it's the top of the hour on "cnn newsroom." i'm victor blackwell. >> i'm alisyn camerota. merrick garland appointed a special counsel to investigate classified documents found on mr. biden's property. merrick garland said an initial investigation determined this move is necessary. the special counsel is named robert hur. hur served as a u.s. attorney

for maryland and was appointed by former president trump. >> i strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity, but under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter. this appointment underscores for the public, the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law. >> now earlier, president biden confirmed that more classified documents from his time as vice president were discovered. this time at his wilmiwilmingto delaware home. they were locked in his garage. >> another document was found inside the house. now the attorney general revealed that the justice department learned of the second set of documents in december as this timeline shows here.

it was in november when the president's attorney found classified documents in a d.c. office that the former -- the then-vice president used with his work at the university from 2017 to 2019. republicans are now calling for investigations, trying to equate this to the case of former president trump who had more than 300 classified documents at his florida home. a separate special counsel is on that case. joining us now is arlette sainz, evan perez, abby phillip, and harry litman. harry, first to you, the appointment of a special counsel now, and how this changes the investigation, changes the look into these documents for the president? >> it takes it completely out of the normal doj process. hur will set up a whole special

office and look into things. it's interesting, however, victor, because under the regs, you have to -- the criminal investigation is warranted. there are policy questions, political questions. it's unclear though, what is the potential criminal liability of anyone much less biden? that's what hur will be digging into, and that's what preli preli preliminarily, they will be looking into. you report to hur, guarland himself, and just as with barr and mueller, he maintains authority. >> how does that explain the timeline, how they discovered this two months ago, but we're learning about it now? >> the question is why they did not disclose this when they first discovered those documents at the penn biden center between being vp and coming to the white house as president. now we have continuously seen this drip, drip, drip of information kopg come out about when exactly they've found those

documents. today they revealed they found additional documents at his will mon -- wilmington residence, and they want to allow the justice department review to play out. they are clearly entering new territory when it comes to the appointment of the salespecial counsel, and one thing the white house counsel has tried to make clear in recent statements since this announcement is that they are trying to follow the protocol and comply with all of the requests that are coming their way. they're pointing out that they're working with the national archives, that they're working with the justice departments on their requests, and ultimately white house counsel said in a statement that, quote, they're confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced. they believe that is what reviewed, and that's what the special counsel will show. there's a headache the counsel has to deal with, and there's a messaging issue that they have to deal with if there are still questions about why exactly they

didn't disclose information earlier, how these documents were able to make their way to the vice president's residence, and then that office where he worked here in washington, d.c., and so in just a short while, we'll be hearing from the white house press secretary, her first availability since the special counsel was announced. if you remember yesterday she was not able to share any information when it came to these documents related to this. there are so many more questions awaiting this white house as the counsel gets under way. >> evan, the extraordinary circumstances that this -- these documents were found in the ag's boss' home, the president of the united states. so he reached this decision. how did they come to robert hur to take this position? >> yeah. this was a textbook decision according to the justice department officials. they viewed this as something that was necessary, certainly once john lausch, the u.s. attorney in chicago who did the

initial investigation, once he came back and made the recommendation, it was abu abundantly clear they had to do this out of the, you know, certainly the protection of the department to make sure that there is no conflict of interest in the way this was being handled. robert hur is something who was a longtime career justice department official, and a political appointee under donald trump's administration, and so what it does for the attorney general and for the justice department is it helps give that appearance of independence to make sure that, you know, people understand that this was being handled independently. >> we're just watching to see if karien jean pierre is speaking about this now. we will take that as soon as she is talking about that. at the moment she's talking about the damage from tornadoes near selma, alabama that we have been talking about. so let's continue our conversation for the moment

because i don't think she's yet addressing the classified information. abby, politically speaking, the fact that -- look. there are a lot of distinctions here of course, between how president biden's team has handled this, and how president trump's team has handled this. for instance, the national archives didn't have to spend 14 months trying to extract these documents, what we think are 12 -- oh, she's making a statement right now. let's listen. >> a small number of documents were found, and we will continue to cooperate. we have cooperated closely with the justice department throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the special counsel. we are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake. with that, my colleague is here,

john kirby, to talk through that tomorrow, and also with the japan prime minister next tuesday, and then i'll come back. >> let's continue talking about this for a moment, what we just heard from karine jean-pierre. harry, let me go to you legally. she said that the evidence will reveal that these documents were inadvertently misplaced and handled once they were discovered. does that make a difference legally? >> it makes a difference legally in terms of a criminal investigation, all the laws that are in place that people are thinking about for trump, for example, all involve intentional action, either taking it away on purpose or not giving it back on purpose. so far there's no indication of that, and garland could have stood behind that point and pointed to the regs which require some criminal basis for investigations, but he was really just playing it out of abundance of caution, and i

