News media last week reported with many ALL CAPS headlines, that classified government documents had been found by President Biden’s staff, in several unauthorized locations, including the President’s garage in Delaware. (But they were locked up with his Corvette, so not to worry!) The discovery has prompted comparisons to the stash found after former President Trump’s home Mar-A-Lago was raided late last year, but mainstream media insist the two cases are “like night and day”. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a special investigation into the President’s mishandling of the papers.

While the discovery was made early in November, GOP lawmakers want to know why the news was not made public ’til after the midterms. Of course, there is much chatter that this will sink the Biden presidency’s credibility for sure, but when everything feels like a mind game, who knows if discrediting him is just part of the plan? 

In other Capitol news… House Republicans launched an investigation into the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021. A number of Democrats were booted from intelligence committees and articles of impeachment were filed against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, over high crimes and misdemeanors at the border. Panels have been established to investigate “rampant abuse of power” by the federal government. Bipartisan support was given for a review of US/China policy and for a new “Church Committee” (in the style of the one from the 1970s) to investigate the “weaponization” of government intelligence agencies. 

With the new Congress seated, the Select Committee – set up to do the DOJ’s heavy-lifting by investigating the January 6th riot – has come to an end. Speaker McCarthy has promised to release all footage taken on that day, which observers say should vindicate those wrongly convicted of crime and confirm suspicions that many intelligence operatives were in the crowd and agitated for entering the Capitol building. 

Speaking of chaos..

President Biden’s transport secretary Pete Buttigieg is taking criticism after a computer system malfunction at the Federal Aviation Authority resulted in the nationwide grounding of all flights for just over an hour last week. This is the first time such a shutdown has occurred since 9/11. Notably, Canada experienced a similar system failure on the same day, but “mitigating supports” in place meant that flights weren’t disrupted.