Former Vice President Mike Pence said he takes "full responsibility" for the classified documents discovered at his private residence in Indiana, Breitbart reported. He made these remarks on "America Reports" on Fox News Friday.
"Do you think there have been special counsels appointed by the Department of Justice in two other cases? Do you think there should be one in your case as well?” senior national correspondent Rich Edson asked.
"I would leave that decision to the attorney general and the Department of Justice," Pence responded. "Again, this was an unfortunate development, and I think it’s important that our office simply cooperate fully in any investigation by either the Department of Justice, the Archives, or the Congress of the United States, and we are determined to do that," he said.
“I remain very confident that during my time in the Congress of the United States, we were very careful and very cautious, and as we were during my time as vice president," Pence continued. "But again, during the closing days of administration, when materials were boxed and assembled, some of which were shipped to our personal residence, mistakes were made."
"We were not aware of it at the time until we did the review just a few short weeks ago, but I take full responsibility for it, and we are going to continue to support every appropriate inquiry into it," Pence said. The former vice president was prompted to take a look through his own papers following the scandal for Biden and former President Donald Trump.
In November, documents were found in an office Biden occupied at the Penn Biden Center after his term as vice president ended, the New York Post reported. The White House managed to keep a lid on that fact until Jan. 9, when CBS News broke the bombshell story.
Just days after, it was revealed that another trove of classified documents had been found at the president's Wilmington, Delaware, home in the garage where he kept his classic Corvette. "My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street," Biden said, as if that would make it okay.
A special counsel was appointed to further investigate the matter. However, the way Biden and now Pence have been treated is markedly different from the way that Trump was dealt with for the same infraction.
For the former president, the FBI raided his private Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, as if this were the worst crime one could commit. Biden had even called Trump "irresponsible" for such an oversight with the documents.
Now with Pence thrown into the mix, this seems to be an issue that crops up with many former officials. Yet how it's handled largely depends on how much Democrats disagree with the person involved.
Perhaps Pence gets a pass because he said he and Trump "parted amicably" and "went our separate ways" in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This has meant that in the media on the left, Pence isn't quite the target that Trump is anymore.
Still, Trump defended his former running mate on social media when his admissions about classified documents came to light. "Mike Pence is an innocent man," Trump wrote.
"He never did anything knowingly dishonest in his life. Leave him alone!!!"
There's something odd happening with all of these discoveries of classified documents that were mislaid just about everywhere. Pence took responsibility for his misstep, but the larger issue is why there is a disparity in the way he, Biden, and Trump were treated.
