Russian defense minister says Wagner Group rebellion failed because of Russian troops’ loyalty

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday the Wagner Group's attempted rebellion failed because Russia's army “showed loyalty to their oath and military duty,” marking the first time he has spoken out about the short-lived mutiny.

“These plans failed primarily because the personnel of the Armed Forces showed loyalty to their oath and military duty,” Shoigu said in public remarks. “The provocation did not affect the actions of the groupings of troops.” Russia responded to the rebellion by tightening security measures in Moscow.

In late June, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin planned to capture Russia’s military leadership as part of his surprise mutiny but turned back after Wagner forces made it to the capital city's outer limits. Prior to the rebellion, Prigozhin accused Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine. The Defense Ministry denied carrying out the rocket attack.

Shoigu also mentioned Russia’s response to the failed rebellion, stating that “servicemen courageously and selflessly continued to solve the tasks assigned to them.”

“I thank the personnel for their good service,” Shoigu said.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s power is “crumbling” in reference to the Kremlin’s response to the rebellion.

Supreme Court limits LGBTQ protections in dispute over services for same-sex weddings

A Christian web designer has a First Amendment right to refuse to create websites for same-sex weddings, the Supreme Court ruled Friday in a decision that dilutes legal protections for LGBTQ people.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices sided with Lorie Smith, an evangelical Christian and Colorado web designer who opposes same-sex marriage. Colorado law bars businesses from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, but Smith argued that the free speech guarantee of the federal Constitution entitles her to an exemption from that law.

The high court’s conservatives agreed. They ruled that Smith has a right to offer design services for opposite-sex weddings while refusing those services for same-sex weddings.

“Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.

Gorsuch also declared that those opposed to same-sex marriage were entitled to “tolerance” from the broader community.

“The opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our Republic strong,” he continued. “Of course, abiding the Constitution’s commitment to the freedom of speech means all of us will encounter ideas we consider ‘unattractive,’ ‘misguided, or even hurtful.’ But tolerance, not coercion, is our Nation’s answer.”

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissent.

Sotomayor said the court’s ruling opens the door for a wide variety of businesses to discriminate against prospective customers. She read portions of her dissent from the bench — an unusual move that signaled she felt especially strongly. It was the second day in a row that Sotomayor dissented from the bench. (On Thursday, she read long portions of her dissent in the court’s decision ending affirmative action.)

Gorsuch, who sits next to Sotomayor on the bench, turned toward her and listened as she called his ruling "heartbreaking" and "a grave error."

"This is wrong, profoundly wrong," Sotomayor said.

The court’s conservative majority largely sidestepped a sensitive question in the case: how it could vindicate Smith’s right to decline to work on same-sex weddings while not taking the provocative step of disturbing half-century-old legal precedents rejecting similar First Amendment arguments from business owners who sought to avoid serving Black customers.

The ruling Friday in 303 Creative v. Elenis marks an apparent end to a remarkable series of Supreme Court victories for gay and transgender Americans over the past two decades, including a 2003 decision overturning anti-sodomy laws, a 2013 ruling mandating federal recognition of same-sex marriage by overturning a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, a landmark 2015 decision requiring states to permit same-sex marriages and a surprise 2020 ruling that existing protections against sex discrimination in employment cover discrimination based on sexual orientation or for being transgender.

While LGBTQ advocates insisted that Smith was violating Colorado law by discriminating against same-sex couples, her attorneys said she routinely provides services to LGBTQ people without regard to their sexual orientation but simply does not wish to endorse same-sex weddings at odds with her personal beliefs.

During oral arguments on the case in December, liberal justices said the speech emanating from a wedding website is that of the couple, not the designer. But Smith’s attorney insisted that forcing her to tout a same-sex wedding was akin to forcing a ghost writer to take on a project for a client whose views she did not share.

Fears in the LGBTQ community about legal setbacks have increased since the Supreme Court issued its decision a year ago overturning the nearly half-century-old federal right to abortion.

Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurrence accompanying that ruling said he favored revisiting the 2015 decision finding a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage. However, many legal analysts predicted the conservative justices who now outnumber their liberal colleagues, 6-3, seem more likely to cut back LGBTQ rights incrementally than to overturn a widely embraced decision on same-sex marriage rights.

