for us. what do we know about the documents in this second batch? reporter: we don t know much other than biden s attorneys uncovered a second batch. the first batch was found in early november in an office that his attorneys were clearing out. that included ten classified documents, including information about iran, the uk and ukraine and even included top-secret information. we re told it was that discovery that spurred the searches in additional locations looking for other documents. we don t know where the second batch was found, what it includes. one of the biggest questions, is this it? the white house has been very careful not to say that the first batch or second batch is all they know is out there. that s a really big question to have hanging over the white house. how is the gop responding to this on capitol hill? i m sure they re pouncing.
remember, once the administration is over, any presidential record is no longer yours. it belongs to the archives and you have a responsibility to get it to the archives. if you re talking about hundreds of pages of documents, you typically have people doing that and you may not know if all the documents have been turned over. you do your best to make sure that happens. you hope your staff does its job in collecting the information and turning it over. in terms of firsthand knowledge, it s difficult for a vice president or a president or even a cabinet secretary to know for sure. that s why the white house has been so reluctant to say, this is all there is because they re i m sure doing a search right now to confirm. you just said you should do everything you can to get them to the proper place.
when you leave office. president biden said he takes classified information seriously. is it easier than people think to take it with them? you have to remember we re talking about a lot of information and documents that happen at the end of an administration. generally you have aides that have responsibility to gather up that information and move it to, say, a presidential library or a place where presidential private personal documents are going to be stored for the outgoing administration. it could be that president biden has no idea what else might be out there because he didn t actually move the documents. is it easy? i wouldn t say it s easy, but certainly possible that, when you leave office, you take some documents with you that are classified. it s important that you
reporter: of course they re pouncing. house oversight wants briefings. you showed the clip of kevin mccarthy asking why it wasn t disclosed. the speaker knows it s the justice department s standard operating procedure. they don t comment on current investigations. he explained what happened at mar-a-lago was a raid. that s not accurate. it was a duly activated search warrant. the big question is for attorney general merrick garland, whether he wants to appoint a special counsel. now that we have documents found in a second location, don, that suggests he may be left with no choice. politically, look, if voters feel like they re not getting all the information and they keep uncovering new classified documents in other settings, it can become a big political
as for the white house, key questions remain unanswered. i m going to leave it there. this is under review by the department of justice. i m not going to go beyond what the president shared. i m not going to go beyond what the white house counsel shared. reporter: is the president saying he did not bring those documents to that office? i m not going beyond what the president said. reporter: do we know who i m not going beyond what the president said. one house democrat says politics shouldn t be the issue with something this serious. classified documents belong in classified settings. if we re having consistent problems across parties with exiting government officials not putting classified documents where they belong, that s something we should take up. oversight isn t about partisanship. paula reid live in washington