WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats responded with aggrieved fury when former President Donald Trump was found in possession of classified documents that should have been turned over to the government when he left office. Then disclosures that President Joe Biden also mishandled secret papers set loose a Republican “well, what about” roar.
Now, with another discovery of classified documents, this time at the home of Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, the partisan finger-pointing seems to be melting into a chorus of mortification from Democrats and Republicans.
The highest U.S. secrets, it now appears, are not necessarily safe with the highest officials. Not when they’re in the hands of Trump, who disdains the rules and customs of government, and not in the hands of Biden and Pence, who subscribe to them.
“What the hell’s going on around here?” asked Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, when asked about Pence.
“Obviously there’s a systemic problem in the executive branch,” Rubio said. “We’re talking about two successive administrations from two different parties, with officials at the top level having, in their possession, documents in places that they don’t belong.”