suspect the white house welcomes the decision just to be able to say, we're totally on the up and up and doj is handling it with a hard-nosed u.s. attorney which hur is. >> abby, as alisyn was going to say, is the distinctions between the documents found at mar-a-lago and these documents found at properties related to the president, his office, his home, there's a long list of the distinctions here, but what does this realign, now that they both have classified documents and they're both being investigated by special counsel? >> i think that the findings of additional documents is probably the most significant part of this. if this had just remained the first batch, fewer than a dozen that were found, you know, by that attorney in his office, that would be one kind of story, but it's another kind of story to find additional documents in other locations, and i think that that is where the political

problems really begin for president biden because it makes it much more difficult to draw a contrast in the conduct in terms of how careful one must be with these kinds of classified documents. that's totally putting to the side this idea of cooperation which as you pointed out, victor, it is really night and day in terms of how the cooperation went with trump versus how it went with biden, but on the question of how people handle classified documents, whether it was a mistake or not, the diligence that one must have with these kinds of documents, it really makes it hard for president biden to make that argument, and i think that that is one of the reasons why this is not something that i think the biden white house likes that they have to deal with with. however, there's -- there's no doubt in my mind that garland really didn't have a choice but to appoint a special counsel in this case just for the purpose of creating some sense with the

public that this is being handled in a way that is outside of this relationship that garland has which is that biden is his boss, and so it needs to be put to the side and handled in a separate manner to give people confidence it's being handled even handedly. >> let's bring in now democratic congresswoman jayapal. thank you so much for being here on this busy news day. how big of a political problem do you think this discovery is now for president biden? >> well, alisyn, it's great to be with you. look. i think the first thing is this is what it looks like to have an independent department of justice, and a president who is cooperating with, not obstructing an investigation. second, i think that it is, you know, there are a lot of facts that have to emerge, and what occurs to me is we really need to have the intelligence community look at the bigger

process by which documents get taken out of secure locations. i mean, this is something that i have been listening to some of the analysts who say that this happens often. it happens are yroutinely. i don't think it should, and there needs to be a bigger look at how this happens. all of that said, there are clear differences here in how this president is handling it and we'll just have to wait for the special counsel to do his work. >> let's talk about that because back in september when it came out that this was happening with donald trump, you tweeted, donald trump stole classified documents. he put not only our national security at risk, but the security and safety of our allies around the world. he must be held accountable to the full extent of the law. should president biden be held to that same standard? i mean, he -- you said president trump stole the classified documents. isn't it possible that president biden is putting our national security at risk also? >> i absolutely think that is

why the department of justice has appointed the special couple, but again i would just point to the fact that these documents so far that we know -- what we know is they were kept in a locked place that was a very small number, and, you know, i don't know how important these are. they might be incredibly important. they were marked top secret, but the storage and the approach to this is completely different. that doesn't mean that there isn't a problem here, and certainly there's a political problem for all of us as democrats, but i do think that there are significant differences, and i do think it's important to look at the fact this president is cooperating completely with the investigation. he is not obstructing. he is not saying that this is a witch hunt. he is not doing any of those things. it is his department of justice that has appointed a special counsel who was appointed under trump, and who republicans and who was confirmed unanimously in the senate, and who republicans and democrats both respect. so there are significant

differences. it doesn't take away my concern about the overall situation, and i do think we have to continue to look at the facts. >> and i just want to ask you about the timeline because this has also come up. we know that the white house knew about this longer than the press or the public. so on november 4th, okay? before the midterms, the national archives informed the doj -- informed that the doj -- oh. informed the department of justice these docs had been found at president biden's former office from when he was vice president. some people have said that was before the midterms. do you think that he should have disclosed that to the public then? >> there's really no way for me to know that. obviously, you know, this is going to be apart of the department of justice's investigation. what did they communicate at that time? what did the department of justice know? what did the biden administration -- what did the president think was in there? we continue know any of those facts. i think it's early, but i think

the difference is this has never been a president who has deliberately obstructed and stopped any investigation. he hasn't, you know, his track record is very, very different. i'm glad there's a special counsel that's going to investigate. i don't think merrick garland had a choice but to appoint a special counsel here because, again, it's about the integrity and the interpretation of the public, and i do think quick resolution of this issue, i hope, is forthcoming because that's important for the public to be able to trust that these things are being handled fairly. >> as you know, the republicans came in saying that one of their priorities was to investigate the biden family and investigate the biden administration. do you feel that this now gives them more of a rationale? >> well, it's not great, you know, because obviously they will pounce on anything

