美国总统乔·拜登周四表示，随着调查继续进行，他“不后悔”在他家和办公室发现的机密文件.
拜登本周首次在这个问题上打破了沉默，尽管记者一再提问在去加利福尼亚调查风暴损失的途中。自1月12日以来，他一直没有公开谈论此事谈到了文件自从这个月早些时候的新闻曝光以来只有三次。
直到周四，他还没有这样做，因为一个特别律师被任命。
“你知道，坦率地说，困扰我的是我们正在谈论的严重问题，”他对大声提问的记者说。
“我们在谈论正在发生的事情，美国人民不太明白你为什么不问我这些问题。不过话虽如此，你的问题是什么?”拜登说。
然后，有人问总统，为什么在11月初中期选举前几天首次发现这些文件时，他没有透露这些文件的存在。
“我们发现一些文件……被归档在错误的地方，我们立即将它们移交给(国家)档案馆和司法部，”他说。“我们正在全力配合，并期待尽快解决这个问题。”
“我想你会发现，那里什么也没有，”他继续说道。“我不后悔。我在按照律师告诉我的去做。这正是我们正在做的。那里没有“那里”。谢谢大家。”
2023年1月19日，美国总统乔·拜登在查看风暴造成的损失后发表讲话，并向加利福尼亚州西克里夫受灾民众发表讲话。
安德鲁·卡瓦列罗·雷诺兹/法新社
白宫已经因为回避记者的问题而面临审查而不是把他们交给司法部。
这件事有几个未解的问题，包括为什么对文件的调查直到第一批文件于11月2日在华盛顿的佩恩·拜登中心被发现两个月后才公开，以及为什么他的律师在文件于12月20日首次被发现后于1月11日回到他在威尔明顿的家。
司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland月12日任命了一名特别顾问罗伯特·胡尔(Robert Hur)，调查拜登对机密文件的潜在不当处理。此事使加兰和司法部处于对现任和前任总统的两项特别法律顾问调查之中，这是一种情况专家告诉美国广播公司新闻是“前所未有的”并给司法部长带来巨大压力。
拜登最初表示，他“惊讶地”得知在佩恩·拜登中心发现了带有机密标记的文件，白宫特别顾问理查德·索伯首先表示这是一个“错误”。
Biden breaks silence on his handling of classified documents: 'I have no regrets'
President Joe Biden said Thursday he has "no regrets" as the investigation continues intothe classified documents found at his home and office.
Biden broke his silence on the issue for the first time this week,despite repeated questions from reporters, during a trip to California to survey storm damage. He had not publicly addressed the matter since Jan. 12 and hastalked about the documentsonly three times since the news broke earlier this month.
Until Thursday, he had not done so since a special counsel was named.
"You know what, quite frankly, bugs me is that we have serious problems here we're talking about," he said to reporters who shouted questions.
"We're talking about what's going on and the American people don't quite understand why you don't ask me questions about that. But having said that, what's your question?" Biden said.
The president was then asked why he did not reveal the existence of the documents back when they were first found in early November, a few days before the midterm elections.
"We found a handful of documents … were filed in the wrong place, we immediately turned them over to the [National] Archives and the Justice Department," he said. "We're fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly."
"I think you're going to find, there's nothing there," he continued. "I have no regrets. I'm following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It's exactly what we're doing. There's no 'there' there. Thank you."
The White House hasfaced scrutiny for avoiding reporters' questionson the document drama, instead referring them to the Department of Justice.
There are several unanswered questions on the matter, including why the investigation into the documents wasn't made public until two months after the first ones were found at the Penn Biden Center in Washington on Nov. 2 and why his attorneys went back to his Wilmington home on Jan. 11 after documents were first discovered there on Dec. 20.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Jan. 12 appointed a special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate the potential mishandling of classified documents by Biden. The matter puts Garland and the Department of Justice in the middle of two special counsel probes of a sitting and former president, a situationexperts told ABC News was "unprecedented"and places the attorney general under major pressure.
Biden initially said he was "surprised" to learn there were documents bearing classified markings found at the Penn Biden Center, and White House special counsel Richard Sauber first said it was a "mistake."
