JUST IN: White House Knocks Negative ‘Political Speculation’ Around Docs Controversy — Say Biden Won’t Delay 2024 Launch

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

President Joe Biden will not delay his 2024 campaign launch, as allies and advisers mock detractors and the White House vows to fight through the “noise” of intense “political speculation” they say has proven wrong in the past.

One narrative that has developed around the classified documents discovered by Biden aides in private storage spaces — including his Wilmington home — and which are now under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Hur is the idea that the case will affect the president’s decision when to announce his reelection campaign, or whether to run at all.

Despite an extremely chaotic (to put it mildly) early public interface on the issue, members of the president’s inner circle are very confident the blizzard of controversy will blow over, and Biden’s plans won’t change. That’s what they told CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere:

In interviews with CNN, people around the president talk about the “DC elite” making “DC noise.” They argue that the attention to these documents may prove to be only the latest passing obsession, and that many of the questions they’re facing are from journalists and politicians who aren’t accepting that Biden is “honoring his promise to a T by upholding the rule of law and respecting DOJ’s process,” according to a Biden adviser.

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Those around Biden with actual information aren’t laying their plans out to nervous donors or members of Congress, whom they know will turn around and talk publicly, and barely care about their complaints over being left out. They mock the political forecasters and the talk of “optics.” They keep private score of four years’ worth of critics whom they feel have fallen flat over and over and dismiss the idea that they’ve gotten so convinced by their own survival mythology that they always underplay whatever arises.

The Biden White House has never been shy about pointing to critics who in their estimation turn out to be wrong, and this case is no exception. When reached for comment, Deputy White House Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser for Strategic Response Andrew Bates emphasized how seriously the president takes the issue of classified documents, but pushed back on doomsaying political critics.

“The President has been clear that he takes classified material very seriously, which is why he’s upholding the rule of law and keeping his promises to the American people by fully cooperating with DOJ and respecting their processes and independence. When it comes to political speculation, this can literally be averaged. Look back from shortly before the President launched his campaign to now. The accuracy rate of pundits’ negative predictions about him or his strategies is dismal. Our MO, by contrast, has aged well: tune out the noise, do the work, deliver; and remember that the President knows the American people and they know him,” Bates said, and added that the issue is not a factor in the president’s decision to announce his reelection effort.

Asked whether the issue could hinder the president’s reelection, a Biden ally told Mediaite “You mean the fact that he’s honoring his promises and upholding the rule of law, unlike some people? No!”