美国总统乔·拜登周二继续回避回答记者的提问正在上演的机密文件剧白宫面临着向美国公众而不是司法部公开信息的透明度问题。
当天早些时候，在椭圆形办公室与荷兰首相马克·吕特举行的面对面会议上，当一名记者问拜登是否会承诺与调查此案的特别顾问交谈时，拜登似乎笑了。自从司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)上周任命罗伯特·胡尔(Robert Hur)调查对机密文件的潜在不当处理以来，拜登尚未做出公开回应。
白宫在处理感知问题上的困难仍在继续，因为新闻秘书郭佳欣·让-皮埃尔在新闻发布会上面对记者的提问时再次挣扎，这是自拜登助手发现另外五份机密文件以来的第一次新闻发布会——让-皮埃尔在周五的新闻发布会上没有提到这些文件。
据白宫称，这些文件是在周四发现的，直到周六才披露这一发现。
“上周五，你站在这里，但被问及这些文件，根据我们的统计，约18次，”美国广播公司新闻首席白宫记者塞西莉亚·维加说。“当时，总统的律师发现了这另外五页的机密文件——那么你不知道，周五，当你在讲台上时，这些文件已经被发现了，或者有人指示你不要合作?”
“我在这个讲台上一直很合作，”让-皮埃尔回答道，后来她承认她“不知道”这些额外的页面。"我有你们当时都有的信息。"
到目前为止，Jean-Pierre已经将所有问题提交给了司法部。
“我将继续保持谨慎。我将让这个正在进行的审查——这个正在进行的法律程序——在特别检察官的监督下继续进行。我们不会——我也不会——在这里发表评论，”让-皮埃尔周二表示。
“听着，伙计们，如果你们愿意，你们可以问我100次，200次。我会一直说同样的话，”她后来补充道。“我听到你的问题了。有人问过了。已经有人接了。已经注意到了。”
让-皮埃尔告诉记者，拜登的情绪“非常明确”，尽管有报道说，他对这种情况给他的议程蒙上阴影感到沮丧。
“总统有信心——我可以告诉你，总统和他的团队在得知这些文件存在时，采取了正确的行动，”她坚持说。
为了帮助处理公共关系问题，白宫法律顾问办公室发言人伊恩·萨姆斯(Ian Sams)周二下午与记者举行了第一次正式的简报电话会议，在让-皮埃尔的简报会之前就此事接受提问，但几乎没有透露新的信息。
萨姆斯首次解释了为什么拜登的私人律师首先要清理他在佩恩·拜登中心的办公室，称“值得信赖的助手”参与其中，因为“这是美国总统，这些是个人资料。”
萨姆斯还面临着一些问题，即为什么白宫直到周六早上新闻曝光后才披露发现了另外五页，并为向公众隐瞒调查信息提供了一个理由。他说，发布不完整的信息可能会对公众造成伤害，并且似乎承认可能会发现更多的材料。
“调查可能会发现更多的信息，”萨姆斯说。“它可能揭示更多的事实...但是当你发布公正的或周期性的信息时...你冒着公众有时得不到完整信息的风险。因此，我们理解这里存在紧张关系，我们一直在努力平衡这种紧张关系，同时与司法部全面合作。”
“周六，总统的私人律师，白宫法律顾问办公室，我们发布了额外的声明。我们认为处理我们在本周早些时候发布的信息是重要的，但我们也想确保到目前为止你们都对该过程有一个充分的解释，”萨姆斯说，没有承认周六声明中提出的其他问题。
更多:白宫表示，拜登的私人住宅没有访客记录，但发现了机密文件
虽然萨姆斯和总统的任何律师都出现在白宫新闻发布会上，但他发表了声明，回应共和党人的攻击。
“众议院共和党人没有信誉，”他在周一的一份声明中说。“他们的要求应该受到质疑，他们应该自己面对问题，为什么他们要将这个问题政治化，并承认他们实际上不关心潜在的机密材料。”
“正如拜登总统反复说过的那样，他非常重视机密信息，这就是为什么他立即指示他的团队确保这些文件被送回政府。萨姆斯补充说:“拜登总统正在做正确的事情，正在全面配合彻底的审查，但众议院共和党人正在玩弄政治，无耻地虚伪地试图攻击拜登总统。”。
众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡周二下午回击白宫，称民主党人是伪君子。
“他们发现拜登总统有这些文件，没有上锁，只是简单地按一下按钮，就可以打开车库门...在选举之前，他们对此保密，”最高众议院共和党人在国会山告诉记者。他从未被联邦调查局搜查过。他们从来没有站出来说，谁在那里可以看到这些文件，这些文件就在一辆克尔维特后面的车库里。”
麦卡锡说，众议院共和党人计划调查川普和拜登的特别顾问调查。这发生在众议院监督主席众议员詹姆斯·卡莫之后。要求拜登白宫提供访客日志和通信，但表示调查特朗普对机密文件的处理不是优先事项。
“我担心的是，前总统特朗普受到的待遇有如此大的差异，搜查Mar-a-Lago，获取安全摄像头，对地板上的文件拍照，翻梅拉尼娅的衣柜，与乔·拜登(Joe Biden)相比，你的私人律师没有安全许可，他们可以通过，他们可以继续寻找，继续寻找，确定那里有什么，”卡莫周日在CNN上说。
一些突出的问题
白宫还有几个悬而未决的问题没有回答。
一个主要问题是，为什么DOJ的调查直到第一批文件被发现两个月后才公之于众。另一个原因是，在11月、中期选举前和12月发现文件后，总统的私人律师于1月11日回到了他在威尔明顿的家。
记者们还问拜登是否同意与特别顾问坐下来接受采访，但到目前为止，还没有答案。
最后，白宫还没有回答机密文件中到底有什么的问题。
Biden White House faces transparency questions as document drama continues
President Joe Biden on Tuesday continued to avoid answering reporters' questions on the ongoing classified document drama as the White House faces questions of transparency about what it's told the American public as opposed to the Justice Department.
