Biden 'dances' around questions on classified documents scandal: Jesse Watters
'The Five' panelists react President Joe Biden saying he has 'no regrets' about his handling of classified documents and how it 'bugs' him to be asked about it.
Judge Jeanine Pirro honed in on comments President Biden made Thursday after being asked about his growing classified documents scandal, saying the latest remarks remind her of things she's heard in court.
Biden's claimed on Thursday "there's no ‘there’ there" in regard to his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Greenville, Del., home and former University of Pennsylvania-linked office.
"I think you're going to find there's nothing there. I have no regrets. I'm following what the lawyers have told me. They want me to do exactly what we're doing. There's no ‘there’ there," Biden said to reporters.
On "The Five," Pirro said that, in reality, "there's a lot there."
PHILADELPHIA'S OPEN-AIR DRUG CRISIS SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL
Joe Biden backs his Corvette into a garage in a campaign video released Aug. 5, 2020. (Joe Biden for President)
"It reminds me of every defendant I've ever prosecuted: 'There's no ‘there’ there,'" she said on "The Five" Friday. "Here's what's there: Mike Davis wrote a great article in Newsweek, and he talks about theft being a federal offense. I think it's section 793 of the federal code. And he talks about the fact that this is, you know, [a] ‘blame your secretary’ [situation]. Give me a break."
Pirro compared that latest reported excuse as akin to an office worker having an extramarital affair with his secretary, who later tells his wife his adultery was the secretary's fault.
"Here's the thing about these classified documents," she added. "As I've said, he had no right to them. He was not president. He could not declassify them."
The documents date back to Biden's time as vice president. Pirro noted a chronological gap between the end of the Obama-Biden administration and the establishment of the Penn Biden Center in Washington, where the first tranche of documents was discovered in November.
TOP REPUBLICAN TORCHES HUNTER BIDEN WRINKLE IN DOCS PROBE
An office building housing the Penn Biden Center, a think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, is seen in Washington, DC, January 10, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
She noted reports the University of Pennsylvania received funding – though not necessarily for the center itself – from the Chinese government, tying that alleged situation to Hunter Biden's purported commercial coziness with Chinese Communist Party-linked businesses.
"His son has made millions from the Chinese, the same son who's complained about having to pay for his father's bills and paying in $50,000 a month, which apparently, according to Miranda Devine, is the same amount of money he got from China in one of his deals," Pirro said. She added that unlike in former President Trump's document situation, Biden did not have the same declassification leverage as a sitting president while VP.
As for UPenn, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called on University President M. Elizabeth Magill to provide data on reported "anonymous Chinese donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center."
"The Committee has learned UPenn received millions of dollars from anonymous Chinese sources, with a marked uptick in donations when then-former Vice President Biden was announced as leading the Penn Biden Center initiative. Following the formation of the Penn Biden Center, donations originating from China tripled and continued while Joe Biden explored a potential run for President," the Committee said in-part in a statement on its website.
A UPenn spokesperson told the West Philadelphia institution's newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, that it is "important to reiterate that the Penn Biden Center has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity."
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox