Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., found himself on defense Friday when CNN's Don Lemon criticized his claim that President Biden was being "transparent" about the alleged mishandling of classified government documents.
During an appearance on "CNN This Morning," Schumer said it was "too early to tell" whether Biden had violated federal law and that the president had handled the situation "correctly."
Schumer said he supported the decision by Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to oversee the matter and claimed his comments on classified documents have been consistent between Biden and former President Trump.
After Schumer urged the American people to let the investigation play out, Lemon asked him whether he felt Biden and his team had been transparent about the documents.
"I think the Biden folks, as I said, cooperated with the prosecutorial authorities from day one, and Donald Trump didn't," Schumer said.
Lemon then pushed back on Schumer's stance and began reading a report from CNN on the documents.
"According to one justice's official statement, this week offered an incomplete narrative of documents from Biden's time as vice president and reinforced the need for a special council. It creates the impression that Biden's team has something to hide," Lemon said.
Schumer then reiterated his position to allow the special prosecutors to investigate and instead focus on things that help the American people.
"I have to get — I have to say this. You seem much more measured about this than with the Trump documents because you called for transparency with the documents. You wanted lawmakers to have access to the documents seized from the former president's residence in Florida," Lemon said.
"I said that night it was premature to comment. I stand by that," Schumer responded.
When asked by Lemon whether he believed his statements on both issues were consistent, Schumer said "I do."
MORE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FOUND IN BIDEN'S DELAWARE GARAGE, WHITE HOUSE REVEALS
Co-host Poppy Harlow then jumped into the conversation and said there is a question of transparency with the Biden White House.
"The prosecutors will get to the bottom of this, and let's let them do it, for God's sake. I know you want to buzz around—" Schumer said before Harlow interjected.
"Let me buzz for a minute. Let me buzz for one minute, and we'll get to something else," Harlow said as the table began talking over each other.
"Hold on," Lemon said, cutting into the back and forth. "It's not just us buzzing, you're the head of the Democratic Senate; it's not just us buzzing around."
Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate President Biden's handling of classified documents dating back to the Obama administration.
The attorney general tapped Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney, to handle the investigation. The Justice Department escalated it to a special counsel investigation from a mere review on Thursday after a second stash of classified documents was found inside the garage of Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home. The first documents were found inside the Washington offices of the Penn Biden Center think tank.
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