regardless of how different the circumstances are. their intent, the republican intent is to undermine faith in government overall, and certainly in democrats. they have an extreme republican agenda that we have seen rolling out. we saw the chaos on the house floor, and with this unity of republicans, they are dying to have something to change the conversation from the chaos and disunity of republicans, and so this has always been their extreme agenda. they're going to kuse it, alisy. i've seen it over and over again. when there's nothing to talk ana cab cabrera -- about, and you give them a piece of information like this, and they're going to push on it, but i think it's up to us to keep calling on these fundamental piece. is the president obstructing an investigation? this president is not. is the department of justice operating independently? this department of justice is. so i think these are big differences that the public really needs to take into

consideration. >> congresswoman pramila jayapal, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you, alisyn. abby phillip, let me come to you with what we heard. we'll hear from democrats discussing nuance, and distinctions. republicans trying to say, oh, it's pretty much the same here. look at what -- we heard it from speaker mccarthy saying, he had documents unlocked everywhere. when we look back at the trump documents, it's much the same. >> yeah. i mean, as a republican told me this week, they're not going to be playing in the nuance of this at all. i think they see that as just the political reality of it, but i mean, i do think we have a responsibility to the facts here which is just to point out that there are really significant differences in the handling of these two cases by former president trump and by now-president biden, and those significant differences matter when it comes to the legalities of it all.

i did listen to speaker mccarthy's comments this morning, and some of the things that he said about how this was handled certainly were just not true. i mean, the archives at the doj spent months and months working with the trump team to get those documents back, and it ended in a search of mar-a-lago because the trump team wasn't playing ball. that is not at all what happened here. even now that we've found an additional batch of documents. so politics obviously sometimes can be the lack of nuance. i don't think we necessarily have to play that game. however, i do think the reality of it is that if you are biden and you want to draw a clear contrast at how documents were handled full stop, this makes that harder. on the other hand, the obstruction part of this is basically apples and oranges. >> okay. arlette, evan, abby, and harry, thank you all very much. the growing number of republicans, lawmakers especially demanding george

santos to resign from congress. how santos is responding to the pressure. that's next. we also have live pictures for you right now from alabama. a tornado emergency is under way because severe storms are moving through this area. significant tdamage is being reported. we have another live report for you just ahead. like #4 supreme meats. black forest ham and genoa salami. you can't stop that much meat. you can only hope to contain it - in freshly baked bread. try subwayay's tastiest menu upgrade yet. science proves quality sleep is vital to your mental, emotional, and physical health. and we know 80% of couples sleep too hoor too cold. introducing the new sleep nuer climate 360 smart bed. the only smart bed in the worl, and effortlessly responds to both of you. our smart sleepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. proven quality sleep. only from sleep number.

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with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. a tornado emergency declared in alabama. more than 100,000 customers are without power in at least three states. there is significant structural damage and power lines down across the state. some reports of injuries are coming in, but an emergency responder just told us it could take some time to reach everyone affected by the storm. >> jennifer gray is following the storm in the cnn weather center. what's the latest? >> yeah, victor. i wouldn't be surprised if it takes them awhile to get to some of these places with the downed trees, downed power lines. that's the trend we're seeing. very gusty winds along this line

of storm. we're going to expect downed trees, power lines, power outages because of it. we're going to see the possibility of tornadoes as well. we are under a tornado watch for portions of the southeast where that red box is. this is a closer look at some of the warnings. we have a tornado warning and it's in eastern alabama and western georgia. this is la grange. the storms are moving very quickly to the east. if you are in this area, you've got to get to their safe spot immediately. so this is all part of the same line of showers and storms that impacted selma just in the last two hours or so, and you can see the storms, all of these orange boxes. we have thunderstorm warnings and the hot pink boxes are the tornado warnings. this is an active situation ongoing for the next several hours at least. this area shaded in orange is our greatest chance for several tornadoes, damaging winds, large hail as we know this line of showers and storms has already produced all of that. this is a very volatile situation. as we go forward in time, moving

through atlanta within the next hour or two, and then it'll be pushing into eastern sections of georgia, and the carolinas. mid-atlantic and the northeast will get showers and storms from this, but we don't think it'll be as severe, especially compared to the southeast, but this is an ongoing situation. definitely dangerous for the southeast for the next several hours. we're getting into this rush hour as well. people's commute is definitely going to be on the rough side. guys? >> crucial time. jenn gray for us, thank you. so house speaker kevin mc mccarthy saying george santos has a long way to go to earn trust. now we're learning more about the list of lies that helped him one congress. >> we have the resume he gave before he ran for congress. melanie zanona is with us now. let's talk about the pressure that's coming from the other members of the republican conference for santos to step

