I think that uh the Biden Administration is probably the Biden White House is probably
very angry at itself for having mishandled this because um when the Mar-A-Lago uh materials
became so politically significant that should have um sparked an interest on the part of the
president in What Might Have Become interfiled in his vice presidential materials under our
current system how do we know that that's not what this is I mean if if the discovery
was is in November the first discovery in November might that be trying to um uh be
hyper Vigilant going through materials searching old office and lo and behold here we are [Music]
because the National Archives went to president former president Trump's team
to request materials that were clearly not in Washington but should have been in May of 2021
um and I would be shocked if the White House didn't know something about that I think the
White House just should have done this a little sooner because as Paula mentioned the drip drip
drip is problematic for the president yeah um it's not we're not talking about a huge number
of documents but look as a former director of a Presidential Library the public owns those
documents and when we're talking about National Security materials the public has a right to
know those materials are under control it's not a large collection but it's worrisome that this
collection that it took the White House this long to track down these materials I can understand why
they found their way into the vice president's papers the amount of documents that get moved
at the end of an of an Administration are huge right and vice presidents and presidents are
allowed to keep their personal materials it's always possible that interfiled with those
personal materials will be stuff they shouldn't be bringing but there's time to find that material
real and in this case the the White House given how sensitive this issue is now just didn't look
for them quickly enough that's where this is a little confusing or maybe a lot confusing
and perhaps you can you help us understand this but the the National Archives uh will
maintain uh the the library of things for the White House particularly as one White House
transitions to another so they know they have a log they know almost immediately what should be
you know in in the inventory whereas for the vice president apparently oh you're not in your head no
okay so let me finish the question so whereas the vice president's office there are AIDS involved
excuse me AIDS involved as opposed to an archives knowing about the library of content is that where
the differences are here that he was the vice president that it takes time to do inventory
no okay help me out the reason the National Archives is is underfunded there isn't a log
um of materials for either the president or the vice president it doesn't exist it
takes years to process these materials there are still materials from the from the Nixon
presidency that have not been processed they are under control where necessary they're in
a vault but they still haven't been processed and we're talking about a presidency from the
1970s so there is no law but there are areas of the White House where documents are kept and
those materials are boxed and they are moved both for the president and the vice president
um the challenge is what happens to the materials after they go to the private
residences of a former president and former vice president and the National Archives doesn't have
the funding to go to those private references residences and double check that there aren't
materials that belong to the American people that have been interfiled with the private materials
that's a flaw in the system it's not the National Archives fault they just don't have the Personnel
to do it I hope this prompts um a decision by the house to pay for this in the future