
In a new campaign-style video address, former president Donald Trump bemoans what he sees as two standards of justice in the US — one for him and the general public, and one for the “corrupt political class”.
Mr Trump trotted out many of the gripes he has voiced about the investigation into the trove of classified documents recovered from his Palm Beach home (which he maintains is “ultra-secure” despite operating as a members club) and what he sees as the “white-glove” treatment of President Joe Biden after the discovery of a small number of documents at an office and in his garage (”which was probably very wet and damp as many garages are”).
The former president also criticised special counsel Jack Smith who is investigating on behalf of the “Injustice Department” claiming Mr Biden has weaponised the department against him.
If he returns to the White House he promises to end partisan investigations.
Watch below:
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House intel committee requests national security assessment of Biden documents
House Intelligence Committee Chair MikeTurner has requested a national security “damage assessment” of the classified documents found at two properties related to President Joe Biden.
Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich reports that there has not been a response yet from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the request was made nine days ago on 10 January.
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McCarthy invited on California trip by White House
Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News reports that House Speaker and California Rep Kevin McCarthy was invited to join the president on his trip to California to assess the damage from the succession of storms that battered the state. He was not on Air Force One earlier.
It is not clear if Mr McCarthy may have travelled to the West Coast separately.
View from the ground in Capitola, California
CBS Sacramento’s Madisen Keavy is in Capitola awaiting the arrival of President Joe Biden.
She notes there is a sense of excitement but also sadness at the damage.
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