down. >> reporter: yeah. there is a growing chorus of republicans who are now calling on santos to resign, and that includes several members of the new york delegation. let's take a listen. >> he's lost the confidence of people in his own community. so, you know, i think he needs to seriously consider whether or not he can actually do his job effectively, and right now it's pretty clear he can't. >> i don't think there's any way he can possibly perform his duty. >> are you saying he should resign? >> there's no way i think he can totally fulfill his responsibilities. >> reporter: mccarthy did say that depending on what a potential house ethics committee finds, he will be held accountable, but we are continuing to learn about this growing list of lies as you mentioned. the new york so"the new york ti resume he gave to republican

officials and we should go through this. it is remarkable what he had on here. santos said he earned a 3.98 gpa from baruch college. he never even went there. he said he earned an mba from nyu. never attended that university. santos said he was an asset manager at citigroup. he never worked there, and he said he was a project manager at goldman sachs, which once again he did not work at. this is more than embellishment. these are outright lies. i don't know who the person is on this resume, but it's not george santos. he misrepresented himself to not only his voter, but to republican officials, and that is why you are starting to see the backlash grow in the gop in new york. victor, alisyn? >> okay. melanie zanona, thank you. >> very specific gpa there. 3.89 -- >> do you have that on yours in. >> 3.9 would be believable. 3.89. >> incredible. >> let's go to joe walsh, a former congressman from illinois, the host of "the white

flag" podcast. it's good to see you. let's start with the question here. do you agree with these republicans who say that george santos should resign? >> boy, victor, i would have loved a 3.9 gpa. my word. look. you're going to hear a smattering of individual republicans calling for him to resign, but i don't think you're going to see congressional republicans and certainly not leadership, not mccarthy and the rest of them. they need his vote. they need his seat. they want and hope that this will just blow over, and santos himself, victor, he's going to do what every republican has learned from donald trump when you have done something wrong. never admit you've done wrong. never apologize. never tell the truth. never exhibit any shame.

instead, what has santos been doing? he's been doubling down, pu punching back, fighting back, and lying. i think he'll keep fighting. >> yeah. i mean, the first week that he was in congress waiting to take the oath, the big story was the speaker fight, and now there's this special counsel investigating the biden documents. so there are other stories that are pushing him to the background a bit, but how big of a political problem is this for republicans as the cameras are following him every step of the way on capitol hill? >> it's a problem, victor, but i don't think the cameras will keep following him for these next two years. >> as you just said, it seems like every week there's one big story after another. look. i -- it's a democratic district, the district from which santos now represents. i can't imagine george santos ever getting re-elected. i would be really surprised if he ran again. i think if you are kevin

mccarthy, you want this to blow over, and i think generally it will because they want his seat and his vote for the next two years. >> let's listen to -- this is an interesting lineup here. you've got george santos on steve bannon's war room with matt gaetz sitting in as host. here's what he said about the plans to remove him. >> i wish well all of their opinions, but i was elected by 142,000 people. until those same 142,000 people tell me they don't want me, we'll find out in two years. i've worked an honest life. i've never been accused of any bad doings. >> he even says that he hasn't been accused of lying after admitting in a some of the things he said just were not true. >> victor, i'm a broken record. i need to say this again. he is exhibit a in what today's

republican party is. each and every republican has learned this from trump. never express any remorse or shame. if you have been caught doing wrong, lie, don't apologize, and fire back at your enemies. look at santos. he's on bannon's show. the base, the republican party base, loves this. all they want is for republicans to punch back against their enemies. that's what he'll do for two years. >> all right, joe. got to wrap it here. thank you very much. let's go to the white house now. >> thanks very much. >> the secretary is taking questions. >> the department of justice is going to decide. i want to reiterate what you heard from the president today. it's important for the american people to know this. the president has said he takes classified documents and information very seriously. this is something as you all know, that he -- that he will not shy away from saying and has

continued to say this, this week, and again, he was surprised these records have been found. he does not know what's in them, and his team once they identified that these documents were were there, they immediately reached out to the archives of the department of justice, and they did the right thing by turning that over. they have been cooperating very closely with the department of justice. you actually heard ag, attorney general garland say today they've heard from his team really shortly after the discovery, and so, you know, i just want to make sure that there is understood. he takes this very seriously. >> speaking of taking it seriously, this is the kind of thing that cause government employees to lose their security clearance. it's a serious matter. was the president sloppy to handle this material after documents are being found? >> i said it in a statement. it's in the statement of -- from his lawyer, and at the end he

