Et tu, Joe?
Last year, while trying to win the Democratic nomination for president, Joe Biden co-sponsored a bill to restrict the use of the “state secrets privilege” by the Department of Justice. But today, asked by the Huffington Post for Biden’s current stance on the legislation, a spokesman for the vice president replied: “No comment on this from here.” That “no comment” follows a similar tight-lipped stance from the White House itself.
The bill was reintroduced in February by Senators Leahy, Feingold, Kennedy, and Specter, in response to the Obama administration’s use of the privilege in a wiretapping case. Earlier this month, the Justice Department asserted the privilege in a second wiretapping case, provoking outrage among progressives, and prompting Feingold to again express his concern over the issue.