Mike Luckovich for January 12, 2023

I am a PROgressive Democrat and Biden supporter who wants Trump held accountable, but c’mon, fair is fair … the Biden incident is more than just the moral equivalent of cash back at an ATM being called a “withdrawal.” Something went wrong and attention is required to ensure full remediation.

In this instance, a better comparison would be Trump committing armed robbery (knowingly taking huge amounts of highly-sensitive TS/SCI classified documents [including nuclear] and making every effort to retain control of his stolen riches) compared to Biden having a bank redirect a deposit meant for someone else into his account that goes undiscovered for some time and when HIS OWN auditors discover the error, promptly notifying the bank and returning the inappropriate deposit. Clearly, the first is a serious problem that is the moral equivalent of DUI vehicular manslaughter while the latter is the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Yes, the second one needs to be addressed, but the two things are not the same. One includes elements of “willfulness” and “obstruction”; the other does not.

The real moral outrage is that the same Republican hypocrites who want to ignore the crimes of Donald Trump now want to investigate Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents?

Republicans want to turn a blind eye, deaf ear and missing conscience away from the serious crimes of Donald Trump, while stirring up fake outrage over non-issues and Trumped-up conspiracy theories against Joe Biden, his children (for activity that had nothing to do with him) and his medical advisors for having the temerity to stand up for real science. As @wildthing labeled it yesterday, it is literally “McCarthyism 2.0” — and that is literally true, from Republican “Tailgunner Joe” McCarthy in the 1950’s to Republican Kevin “15th Ballot” McCarthy in 2023.

From McCarthy to McCarthy: “Have you, at long last, no shame?”

Apparently the Republican Party continues to be shameless.

Traitor ele fink lies as often as possible to cover his own guilt.

This or that?

Very apropos.

False equivalencies are alive and well within the GOP!

While there is a significant difference between carelessness and willful theft of classified documents, it is truly sad that some have resorted to the “lesser evil” excuse, to justify the fact that our winner-take-all, seemingly, no-holds-barred, opposing-party system — with job requirements of age and citizenship as the only restraints — is woefully inadequate to assure competent, responsible, dependable, trustworthy, ethical leaders for We The People.

All animals are not equal…

The more the republicans try to make what happened with Biden look bad the worse they make trump look. Outside of their own little bubble every time they say “what Biden did is inexcusable, he should be prosecuted.” The more sane rational people will point out that if Biden did bad trump did orders of magnitude worse. The repugs cognitive dissonance will allow them to hold both the idea that while Biden’s situation is horrific, that trumps is no big deal and should be forgotten. Will they convince the rest of the country that this ludicrous claim is true? We’ll see.

Wow!! Worse attempt to differentiate the same “crime” “mistake” “abuse” what ever you want to call it same deed and main difference one had authority over them and where send to them by the official handlers and the other well he just tool them and kept the in a closet for 6 years mind you! Oh and the fact that they have to do w Ukraine in hunters time im sure thats a coincidence ! Right?

Stupid people are going to think this is the same thing.

Nailed it. Another reason Mike has that Pulitzer thingy.

seems almost like Biden lawyers thought, hmmm no one seems to get in trouble for this…maybe we can play the good guys and come forward.

also, a think tank seems like it would be more interested in using classified documents than the staff at mar-a-lago

It’s embarrassingly clear both episodes point out, that when anyone leaves office, there is a glaring problem with how sensitive documents are handled . Apparently, no one keeps track of who has them or where they are. But I suggest that whatever measures the current controlling Party wishes to take against the current president, they must also apply the same measures to the former holder of that office. After all, they still claim to be the “Law and Order Party,” don’t they?

If trump had lost track of half a dozen secure documents in a box filled with other documents, kept them in a secure holding area in a locked office in trump tower, then when discovered had come clean and returned them, I could see giving him a pass.

Carrying out over a hundred boxes filled with them, leaving them in an unsecured storeroom in a hotel where members of foreign governments routinely stayed then denying having them, actively fighting to prevent them from being returned then forcing a showdown just so he can claim to be a victim of FBI harassment means NO PASS!

1. One fought tooth and nail + heavy duty lying to keep the documents. As usual he declared they belonged to him. Lied at least twice. Kept documents where anyone could get to them.2. The other had documents found in locked rooms by his lawyers from his VP days. Contacted the National Archives immediately. Returned them as soon as they were found.

Trump lashes out after Fox analyst compares Biden think tank documents to FBI’s Mar-a-Lago haul

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-lashes-fox-analyst-compares-161611319.html

Karl Rove is a heavy duty conservative from the GW Bush administration:

1. “And I think there’s something about conservatives frankly – and the Left, when it comes to their channels of persuasion, are unpersuasive. They are, most of them are hate-filled, obscenity-clogged rants of anger and hatred.”

2. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

3. “All politicians operate within an Orwellian nimbus where words don’t mean what they normally mean, but Rovism posits that there is no objective, verifiable reality at all. Reality is what you say it is.”

Exactly as the GQP loons see it.

Well put, Mr. L!

Sounds like the system for tracking and retaining classified documents needs to be reviewed and updated. This is a system error and a dangerous one.

And the elephant would also cry about “everybody being mean to Trump” while throwing every expletive he knew against Biden… followed by complaining how only Biden and Democrats divide our country…

Punch-line needs work, say: “They both took money out of the bank”—?

Which one of these guys claimed — apparently with pride — that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and get away with it?

Great cartoon explaining the difference.

OTOHing is binary. Behavior with any degree of similarity is exactly equivalent.

Perfect

Egg-xactly!

Classified documents are frequently mishandled. That’s not the point. The point is Trump’s refusal to return them upon request, and then subpoena, and even after an FBI search.

What happened with Biden’s team is an error. What Trump did is a crime.

If Biden did this:

If Trump did this:

Democrats would say this:

See how it goes both ways?