After the release of the Hur report, Joe Biden decided it was a good idea to address the nation and throw a hissy fit. It was well after his bedtime, and it went really badly for him. Not only did he make some critical mistakes, he also blamed his staff for his having classified documents in the first place.
"I take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff would do!" he claimed.
It didn't add up, of course. Some of the classified documents he had were from his time in the U.S. Senate, and he would have been the only person in a position to remove those documents from the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF). Regardless of the deception he attempted, in the hopes of absolving himself of having mishandled classified documents, he threw his staff under the bus.
Under normal circumstances, one might think that if Biden really did fault his staff for mishandling classified documents—a federal crime—some accountability might be in order. Biden blames his staff, but, just as no one was held accountable for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, no one has been held accountable for the mishandling of classified documents.
Related: Is the White House Panicking About the Impeachment Inquiry?
Actually, it's worse. He's promoted them, and all within a day of Hur's report being released.
"Top aides to President Biden involved in his mishandling of classified documents were given plum promotions within 24 hours of the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s damning report," reports the New York Post. "Annie Tomasini, a Biden staffer since his Senate days, was named a deputy White House chief of staff on Feb. 8 — and the next day Richard Ruffner moved into Tomasini’s old gig as director of Oval Office operations."
“I don’t think it should shock anyone that the Biden administration promotes people who help them cover up Joe’s abuse of classified information,” said Jim Hanson, president of Worldstrat, a strategic consulting company.
Tomasini, 44, began her career with Biden as his press secretary in 2008 when he was a U.S. senator from Delaware, and worked as a deputy press secretary for him in 2009-2010 as vice president
On the 2020 campaign trail, she served as his traveling chief of staff and joined the administration as director of Oval Office operations when he moved to the White House. Biden’s niece Caroline reported to Tomasini during her uncle’s failed 2008 presidential campaign.
In November 2023, Tomasini was cited by the House Oversight Committee for having visited the Penn Biden Center “to take inventory of President Biden’s documents and materials” in March 2021. Classified documents were later found in the facility in November 2022.
It should come as no surprise that the White House has been blocking Tomasini from being interviewed by the House Oversight Committee.
“The Department of Justice has failed to deliver accountability for President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and now Biden aides involved in the scandal are getting promotions,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told the Post.
Richard Ruffner, who started his career as a special assistant to Jill Biden in 2014, eventually transitioned to a role with Vice President Biden in the final months of his term. Ruffner then served as a personal aide to the former vice president for nearly three years before moving to the Boston Consulting Group in June 2020. He rejoined Team Biden as deputy assistant to the president and director of Oval Office operations in February, taking over the position previously held by Tomasini.
His connection to classified documents discovered at Biden's Delaware residence in January 2023 came to light through testimony provided to the House Oversight Committee by Biden aide Kathy Chung in which she revealed that Ruffner and others like Steve Ricchetti, Melinda Medlin, and Sam Salk were involved in transporting undisclosed classified materials from a General Services Administration facility to a different D.C. office.
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