said we are confident a thorough review will show these documents were inadvertently misplaced and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake. i'll leave it there. that's what his lawyer said, but again, this is something that the president takes very seriously and we have been coordinating. they have been coordinating h his -- they have been coordinating with the department of justice. >> on monday, all the conversation was about the documents in the office. however, according to the attorney general, documents were found december 20th in wilm wilmington. why was it not addressed and they were not transparent about that if it was not discovered up front? >> we have been transparent here. that is why the minute that his lawyers found those documents, they reported it. they reached out to the archives of the department of justice, and voluntarily.

the lawyers said we have been working closely with the department of justice and coordinating a search that was still ongoing to ensure any additional documents were in the proper possession of the government. after that search -- after the search concluded last night, we released a statement disclosing the facts from that search as you all know, this morning. this is all part of the justice department process, and you heard the attorney general speak to this today. so we are being very careful to be nu fully cooperative with th department of justice and providing details appropriate as part of that. >> you'll describe the documents when you were asked -- >> and i actually answered that question. i said there was a process happening that was currently ongoing, and i'll refer you back to my comments i made just yesterday. go ahead, mary. >> just a couple of things i want to clarify to make sure our reporting is as accurate as possible. the special counsel -- the white

house counsel's statement this morning said that documents were found in the president's wilm wilmington's resident's garage and room, but when the president mentioned it earlier, he said th they were found in storage areas and library. where were the documents found in his residence. >> let me just step back because i know you'll have a lot of questions. i'll lay this out very clearly and precisely. i don't want -- i want to make sure no one is confused as you said. as soon as the lawyers found these documents. they contacted archives and department of justice as i've said many times already to make sure they were handled properly. the president has said this. they were being fully cooperative as part of the president's lawyers look through the places where documents could have been stored, and the counsel's office release as you said, a statement explaining that. i would refer you back to the statement. i don't have anything more to say, but that search was completed last night, and now this is in the hands of the justice department. so look.

i want to be very prudent here as i said yesterday, as you all have reported over and over again about any questions about this, any specifics. there's a review going on, and i would refer you to the department of justice or my colleagues in the counsel's office, but i'm just not going to go beyond what the president said. we just laid out -- we just laid out the process that was taken. >> are you saying it was found in garage ande adjacent room? >> i'm saying i'm not going to go beyond what the president said. i completely understand. i want to be very careful because there is an ongoing investigation. i want to be prudent here, and make sure if you have any additional questions about where things were found, again, i refer you to the statement. i'm not going to go beyond what the president said. >> one other point of clarification. the president said he was surprised to learn about the documents and he didn't know what was in these documents. he didn't sort of repeat that this morning about the documents found at his residence.

was he also surprised to find there were classified documents at his residence, and does he have any information about them? >> he was surprised that the documents were there, and that is also in line with what we shared this morning, and he takes this very seriously when it comes to classified information, when it comes to classified documents, and again, it still stays the same. he was surprised the records were found. he does not know what's in them. that has not changed, and again, his team, when they identified that they were -- that they were there, they immediately reached out to the archives, reached out to doj just as they did last night, and as we have pretty much laid out previously. >> one more just because much has been made of the differences here between when you all have handled these documents and the former president. when the fbi went -- i'm sorry. garland said the fbi went to the president's residence, and secured these documents.

did the fbi just retrieve documents or was there a search of the residence? >> again, i'm just not going to go into the particulars or the specifics of what the department of justice did. i can speak to what we have done, and what is already out there. we laid out a statement pretty extensively on monday, and we laid out a statement on what was found last night. i'm just not going to go beyond. i'll refer you to the department of justice that will dgive you the specifics on that. there's an ongoing process and a review currently occurring. >> thank you. >> can you shed any light on how the documents got to these places and why? >> yeah. there's an ongoing process. it's being reviewed. i don't have any -- don't have more to share. i'm going to let the department of justice answer any questions as they're looking at this. >> does the white house think that the appointment of a special prosecutor was warranted? >> i'm not going to get into the decisions that were made by the

attorney general. you've heard me say this many times before. this is a president that believes in the independence of the justice department. this is something he has been saying since the campaign, and you've heard me say this over and over in restoring that independence. so look. we have been we havery, very ca here not to influence their decision-making on any number of issues. as you've heard me say over and over again, i've said this many times. i'm sure someone has counted the amount of times that i have said the department of justice is independent and we respect their independence. i'm certainly not going to comment or give my opinion. we are going to give our opinion on what the attorney general laid out today. >> what broadly does the white house make of comparisons between president biden's handling of documents and former president trump's handling? >> i'm not going to get into politics from here. what i can say is what i have laid out, which is the president takes this very seriously.

