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Cruz wants Biden’s Senate records scoured for more classified docs, dubs him ‘Mr. Magoo’

Texan says FBI must inspect Univ. of Delaware trove in search of more mishandled Biden material.

WASHINGTON – Mocking Joe Biden as “Mr. Magoo,” Sen. Ted Cruz demanded the FBI scour the president’s old Senate records after more classified documents surfaced at his home in Delaware.

It’s a huge trove: Biden donated 33 pallets holding 1,875 boxes to the University of Delaware in June 2012. The collection from his 36 year Senate career includes 415 gigabytes of electronic records.

“I’m right now calling for the Department of Justice, for the FBI, to examine all 1,850 boxes… to see how many additional classified documents are in those records,” Cruz said on his podcast. “The answer should be none. But given Biden’s pattern, we should have zero reason have any confidence that there are not multiple classified documents” to be found.

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Asked Tuesday about Cruz’s demand, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred the inquiry to the White House counsel’s office, where spokesman Ian Sams referred to a comment he made to reporters on Monday.

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“In terms of the searches, potential searches, things like that, I’m not going to get ahead of any decisions…but we’re fully cooperating with DOJ,” he said.

As chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden had regular access to classified documents.

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The access road to President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Del., is seen from the media...
The access road to President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Del., is seen from the media van on Jan. 13, 2023. Biden’s decision to allow the FBI to search his home in Delaware opened him to fresh embarrassment after the discovery of classified documents at his home and former office. But it was part of a legal and political calculation that aides believed would pay off in the long run.(Carolyn Kaster / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Nearly all of the classified documents found so far – at a University of Pennsylvania think tank office in Washington, and three sets from Biden’s garage in Wilmington –came from his eight years as vice president. But a half-dozen documents found Friday in Wilmington came from his time in the Senate.

“Joe Biden is Mr. Magoo,” Cruz said, referring to a clumsy, badly near-sighted, cartoon tycoon voiced during a 1960 TV series by Jim Backus, who later played Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island.

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“Joe Biden is as addle headed as any president we’ve seen. But even addle headed -- good God, is there a place this man didn’t leave classified documents?” Cruz said. “He sticks it in his Corvette. He sticks it in the room by his Corvette….He sticks it in the Penn library… It’s Keystone Cops.”

Revelations Tuesday that classified documents turned up at the Indiana home of Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, amounted to a huge gift to the Biden White House after days of struggle to tamp down the uproar.

“If this past couple of weeks is not taught in PR and communication courses a decade from now, I’ll be surprised,” Cruz said. “The White House could not have handled this worse.”

As more documents surfaced, conservatives have slammed Biden as cavalier in his handling of classified material.

Democrats countered by needling Republicans by contrasting their outrage over Biden’s documents, which he and his lawyers promptly reported to the National Archived and Justice Department, with their lack of public concern at former president Donald Trump’s refusal to turn over a vastly larger stash of classified documents.

Cruz, though, accused the Biden team of dissembling. He singled out White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

“Even though the reporters are partisans, they smell blood in the water. They’re sharks. And they’re frustrated. Because what she says now every day is wrong,” Cruz said. “Either she has no idea what she’s talking about or she’s actively part of the cover up.”

“Why is Biden going to the beach house?” Cruz said, recalling a query last week about why the president was spending his weekend in Rehoboth Beach instead of Wilmington. “Oh, no reason, just thought the beach would be pretty--not that there are G-men raiding the president’s house as we speak,” Cruz added, reimagining Jean-Pierre’s response.

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“The house is on fire,” he said.