Clip: How will Biden's classified document controversy impact the Trump investigation?

Laura Barron-Lopez: Good evening and welcome to Washington Week. I'm Laura Barron-Lopez. Yamiche Alcindor is away.

President Biden is dealing with his own classified document controversy this week after back-to-back days of revelations and bruising headlines. On Tuesday, the White House announced that in early November, a set of classified documents from Biden's days as vice president were found in an office he used at a think tank. The next day, a second set of classified documents were found this where found this time in his Delaware home. On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter. Before Garland's announcement, the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy addressed the growing controversy.

Joe Biden, U.S. President: People know I take classified material seriously. I also said we are cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department review.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA): I think Congress has to investigate this.

Laura Barron-Lopez: This all comes two months after Garland assigned a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago home.

Joining me to discuss this and more, Nicholas Confessore, Political Reporter at The New York Times, and joining me in the studio, Nancy Cordes, Chief White House Correspondent at CBS News, Eugene Daniels, White House Correspondent and co-Author of Playbook for Politico, and Marianna Sotomayor, Congressional Reporter for The Washington Post. Thank you all for being here.

Nancy, I want to start with you. CBS broke the story about Biden's classified documents. So, what do we know so far about the situation and about the special counsel investigation?

Nancy Cordes, Chief White House Correspondent, CBS News: So, what we now know is that there were approximately 20 classified documents that were found in two different locations, about ten documents in what we are told is a locked closet in the former vice president's office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and then fewer than ten documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, most of them in the garage. Some of the documents were labeled top secret, which is the highest level of classification.

What we also know is that the attorney general, Merrick Garland, has now appointed a special counsel to investigate. That basically resets the clock. This probe had been going on for about two months. Now, Robert Hur, who is the former U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland, who was appointed to that position by former President Trump, he's a Republican, he'll start all over. He can interview whoever he wants. The investigation can go where he wants it to go and these things don't tend to wrap up very quickly so we are looking at the possibility of another six months to a year.

Laura Barron-Lopez: That's right. It could go quite a while. We really don't know.

Eugene, what are the conversations happening right now behind closed doors inside the White House? What is the atmosphere like there?

Eugene Daniels, White House Correspondent, Politico: Yes. I mean, when you're there and you're talking to aides, what they realize and they have finally started to concede is that this week did not go well for them when it comes to being transparent about this, right? We only found out about these documents because of CBS' reporting. They didn't come out and say this happened when it happened in November, when these documents were found, or in December when the second tranche of documents were found.

And when Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked about this, what she said when asked whether or not there were more documents, they kind of hemmed and hawed. And this is a White House that has promised transparency. I think what they are dealing with now is the difference between honesty and forthrightness and transparency.

They did do what is considered the right thing, calling the National Archives, having them come get these documents, being upfront when they were asked, but they weren't transparent and they finally know that. But as you well know, this is a White House that once they kind of decide on a path that they're going to on, they are going to stick to it. They are stubborn in that way sometimes. And so whether or not we are going to see them back that up and try and be a little more forthcoming is something we are going to have to watch for the next couple of weeks.

Laura Barron-Lopez: That's very true. President Biden, when he picks a position, he tends to stick to it.

But on these two cases, despite some of the similarities in these cases, there are significant differences between the two cases of the classified documents. So, for President Biden, he had a small number of documents. For Mr. Trump, around 300 classified documents. For Biden, they were found in his D.C. Office and Delaware home. Trump's were found at his Mar-a-Lago estate. And Biden, as Eugene said, voluntarily turned over the documents and immediately whereas Trump's documents were seized in an FBI search after withholding them for more than a year.

And, Nick, I want to bring you in here because Speaker McCarthy immediately said that he thinks that the House should investigate Biden's handling of classified documents and add it to their investigation docket, which includes going after the FBI for its search of Mar-a-Lago. This reminds me a bit of what happened when House Republicans pursued Hillary Clinton through the Benghazi select committee. Are we going to see more of the same? Could we see more Benghazis?

Nicholas Confessore, Political Reporter, The New York Times: Well, look, House Republicans campaigned on investigating the Biden administration. So, throw on more log on the fire. I think we will certainly see that.

I would just point out Joe Biden is now under investigation by a Republican special prosecutor, it doesn't get more serious than that. And so I think the kind of key thing for Biden is the egg on the face here of having attacked former President Trump for his handling of documents, saying how seriously he himself took this matter. And then to find that he had a box of documents in his garage, as Camaro's kind of garage, I think that's a problem.

Now, with Benghazi, the comparison there is kind of fascinating. These investigations obviously can quickly become political theater or start that way, and the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, back in 2015, as you can recall, had gone back on Sean Hannity's show and bragged about how the Benghazi investigation had driven down Secretary Clinton's ratings in the polls. And that was kind of a saying it out loud moment about the true purpose of I think the half-dozen different probes of Benghazi that we saw from House Republicans.

