Republicans react to Biden White House secrecy around Delaware visitors: ‘a bunch of malarkey’

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans reacted to the White House dodging questions on the reportedly nonexistent visitor logs from President Biden’s Delaware home.

A recent New York Post report revealed that the Secret Service claimed to have no records on the identities of visitors to the president’s home in Delaware. 

Fox News Digital asked the White House if they have records of who has met with the president at his Delaware home and if the administration would release them. If no such records exist, Fox News Digital asked, why is the White House not keeping track of who is meeting the president? 

SECRET SERVICE CLAIMS NO RECORDS EXIST OF BIDEN’S DELAWARE VISITORS, REPORT SAYS

The White House dodged the questions, instead taking aim at the prior administration over the handling of their White House visitor’s logs.

“President Biden is proud to lead the most transparent administration in American history, and to have restored the practice of releasing visitors logs after it was discontinued by his predecessor,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.

“We also respect that it’s always the role of evenhanded news outlets to advocate for more transparency,” he continued. 

The Trump administration drew harsh criticism over its approach to visitor’s logs, which White Houses traditionally have made public.

The Trump administration kept the former president’s White House visitor’s log under lock and key, arguing that executive privilege allowed them to do so and breaking precedent.

In February, Biden ordered the release of former President Trump’s visitor’s logs to the congressional committee on the January 6th riot, with the National Archives following through on the order in March.

The Biden administration has released visitor logs to the White House, but has kept secret the identities of those who have visited Biden in Delaware, where the president has spent over a quarter of his time since taking office. 

The Delaware residences where Biden has stayed are less publicly visible than the White House, making it difficult to know whom the president has seen during those trips. 

House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital the “claim that there are no visitor logs for President Biden’s Delaware residence is a bunch of malarkey.”

BIDEN HEADS BACK TO DELAWARE BEACH HOUSE, WHERE HE’S BUILDING $500K TAXPAYER-FUNDED SECURITY FENCE

“President Biden has spent a large amount of time at his Delaware residence since assuming office,” Comer said. “Americans deserve to know who President Biden is meeting with, especially since we know that he routinely met with Hunter’s business associates during his time as vice president. The Biden Administration must provide transparency to the American people.”

“The administration has repeatedly refused to give answers about Hunter Biden’s laptop, Joe Biden’s knowledge of corrupt business dealings, and meetings at Biden’s private hideout in Delaware,” Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee told Fox News Digital. “Joe Biden’s America operates under two standards: one for the radical left and one for the rest of the country.”

“What is the Administration hiding? It’s one thing to assert confidentiality concerns when it comes to releasing logs about personal meetings with the President, but it’s quite another to claim these records don’t exist,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.

“It’s bad if there is official business being conducted and they aren’t telling us with who,” Mace continued. “It’s even worse the Administration is using the Secret Service to excuse its complete and total lack of transparency.”

Mace added that every “individual that comes into close proximity with the President, in an official or personal capacity, is screened by the Secret Service” and that “record exists somewhere.”

BIDEN’S OFFICE WAS CONCERNED ABOUT ‘POLITICAL SENSITIVITIES’ OF RELEASING SENATE PAPERS, 2010 EMAIL REVEALS

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital the “apparent lack of candor and openness concerning issues within this administration, does not match the standard that President Biden set on January 20, 2021.”

“In his Press Secretary’s words, the Biden administration would, ‘share information even when it is hard to hear,'” Sessions said. “They have failed to live up to their own standards.”

The New York Post reported that it requested the information about who visited the president at his Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach homes as part of the Freedom of Information Act but had its appeal denied.

In a letter dated Sept. 27, Secret Service deputy director Faron Paramore wrote, “The agency conducted an additional search of relevant program offices for potentially responsive records,” according to the paper.

“This search also produced no responsive records,” the letter read. “Accordingly, your appeal is denied.”

The denial is the latest in a series of developments involving Biden’s records.

In a March 2010 email reviewed by Fox New Digital, the office of then-Vice President Biden expressed concerns about the University of Delaware’s terms for the “deed of gift” for his Senate papers “due to the political sensitivities” that could arise from releasing the papers to the public.

The email went on to list some sections that needed to be reviewed, including “Property ownership,” “Timing of archival processing and public release,” “Opportunity for review prior to release” and “Scope.”

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed reporting.