he does. he said this twice, and he did not know that the records were there when they were found. he does not know what's in them, and what he did and what his team did is the minute that they realized that the documents were there, and i'll leave it there, and i'll leave you all to pontificate and do your punditry. i'll not do that from here. >> thank you. there were a second set of documents and they were completing the ongoing review rast night. does that mean there are no other locations where documents are stored or is there a search under way at this point in time? >> so as i'm just going to -- again, that statement pretty much lays it out, that they have -- the lawyers have looked through places where documents could have been stored and the

counsel's office released a statement on that. now it is the hands of the special counsel. you should assume it's been completed, yes. >> the review was under way when you guys gave a detailed statement about the first set of documents. the review was under way. you're saying -- you're talking about the second set of documents discovered almost a month prior because a review was under way. i don't understand -- it doesn't make any sense. the review is under way the entire time. the only difference is the reporters had information on the first set of documents and therefore you chose to exclude the second set until the reporters got information on the second set. >> let me unconfuse you for a second. we're trying to do this by the book. this was under review by the department of justice and the process is as such. when the president's lawyers realized that the documents existed, that they were there, they reached out to the archives. they reached out to the department of justice.

rightfully so may i add. that is what you are supposed to do as lawyers. that's what they did, and they have fully been cooperating with -- with the department of justice, and again, i said this earlier and answering a question you heard from the attorney general. he said shortly after the documents were discovered, that we did outrage the -- the president's lawyers did outrage to the department of justice and archivists. >> we're asking about -- >> i'm telling you there's a process. i just laid out what the process is. i'm telling you what we were trying to do this by the book, and it was ongoing process. i'm not going to get beyond that, but that is how this works. >> how can you say this was transparent when you've sat on this information for more than two months? >> thank you, karine. >> we are seeking information, and i appreciate and understand why the press office can only say so much, so help us

understand this. who are the president's personal counsel that the attorney general referred to today? >> i have to -- i was asked that question earlier. let me get back to you. i actually don't have that answer. i think i know who it is, but i want to make 100% -- >> remus, garland, are they -- >> i want to say the right thing from here. so we would have to -- i would have to talk to the white house counsel or you wufould have to reach out to who are his personal lawyers. >> the first set of documents were found in november here in washington. why did it take until yesterday -- until this morning apparently for whoever it was to inform robert lausch that that final document was found? was that because there were press reports earlier this week, and the hope was nobody would find out or was it because -- >> again, there is a process, an ongoing process that is occurring. we did this by the book, and

what i mean by that is the moment the lawyers discovered the papers were there, or the documents were there, they reached out to the archives. they reached out to the department of justice and they immediately, rightfully so, reached out to them to let them know what they had discovered, and that is the process. that is what we -- that is what his lawyers did, and again, it's an ongoing process as you stated in your question. i am limited in what i can say. it is now in the hands of the department of justice. they are reviewing this as you know. special counsel was announced by the attorney general, and so i will leave it there. >> what was the president trying to say when he referenced his corvette earlier today? it sounded like he was implying that because his garage is a safe place for his car, the documents were safe. therefore it was safe for the car and safe for the documents. is that what he meant? >> look. i'm going to just leave his statement as is. i think your colleague was

having a back and forth with the president. you can read the transcript of what was asked of him and why he responded that way. >> you talked about we are being transparent. who's we, and what is the definition of transparent in this case? is it the lawyers being transparent legally with the archives and the justice department or sit the white house being transparent with the general public? >> so number one, and i have said this multiple times already, we take this very seriously. the president takes this very seriously. he was not aware that the records were there. he does not know what is in the documents. again, classified information. classified documents. he takes very serely. when they were discovered, and this is the right thing to do, right? his lawyers reached out immediately to the archivists. they reached out to department of justice to let them know that the papers or the documents assist --