Laura Barron-Lopez: I will let it slide there, Nick, because you said Camaro instead of corvette, because President Biden would be upset with you.

But, Marianna, on the Hill, Republicans appear in lockstep on these investigations, on investigating President Biden for the classified documents or elsewhere. I mean, is there any hesitancy behind closed doors among some moderate Republicans?

Marianna Sotomayor, Congressional Reporter, The Washington Post: Absolutely not. A lot of Republicans, even those moderates who actually have bigger questions about why and how come presidents are able to take classified information, I think the moderates are kind of more focused on the process. But for the most part, a number of Republicans very much want to see this investigation go forward because they did run on the issue of transparency, and that is very much key here.

And even, I think, in the last couple of hours, the judiciary chairman, Jim Jordan, who, of course, has always been talking and criticizing the Biden administration, saying that Biden administration officials need to come forward, talk to Republicans.

I know the intelligence committee, once they are formed, that is a big question, a number of Republicans don't know what committees they serve on right now, they want to see these documents. And they really want to know why did the Department of Justice just now, because it was revealed through reports, how come they are just now letting everyone know that this happened? How long did they know that Biden had a hold on classified information? And they really want to point out a difference between Republican and Democrats, and how there is a new weaponization committee the Republicans just formed, and they want to investigate the FBI, the DOJ, and how they have handled Republicans in the past.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Nancy?

Nancy Cordes: And they are not wasting any time either. The oversight committee has already sent a letter to the White House telling them they have got two weeks to hand over all White House communication about these classified documents. And even the Democratic lawmakers I've spoken to, and I am sure it is the same for you, Marianna, they basically concede we are going to get hit on this until the end of time.

Republicans will not let this go despite the very clear differences that you pointed out between these two cases, the Biden case and the Trump case. They say it definitely muddies the waters for them. It makes it harder for them to make an example out of former President Trump, even though many of them believe at the end of the day what the special counsel is going to conclude, at least based on the facts we know right now, is that this was a mistake, this was sloppiness, this was accidental, they don't believe that there was any ill intent here.

Laura Barron-Lopez: But, Marianna, why would Democrats, or have Democrats said that they are going to comply with any of these potential subpoenas that could come along? Because, as we all know, Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan did not comply with the subpoenas that they received from the January 6th committee.

Marianna Sotomayor: Right. That's going to be really interesting. The Democrats did set a precedent of trying to compel Republicans to talk to that committee. It's going to be interesting to see if Republicans match that and try and ask Democrats to come forward based on what they may know.

We don't know if any congressional Democrat right now was involved in any of these classified information or things like that, but Democrats are very much trying to tow the line here and play it cautiously, really reiterating whenever they can that there is a difference, as we mentioned. The Biden administration did comply and it was not kept in secret in any way, like Trump, you had to really compel him to turn over those documents. So, that's likely the messaging that you will continue to hear from Democrats.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Eugene, these revelations hit just as President Biden's approval rating was going up. I mean, what do you think are the political implications here?

Eugene Daniels: Yes. I mean, he was having a good few weeks, right? He was riding high after the midterms were not as bad as we all thought they were going to be, right? They kept the Senate. They kept it very slim in the House. He and his team were having conversations about when and where he was going to make an announcement about whether or not he was going to run for president. They were feeling really good.

And so the political implications are now you have the current president and the former president both being investigated for the mishandling of classified documents. There are differences, sure, but the American people don't typically care about the minutia of things like that, where we can say that as much as we want, but when you start talking to actual people, what they are going to continue to hear because Republicans are going to make sure they continue to hear it, is that Joe Biden had classified materials somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. And that is what this White House also knows.

And so as Democrats are going around, they are all on the same page and they're making sure that the differences are made known, it almost may not matter when it comes to how the American people see it. Joe Biden still has to make a decision publicly about whether or not he is going to run. This is going to be very difficult to make an announcement that you are going to run for president and say you are going to run for president if there is a special counsel investigation to your mishandling of classified materials.

Laura Barron-Lopez: But, Nick, what do you think here, because the criminal charges could be very different, especially for president -- former President Donald Trump, because he's facing charges under the Espionage Act or for obstruction? So, do you think that could loom over 2024 for him or President Biden?

Nicholas Confessore: It is sort of too soon to say. Look, I think we have to get to get some basic questions answered, including what kind of classified documents are we talking about. Was it the cafeteria menu at Langley or nuclear secrets? And why did they wait until November 2022, two years after the president was first elected? How did it happen that this was discovered two years later? I'm curious about that.

It could be a very simple answer. And the best thing for the Biden people to do is if they think there isn't anything to hide, to try and get tough this investigation as fast as possible, open the door, let the prosecutor come in and try to answer those questions quickly so they can put it behind them.

President Trump has a bigger problem. There is evidence of intent, which is important in these cases, that he wanted to hold onto them, that he knew he should not have them. And that was a third or fourth or fifth big difference, right, between these two different cases.