'I certainly didn't report that': ABC host busts House Republican for inventing a story about Joe Biden

United States Representative Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, claimed during an interview on Sunday's edition of This Week that President Joe Biden snuck classified documents from Washington "on the train back home" to Delaware while he was serving in the Senate and then as vice president.

The conversation was focused on how and why sensitive materials keep turning up at the homes of high-level elected officials such as Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence. While no crimes have been alleged, Turner nonetheless believes that Biden acted suspiciously. And ABC moderator Martha Raddatz was deeply skeptical of that assessment.

Biden "clearly was taking them repeatedly on the train back home and putting them in boxes in his garage. That repeated action is certainly concerning, but the overall evidence that it was a repeated action, these are classified," Turner said.

When Raddatz requested proof to substantiate that accusation, Turner had none to provide.

"Do you have any evidence it was a repeated action? Sir, do you have evidence or anything about the train, for instance?" Raddatz asked.

Turner offered a lengthy dodge:

What you actually have reported yourself, that some of these documents relate back to when he was a senator and some of these documents relate to the time when he was vice president. That's over several decades and over a great deal of time, and he famously tells us he was on the train going from Washington DC to his house. We know they didn't just fly there on their own. He would have had to have taken them. And having done so over a series of decades certainly is of a concern because it's a practice. But the point that you're making, which I think is the, the one we need to focus on, is that these classified documents contain information that we don't want anyone else to see, that we don't want anyone else to know, because they put at risk our country. They put at risk, as you reported – with great report, by the way – about the concerns of classified documents, that these actually put people's lives at risk who are working to try to protect our country and to keep our secrets safe.

Raddatz, however, was still curious about the origin of Turner's train tale – which she pointed out was not herself.

"And I just want to go back to the train? Because I certainly didn't report that he did that on the train," Raddatz noted. "Do you think Mike Pence brought those documents to his home just the same way you're saying that Biden did, or we just don't know?"

Turner steadfastly maintained his speculation:

Well, we don't know. But what we do know is that the vice president has said that he was not involved in the packing of these, that they were transported to his house after he was vice president. We don't know. Obviously, the chain of custody in each of these issues is going to be important. It certainly should be part of the Department of justice investigation. How did these documents get where they were going and where we ultimately found them, but also what happened to them in the interim? How did they get into the hands of both the vice president/senator, President Biden, the Vice President Pence and, of course, [former] President [Donald] Trump? How did they get into their hands and then how did they get where we ultimately found them?

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