House Republican: Why was Biden retaining classified documents as VP at all?

BLITZER: “Let me get your reaction to the breaking news. You’re a member of Congress. You deal with classified information. What’s your reaction to this?”
DONALDS: “Oh, well, my reaction is pretty simple. I’m wondering why the vice president of the United States had classified documents outside of the hands of the intelligence community. Listen, it’s been pretty clear that presidents do have some classified documents, but the difference between a president and everybody else is the president has the ability to declassify information. The vice president has no ability to declassify information. So, number one, what was he doing with classified information in his possession? Number two, why did it take six years? And I want to stress this for the American people. Joe Biden left the vice presidency in 2017. So, it’s taken six years for these documents to surface. That is incredibly concerning. And point number three, and this is the one that most important, everybody can go back to the Hillary Clinton e-mail saga, we know other presidents have had classified information, but why was there a raid on Mar-a-Lago but now this story just kind of seeps out and everybody is saying oh, we want to get to the bottom of it and everybody is giving the benefit of the doubt. A vice president of the United States, or a secretary of state, or anybody else, should not be having classified information, period.”
BLITZER: “Well, they have top secret security clearances. They can have classified information. The question is whether they can take those documents with them as they’re going to a private office. That’s the difference.”
DONALDS: “The answer is very clear of that, Wolf. I don’t want to, this is not a back and forth with you, but to be perfectly honest, yes, they have a classified clearance but that doesn’t mean they get to remove documents.”
BLITZER: “You’re right. They’re not allowed to take classified information, especially highly classified documents that are sensitive compartment of information, SCI documents, which is what Trump did at Mar-a-Lago. So, you’re ready to react to that as well, that Trump did was illegal? Is that what you’re saying?”
DONALDS: “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all because the president and his team have gone back and forth with the National Archives, saying he has an ability to declassify. That’s something that’s going to take care of in itself at a later date in its own time and its own space. My question is very clear. Why were those documents found six years later? Obviously, you’re talking about the level of classification. So, they’re incredibly serious documents. And so, listen, I know the story is just breaking. I want to see if we’re going to continue to follow this story as much we did the documents at Mar-a-Lago. I think that’s only fair.”
BLITZER: “So, are we going to see the Republican leadership in the House launch a full scale formal investigation into this or leave it to the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney who’s now investigating?”
DONALDS: “Well, obviously, because the FBI and Justice Department are on top of this, we’re going to be monitoring that from here. Trust me, we have many other things that we need to be investigating with regards to this administration. But one of the things that is probably going to come up is the differentiation about how the National Archives, the FBI might want to go about handling these different situations when it comes to documents and classified information that are being controlled outside of the hands of the intelligence community.”