On Monday afternoon, CBS News broke a blockbuster story that threatened to shake up the political order. According to the report:

Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review documents marked classified that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, two sources with knowledge of the inquiry told CBS News. The roughly 10 documents are from President Biden's vice-presidential office at the center, the sources said. CBS News has learned the FBI is also involved in the U.S. attorney's inquiry.

Well, this isn’t good. And it closely mirrors what caused the FBI to raid Donald Trump’s beach house last year — or maybe not. As it turns out, the situations could not be more different. But that won’t stop all of the players in our political drama from playing their roles.

CBS News @CBSNews

EXCLUSIVE: Classified documents from Joe Biden’s vice-presidential office were discovered by the president's personal attorneys at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

cbsn.wsU.S. attorney reviewing documents marked classified from Joe Biden’s vice presidency found at Biden think tankHis attorneys identified the material when cleaning out office space at the center and immediately notified the White House counsel....

10:21 PM ∙ Jan 9, 2023

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The traditional media went into overdrive — issuing push alerts and tweets about a criminal investigation into President Biden. The both-sides pundits foolishly drew false equivalence between Biden and Trump, and speculated about the political impact on an election that occurs in more than a year and half. And the Republicans (of course) engaged in performative outrage — demanding answers and accountability.

It was all predictable and eerily reminiscent of the initial reaction to the reports in 2015 stating Hillary Clinton used a personal email server. And much like the Clinton situation, absent strong pushback from Democrats, the Republicans — aided and abetted by the political media — will shape the narrative, do damage to President Biden, and let Trump off the hook with a bunch of whataboutalism bullshit.

Why Biden ≠ Trump

If you are simply skimming Twitter or watching cable with one eye, you may have missed the specifics of the situation and how it differed dramatically from the Trump situation...