They find more secret documents in Joe Biden's house and the scandal grows

To spend the end of the year holidays, President

took his entire family to the island paradise of StCroix, in the US Virgin Islands.

He played golf, rode his bike, went to church, rested and seemed to be gaining momentum to make a crucial decision that he said he would make soon: whether

, when he could reissue a duel against Republican

.

Biden, who at 80 years old

, had been strengthened, wrapped up with much better-than-expected legislative elections in November, with low inflation and rising popularity.

But, back from his sunny vacation in the Caribbean, his outlook was dramatically clouded in Washington, when it was revealed that his lawyers had found

, a think tank he had founded in this capital after his time as vice president of Barack Obama.

President Joe Biden sought to downplay the issue of secret documents found in his home.

(AP)

Since then, more documents marked confidential have been found in the garage, next to his old green Corvette, and in a bedroom in his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

And, when it was officially said that the search had been "completed",

where the president was confined during the pandemic and spends almost every weekend.

It was revealed by the lawyer for the presidency, Richard Sauber, who had to explain how new items had been found on Thursday in the family residence, which were

, more than previously announced.

As the White House tries to cushion the shock of these revelations, they are undoubtedly unexpectedly complicating Biden's ambitions, which must soon define his political future.

The Department of Justice has already appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the case, Robert Hur, who will move forward on the issue, which began to be officially revealed little by little only when the press began to publish it.

Beyond the judicial problems that it may cause Biden, suspicions due to the lack of transparency about the case and the delays in disclosure

.

Comparisons with Trump

The Republicans are already pointing out that the president did the same as Donald Trump, that

that were forcibly confiscated by the FBI and that he is a hypocrite.

Back then, Biden had been very harsh with the tycoon: "How can someone be so irresponsible?" he said when asked about the issue, adding that he was concerned that there was "information that could compromise the sources and methods." .

The White House says a "mistake" was made and talks about documents being "inadvertently misplaced."

Documents found at Donald Trump's residence in Florida.

(AP)

In addition, Sauber remarked that Biden's lawyers acted "immediately and voluntarily" to turn over all the documents that were found to the Department of Justice and the National Archives, a way of detaching themselves from the

, which first He denied having the material and later resisted handing it over until the FBI raided his home.

Matthew Connelly

, a Columbia University professor and author of a book on the history of classified documents, wrote in

that the official in charge of the subject himself acknowledged that the number of secret documents that are generated each year is immense and that you can no longer count how many there really are.

He explained that “the secret has a power of its own.

It allows executive branch officials to classify and therefore hide not only dangerous information that could threaten national security, but also many things that they simply prefer to hide from the public.”

Beyond the scandal with the documents, the start of the year looks difficult for the president due to another highly sensitive issue: the world's leading economic power could fall into default if the Republicans block the increase in the debt ceiling, a discussion that will generate fierce fights in the coming months.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on Congress on Friday to act "in a timely manner" to "increase or suspend" the federal debt limit because failure to do so could result in the country defaulting.

By the Constitution, all kinds of debt taking must be authorized by Congress.

The United States periodically exceeds that limit and generally Democrats and Republicans agree to be able to increase it or temporarily suspend it due to the consequences that a refusal would generate.

In 2011, for example, during Obama's presidency, the lack of agreement led to the rating agency S&P reducing the country's debt rating from AAA -the highest grade- to AA+ in an unprecedented way.

Today the ceiling is US$ 31.4 trillion and at this moment the Government is only US$ 78,000 million away from reaching that figure, which -Yellen pointed out- made her area begin to take emergency accounting measures starting next Thursday to prolong the arrival at the limit, a "patch" that could last until June or a little longer.

The political fight over the debt is expected to be very tough, especially in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by the opposition, which in turn is in check by a group of radical Republicans seeking to impose their agenda.

Republicans insist that the only way they would pass the ceiling increase is through spending cuts, something Democrats reject.

Congress will be a battlefield.