>> the attorney general this morning said the attorneys reached out to the archives. it was only later in december when the second batch was found. >> i will leave it to what the department of justice is laying out. what we are saying is that we reached out of the archivists. we reached out of the department of justice. that is the right thing to do in this case, and not -- and so i can finish here, and what has been transparent in this as well, is that the white house counsel has laid out in detail on monday to all of you -- >> not everything, karine, and you know that. >> first of all, i can't talk about this, right? the department of justice is reviewing it. there is a review happening, ed. right? you know this. we just heard from the attorney general. i am limited in what i can say t to this. i think you should reach out to the white house counsel. >> we're reaching out on a constant basis. >> i am saying to you that we

have put out lengthy statements and you can reach out to them as you all have been doing, and i will leave it there. go ahead. >> why not have them come and answer the questions? >> they have been -- they have been talking to you all pretty regularly the last couple of days. we have put out and they have put out lengthy statements on this. i just read out what richard sarber had to say. i am limited in what i can say because -- because the department of justice, we see them as being independent when it comes to these types of issues. so i'm not going to go beyond what the president said, and i'm not going to go beyond what the lawyers say. i have to go around. you've asked me -- ed. >> there is a limited transparency, public nonlegal transparency in what can be shared and said by this white house. >> i disagree, ed. there is not been a limit of transparency. there has not been a limit of

transparency. i will disagree with you on that. justin? >> thanks. i did want to kind of follow up on what ed and phil were asking which is putting aside the question of whether the president's lawyers acted p properly in handing the documents over, there's a lingering question of why there wasn't an acknowledgment of the second set of documents earlier this week, and you said you're working through a process and going but the book, and what i'm curious is if you are trying to sort of hint at the idea that the justice department asked you not to reveal the second set of documents or you were told in some way not to disclose anything that had not been made public. >> i would not jump to those conclusions. that is not what i'm stating. i'm saying to you there is an ongoing process that we are going to follow, and i am limited in what i can say from here. that is why my white house counsel colleagues are the -- we refer to them these past couple of days. now this is in the hands of the department of justice. as you all heard from the attorney general himself.

>> i guess i remain confused if the justice department didn't ask you not to disclose these documents, why on monday as this n news was coming out and tuesday the president was talking about, you didn't say, here's everything we know at this point? the first that was found at biden's home, and the second set were at his office. >> there's an ongoing process and you heard directly from the attorney general today, and that is the process. that is how this is going to go. it is not going to come from here at this podium. it's going to come from the department of justice and that's just the process that's happening currently. >> i feel slightly bad about chasing karine from the room. >> you can't ask a question you could have asked to kirby. >> you had a question asked yesterday about moderna raising

the prices. >> michael is not here today. i don't want -- first, i don't want anybody to be confused here, and as you know, this is incredibly important. so you can go to 90,000 locations and get a moderna or any covid-19 shot for free. that is currently what folks can do, and they are our best protection against the xbb 1.5 right now, and so if you haven't please go get your shot as you've heard from me, as you've heard from our covid-19 team here. they have been very clear on why this is important, and why folks should get their shots. as it relates to the question, what senator sanders is talking about is future shots, and the process of moving forward -- moving toward a commercial market for covid shots. so we share this concern so we share that concern that shots should be affordable. we share that with senator sanders. the price hike is hard to

understand or to justify. again, we -- we do have those concerns as well and we believe that shots should be affordable. >> a couple of basic geography questions you may not be able to answer but is the library a room adjacent to the garage? >> again, i -- i don't have any of this information that i can provide. i would -- this is under review. i would -- i would refer you to department of justice. i'm just not going to go into specifics here. not something i can do from here. >> is the president's corvette stored in the garage where the documents were found? just for pure fact purposes? >> i will basically repeat what the president said. his corvette is in the garage. i'm not going beyond what the president said. >> on the transparency issue, would you admit that earlier this week the white house shared incomplete information? i think that when we all heard merrick garland say these documents at the residence were found on december 20th that they

were notified, that was pretty surprising to all of us based on the statements that you and the president and the counsel's office had made. >> as you saw in our statement, the documents were found last night when they completed the search with documents being found last night and then this morning we put out -- we put out -- you heard from the white house counsel, we put out the information on specifically what was found. >> but just one document was found last night. >> the search was continuing. it was ongoing. the process, as i've been saying, was ongoing and the search is clearly complete and therefore we shared the information with all of you. again, this is an ongoing process to the department of justice on any specific particulars even on time line or any other questions that you have. >> is -- >> right here. >> i'm going to go back. go ahead. >> call out to a couple questions, but is the president -- you said that the

search has been completed. is the president confident that there are no additional documents with classified markings that remain in any other additional locations? >> look, i can just refer you to what his team said. the search is complete. he is confident in his process and i will leave it there and they've been cooperating very closely with the department of justice. >> we've got the statement that the white house did not get advance notice that garland was -- >> that is correct. >> when did the president learn? how did he learn? was it from a press conference? did he get a heads up before that? >> we learned from the press conference. we were not given a heads up and we learned from the press conference. >> he was in a funeral. when did somebody tell him. >> look, he was at a funeral to your point. maybe one of his senior advisers told him. i actually don't know when he knew but what i can say to you, we were not given a heads up that i can confirm as you know already. >> have you had a chance to talk to him? >> no, i have not had a chance

