Vice presidents have the authority to classify and declassify documents -- just like presidents

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The magical declassification of classified documents is a stupid stunt that President Biden would not try. TFG supporters are claiming that Biden would have used this power to magically declassify if then Vice President Biden had that power. I was pleased to see that as Vice President, Joe Biden had the power to declassify documents but was too honorable to try this stunt.

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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-documents/

Under an Obama-era executive order that retained a Bush-era order, vice presidents have the authority to classify and declassify documents — just like presidents. There is some ambiguity about whether they have the power to order departments and agencies to declassify material deemed secret by those agencies, but the scope of this power has never been tested. In January 2023, after news broke that federal documents pertaining to U.S. President Joe Biden's tenure as vice president were uncovered at his former office and Delaware home, critics pushed the erroneous notion that he didn't have the authority, while serving under Obama, to declassify those files. Nonetheless, the matter was irrelevant to the U.S. Department of Justice's review of Biden's handling of such files.

In January 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden faced scrutiny after news emerged that government classified files were found in a private office he used after serving as vice president in Barack Obama's administration, as well as in a storage container at his Delaware home. The reports came just months after the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property to obtain hundreds of classified documents there.

Comparisons between the two cases ran rampant. Among the alleged differences, according to some social media users, was that Biden, in his position as vice president, did not have the authority to declassify government documents, while Trump, as president, did......

However, the claim that federal law does not give vice presidents the power to declassify government documents, and reserves that authority for presidents, is false.

Under a 2009 Obama-era executive order titled "Classified National Security Information" the vice president does have the power to declassify documents while they're in office. The order states: "The authority to classify information originally may be exercised only by: (1) the President and the Vice President [...]," as well as "agency heads and officials designated by the President."

[perfessor]

1. Unfortunately for Biden,

… Trump rescinded Obama’s order, just by thinking about it.

[stopdiggin]

2. Interesting. But not at all applicable

to the current situation. Which is why the administration isn't going near this with a 10 foot pole. (and shouldn't) President Biden has not claimed these documents were declassified (by him or anyone else)

(And thank god for that. - Just because Trump says a bunch of silly shit doesn't mean it's a great idea to ape his ridiculous behavior)

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. This power is not applicable because Joe Biden is a man of honor and not a sleeze like TFG

[stopdiggin]

4. nailed it.

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[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. PolitiFact Trump is wrong; Biden did have the right to declassify records as VP

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Brian Kilmeade declared that VP's can declassify documents. I provide receipts.

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