Face-to-face with reporters at an Oval Office meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier in the day, Biden appeared to smile as a reporter shouted whether he would commit to speaking with the special counsel named to look into the case. Biden has not yet offered a public reaction since Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert Hur last week to investigate the potential mishandling of classified documents.
White House difficulty dealing with the perception problem continued as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, again, struggled at the podium when confronted with reporters' questions in the first press briefing since news broke that Biden aides found five more classified documents -- which Jean-Pierre did not mention at Friday's briefing.
The documents were discovered on Thursday, according to the White House, which did not disclose the find until Saturday.
"On Friday, you stood here, though, and were asked about these documents, by our count, some 18 times," said ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega. "At that point, the president's lawyers had found these five additional pages of classified document -- so did you not know, on Friday, that those documents had been found when you were at the podium, or are you being directed by someone to not be forthcoming?"
"I have been forthcoming from this podium," Jean-Pierre replied, before later admitting that she "did not know" about the additional pages. "I had the information that you all had at the time."
Jean-Pierre has, so far, referred all questions to the Justice Department.
"I'm just going to continue to be prudent here. I'm going to let this ongoing review that is happening -- this legal process that is happening -- let that process continue under the special counsel. We're not -- I'm not -- going to comment from here," Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
"Look, guys, you guys can ask me this 100 times, 200 times, if you wish. I'm going to keep saying the same thing," she added later on. "I hear your question. It's been asked. It's been answered. It's been noted."
Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden's mood has been "very clear," despite reports he has been frustrated by how much this situation has overshadowed his agenda.
"The president has confidence -- I can tell you this that the president and his team rightfully took action when they learned that the documents existed," she insisted.
To help deal with the public relations problem, the White House counsel's office spokesperson, Ian Sams, held his first on the record briefing call with reporters Tuesday afternoon to take questions on the matter ahead of Jean-Pierre's briefing -- but revealed very little new information.
For the first time, Sams explained why Biden's personal lawyers were cleaning out his office at the Penn Biden Center in the first place, saying "trusted aides" were involved since "this is the president of the United States, and these are personal materials."
Sams also faced questions about why the White House did not disclose the discovery of five additional pages until news broke on Saturday morning and offered one justification for withholding information on the investigation to the public. He said releasing incomplete information could do a disservice to the public -- and appeared to acknowledge more materials could be discovered.
"The investigation may uncover additional information," Sams said. "It may reveal additional facts...But when you are releasing impartial or periodic information ... you run the risk that the public isn't served by incomplete information at times. And so we understand that there's a tension here and we've been trying to balance that tension while being totally cooperative with the Justice Department."
"On Saturday, the president's personal attorneys, the White House counsel's office, we released additional statements. We thought it was important to address information that we had put out previously in the week, but we also wanted to make sure that you all had a fulsome explanation of the process so far," Sams said, not acknowledging the host of additional questions Saturday's statement dredged up.
While Sams, nor any of the president's lawyers, have appeared at a White House press briefing, he has released statements taking on Republicans' attacks.
"House Republicans have no credibility," he said in a statement on Monday. "Their demands should be met with skepticism and they should face questions themselves about why they are politicizing this issue and admitting they actually do not care about the underlying classified material."
"As President Biden has said repeatedly, he takes classified information seriously, which is why he immediately directed his team to ensure the documents were sent back to the government. President Biden is doing the right thing and is cooperating fully with a thorough review, but House Republicans are playing politics in a shamelessly hypocritical attempt to attack President Biden," Sams added.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday afternoon punched back at the White House and said Democrats were the hypocrites.
"They found out President Biden had these documents, not under lock, but a simple push of a button that could open a garage door ... prior to an election, they kept it secret," the top House Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill. "And no time did he get raided by the FBI. At no time did they come forward and say who was there could actually see these documents that are sitting in the garage behind a corvette."
McCarthy said House Republicans plan to look into both Trump and Biden's special counsel investigations. This comes after House Oversight chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., requested visitor logs and communications from the Biden White House but said investigating Trump's handling of classified documents was not a priority.
"My concern is how there's such a discrepancy in how former President Trump was treated, by raiding Mar-a-Lago, getting security camera, taking pictures of documents on the floor, going through Melania's closet, versus Joe Biden, your personal lawyers who don't have security clearance, they can go through, they can just keep looking and keep looking and determine whatever is there," Comer said Sunday on CNN.
Some outstanding questions
There are still several outstanding questions the White House has not answered.
One primary question is why wasn't the DOJ investigation wasn't made public until two months after the first documents were found. Another is what prompted the president's personal lawyers to go back to his Wilmington Home on Jan. 11, after document discoveries in November, before the midterms, and in December.
Reporters have also asked Biden whether he will agree to sit down for an interview with the special counsel but, so far, have no answers.
Finally, the question as to what exactly is in the classified documents has not been answered by the White House.