to talk to the president about this or his reaction. >> does the white house feel like house republicans have a right to conduct an investigation on documents issue? they have started sending requests to say they're going to look into this. does that fall in the realm of sort of legitimate requests from house republicans right now? >> i'm not going to speak to what the house republicans decide to do. what i can speak to is we are -- the president's lawyers are complying. they are working on this with the department of justice as they have been. again, this is something that the president takes very seriously when it comes to classified information, when it comes to classified documents. i'm just not going to go into what the republicans on the house do or don't do. >> sorry, separate from this. i was wondering if the white house had any thought on the senate primary in california that's shaping up? >> as you know, the president sees senator feinstein as a long time friend and colleague whom

he deeply respects and has collaborated with. so he respects the talented officials in california who are expressing interest in running for her seat and we are prohibited from here, as you know, about talking about campaigns or elections. not something that i can do from the podium so it would be inappropriate for me to weigh in on any specifics on any forthcoming senate race, including the one in california. clearly he sees her as a long-time friend and colleague. >> yeah, the president when he was in mexico city and asked about the classified documents that were found in the private office in the biden center said that he didn't know what the documents contained or what was in them. is that the case also with the documents found at his wilmington residence, that he doesn't know what those documents involved? >> yeah. i already answered the question.

he does not know. he is not aware. >> could you clarify, we informed the department of justice immediately, what exactly was said? it seems to be some conflict there. >> look, again, i will refer you to the department of justice. what i can tell you is that his lawyers reached out to the archive vices, to the department of justice, which is what you're supposed to do, which is the right thing to do. i'm not going to get into the specifics of who they reached out to first. i would refer you to the white house counsel to get more specifics. it is an ongoing process and i would, again, refer to either the white house counsel or department of justice for that specific question. >> just a couple of outstanding clarifications before i get to questions. salver said there were questions in the garage and one document in an adjacent room. merrick garland said they were

informed of an additional document? >> let me just say during the review so folks know, the lawyers discovered among al political papers a small number of obama/biden papers and all were found in the storage space in the president's wilmington residence garage. one document consisting of one page was found in an adjacent room. look, i just want to underscore that this is something, again, that the president takes very seriously. it underscores how we executed the search with the doj to make sure that they continued cooperating fully with the review. that's what we're trying to be very clear about. we have been -- the president's lawyers have been cooperating fully. fully. i'm not going to get into the specifics as to you have the statement.

i would refer you to the president's lawyer or anything else specifically on this or the department of justice because they are actually reviewing this currently. >> can you tell us today when did the president find out about the first batch of documents or the second batch. our reporting says he was told on november 2nd. is that true? >> what i can say is the president has been kept informed by his counsel throughout this process. >> documents -- >> i don't have a specific date but i can tell you the president was kept informed throughout. don't have a time line to share for you right now. again, this is under ongoing review and so want to be careful and prudent of what i share here at the podium. >> how about when the search started and why they were searching in the first place? was the president concerned there might have been classified documents? what sparked this? >> again, i'm just not going to go into details from here. i'm not going into specifics here. this review is continuing, is

ongoing. i would refer you to the department of justice. >> the president has said he takes classified documents very seriously. if that's the case, why were these classified documents being stored in his garage? >> look, again, not just me, he has said this. you have heard the president say this twice already and he has said this before, classified documents and information, he takes that very seriously and you -- >> do you think the garage is an appropriate place to store classified documents? >> i'm not going to go into -- into what he thinks or how he feels about what is currently happening. what i can say for sure when it comes to this specific issue about classified documents, about classified information, he takes that very seriously. he did not know, right, he did not know the records were there. he was surprised that the records were there so let's be very clear. that is something that the president shared with all of you on the world stage and also recently today and so what he --

what occurred was, as i've said multiple times before, when his team identified that these records existed, they handed them over to the archiveist and the department of justice. >> one more. >> sure. >> do you acknowledge that the fact that the white house did not reveal this to the public despite the fact that he had known about it for months undercuts the president's promise of being transparent to the american people. >> but here's the thing, they were transparent. there was -- there was transparency in doing what you're supposed to do when these -- when these items were discovered. >> not with the american people. >> look, i am here standing in front of you answering these questions, right? the president took two questions this week on this. you've heard -- let me just answer. you've heard from the white house counsel who put out multiple statements on this and so, again, this is an ongoing process. we want to respect