Where’s GOPer Outrage Over PENCE Classified Docs?

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me in the past week there is an increasing tendency in the news to minimize Mike Pence having classified documents at home.  If not ignore it altogether.  To which I say no, no NO!  Democrats in Congress, journalists and pundits are letting the GOP get away with painting a false picture and I say STOP IT!

That’s right people – with all the whataboutism outrage GOP Congress Critters, conservative pundits and former Trump lawyers like Tim Parlatore spew forth when they defend Trump with “But BIDEN had classified documents too!!!!!!” they ignore the fact that so did former VP Mike Pence!

Look, as much as the next person I’d gladly see Mike Pence quickly consigned to the dustbin of history.  So forgotten about that people currently alive forget about.  Never mention to new kids coming along.  And in a couple of decades so forgotten that schoolchildren tasked with writing a report on say two (maybe three) Vice Presidents that said or did something famous will scan down the list of names – and Pence will be one of the almost all who evoke a “Who was he?” reaction.  But at the moment he needs to be front and center.  Because NO ONE should be talking about classified information being discovered at Biden’s home without giving the FACT that the same is true of Pence EQUAL time.

So I say to the groups cited in the opening paragraph Do  Your  Effing  Jobs!

Every, and I mean EVERY time a GOPer tries playing the “Biden had docs in his garage so why is Trump the only one indicted?” card FORCE them to first acknowledge Pence turned out to have documents that should have been turned in at HIS home too!  And FORCE them to give an answer to this question: If as you say President Biden should be charged and tried, shouldn’t former VP Pence also be charged and tried?”  And keep hitting them with the question.  Don’t move on until they’ve humiliated themselves by stumbling through some nonsensical answer.  And if they refuse to be pinned down.  Tell them “Okay, Since you can’t or won’t answer such a simple question and do so without lying this interview is over.  I’ll move on to other news.”  Followed by “Producers?  Let’s go to commercial.”

In addition to this, when hosts and guests & panels discuss the Trump/Biden comparison and refer to Biden documents at home it should ALWAYS include giving Pence and Biden equal consideration in the comparison to Trump!

Here’s what’s important to remember.  My original draft had a too long review of how it came about that both Biden and Pence turned out to have some stuff at home or some other space that shouldn’t have been there.  And that no matter what it was wrong that it happened, even though they didn’t (like Trump) intend to steal National Security information to use as a political weapon, or trade or sell it.  Nope, although infuriating it was because screening what gets deemed okay to take and what should be turned over to NARA, and especially classified material that is treated separately should be returned to the originator.  Be it the National Security Office space at the WH or to the originating agency like DOD, CIA etc

Going through each and every thing is admittedly a tedious process.

VIP’s have neither the time or inclination to put in the countless hours to check every single document.  After a while it’s not unusual for their staffers who do get tasked with such things sometimes develop a tendency to think they too are “special” and too important to do such detailed, boring work.  So they cut corners.  Say by going through only part of a stack of stuff, or grabbing out random handfuls of folders and documents from a box.  THAT is how this happens.  After all, those big red block letters (at both the top and bottom of the page, and file folder’s covers are clearly market with thoee even bigger read block letters) are impossible to miss.   It’s easy enough to assume such things would be separated out in a special place on or in the desk and locked up at the end of the day instead of somehow getting mixed in with a big stack of stuff.

Which of course is why it’s necessary to check every single thing.  Because stuff does in fact get mixed together.  Someone not cleared comes into the room.  Something classified gets stuffed into some other papers or in a desk drawer with other stuff.  All followed by something big happening & taking up attention for hours.  And we’re off to the races.  Or perhaps demolitions derby so I repeat, every single thing needs to be checked.  But it isn’t and mistakes wind up being made and compounded.

It shouldn’t happen and for me it’s unforgivable – having once had a security clearance and taken part in searches for unsecured documents in classified office space. I’ve seen what happened to offenders first thing when they showed up for work the next morning it’s ugly.  Life as they knew it is over.

Still in the end Biden and to his credit Pence (man it hurt to have to admit that!), and their staffs did exactly what should have been done when classified documents were found.  IMMEDIATELY report it, both to gain instructions on how to secure it until the proper authorities showed up to collect it, and then cooperate fully and answer all questions posed by investigators.  So far as I know not one single person, whether Biden, Pence or any of their staffers or people who might have been in proximity to where documents were found refused to fully cooperated with investigators.

The contrast between them and Trump couldn’t be more stark.

However starting right now GOPers who invoke an argument that says “It’s unfair Trump is being prosecuted because Biden had documents at home to so why isn’t he under indictment?” be forced admit that by their own standards Pence should also be under indictment.”  Make them admit out loud that they don’t CARE what Pence did, because he’s a fellow Republican!  That’s really what it all boils down to.  You know it.  I know it.  Journalists/pundits know it and GOPers KNOW we know it.

So make them admit it.  Or as I said cut the interview short.  Maybe with the added “What you really mean is that if a Republican does it it’s okay, but any Democrats should go to prison.”  And, also as I noted whenever this comes up in panel discussions that same point needs to clearly be made every time.  With a DARE to Republicans to come on the air and not only deny it but provide not lies but a truthful explanation of why the situation with Pence is different than with Biden.

Let the GOPers howl to high heaven.

Treat them like vampires, exposing them to sunlight and/or douse them in holy water.