It’s one thing for leftists to think they’re above the law; it’s another for a ‘populist administration’ to treat rank and file with such easy contempt.

Our supposed betters can’t get it through their thickly pomaded heads that tossing around classified info as if it’s a derivative meme is not only morally wrong, as it endangers the lives of servicemen and could foil the United States’ foreign policy aims, but also a heinous breach of regulations. I wrote some time ago about Biden’s failures on this count, and now our new civilian military leadership forces its exhumation.

I write:

You know those times when you come across documents marked “Secret” in your garage or root cellar, and you’ll be doggoned where they came from? Yeah, me neither (despite my Navy-ordained security clearances and past access).

. . .

One reason (a very good one) that I’ve never unearthed a few hundred pages of nuclear-engineering worksheets in my off time is that the classified documents and assignments issued to me were kept in lockers secured by reinforced combination padlocks in a guarded government facility (the infamous Rickover building) located on a Navy base protected by the swamps of South Carolina and armed military police (Masters-at-Arms).

Taking documents for a joyride isn’t an option.

As U.S. Code § 1924 makes clear:

(a)
Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.

(b)
For purposes of this section, the provision of documents and materials to the Congress shall not constitute an offense under subsection (a).

(c)
In this section, the term “classified information of the United States” means information originated, owned, or possessed by the United States Government concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States that has been determined pursuant to law or Executive order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure in the interests of national security.

So when it turns out the former vice president, Joseph R. Biden, has a few boxes of classified documents from his time in the Obama administration sloshing around in his garage, former servicemen and agency members are within their rights to feel miffed at the delicate treatment given to a grievous breach of protocol that would see any of us regular schmucks frog-marched to prison forthwith.

You can read the rest here.

Dominic, Jeff, and Mark have said most of what I would consider, so I’ll leave it with this: If Trump fumbles national security and the economy in his first six months, his administration could actually manage to resurrect the Democrats from their crypts below the Smithsonian.

It’s one thing for technocratic leftists to think they’re above the law; it’s another for a populist administration purportedly looking out for “the little guy” to treat all the nameless sailors and airmen in harm’s way with such easy contempt.