Despite those fears, the current batch of Republican-appointed justices have hardly been uniformly hostile to gay rights. Just three years ago, Gorsuch stunned many court watchers when he wrote the majority opinion in the case that extended employment-discrimination protections to gay and transgender people. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of President George W. Bush, as well as the four Democratic-appointed justices who were on the court at the time.

Gorsuch’s opinion on Friday did not mention the 2020 case, which did not involve a free-speech claim.

Jimmy Carter to receive hospice care at Georgia home

Former President Jimmy Carter has decided to receive hospice care at home after several short hospital stays, according to a statement from the Carter Center Saturday.

"After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention," the statement reads. "He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers."

Carter, the 39th president, turned 98 in October. He survived a brain cancer diagnosis in 2015 and a serious fall at home in 2019. In recent years, Carter has kept a low public profile due to the pandemic but has continued to speak out about risks to democracy.

"I saw both of my grandparents yesterday," former Georgia state Sen. Jason Carter tweeted. "They are at peace and—as always—their home is full of love. Thank you all for your kind words."

Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock tweeted: "Across life’s seasons, President Jimmy Carter, a man of great faith, has walked with God. In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him. May he, Rosalynn & the entire Carter family be comforted with that peace and surrounded by our love & prayers."

The Carters live in Plains, Georgia, a rural farming community where they both were born.

Carter won the 1976 presidential election after beginning the campaign as a little-known Democratic Georgia governor. He went on to defeat President Gerald Ford in the general election.

He served a single, tumultuous term and was defeated by Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role.

His foreign policy wins included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978.

Carter also built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy.

But Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat.

After his presidency, Carter founded The Carter Center alongside his wife, Rosalynn. His diplomatic work there garnered a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Shayna Greene and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Memphis releases videos showing fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols

The city of Memphis on Friday released police surveillance and body-camera video showing the disturbing events of a traffic stop that led to the fatal beating of a Black man, Tyre Nichols.

Four separate videos depicted the events of the traffic stop, which included Nichols being pulled from his car and violently restrained by several police officers, all of whom were Black, before he pleads for his safety.

"I'm just trying to get home," he yells at one point before he gets off the ground and runs from the police.

Body-camera footage showed police catching up with Nichols and kicking and punching him several times while pepper spraying him.

In an aerial view of the surveillance footage recorded Jan. 7, a group of police officers surround Nichols, 29, for about three minutes. Many times throughout the beating, during which officers used their hands, feet, batons and pepper spray on him, Nichols is heard crying out for his mom.

Nichols died three day later from injuries sustained in the attack. The officers were all fired from the department last week and have been charged with murder and other crimes related to Nichols' death.

President Joe Biden on Friday said he was “outraged” and “deeply pained” after watching the video.

“It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day,” Biden said.

The president’s response came less than 30 minutes after the lengthy footage was publicized. As the video was met with a wave of outrage across the country, Biden again joined Nichols' family in urging Americans to “not resort to” violence.

Protesters gathered in multiple cities, including Memphis, though reports of violence were few. Dozens of protesters in Washington, D.C., gathered in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. At least three protesters were arrested in New York City amid a standoff with police in Times Square.

Earlier Friday, Justice Department and FBI leadership cautioned against violence in protest over the Memphis officers' actions.

“Expressions of concern when people see this video, we urge that they be peaceful and nonviolent,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland at a DOJ press conference. “That’s what the family has urged, and that of course is what the Justice Department urges as well.”

Biden spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Nichols’ mother and stepfather, Friday afternoon. The president said he told them he would push Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which stalled out in 2021 after bipartisan negotiators couldn’t break through concerns about union involvement or qualified immunity.

After the bill failed, the president signed an executive order aimed at reforming police practices, but on Friday night, he acknowledged the shortcomings of his office.

"We should get this under control," Biden said. "I can only do so much in an executive order at a federal level."

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told CNN Friday morning that the video shows “acts that defy humanity” and “a disregard for life” — namely, the officers using what she said was a group-think mentality to exert an “unexplainable” amount of aggression toward Nichols. She added the video is “about the same if not worse” than the graphic video of Los Angeles police officers brutally attacking Rodney King in 1991.

“I was outraged. It was incomprehensible to me. It was unconscionable, and I felt that I needed to do something and do something quickly,” Davis said. “I don't think I’ve witnessed anything of that nature in my entire career.”

Garland on Friday said though he hasn’t seen the video, he’s been briefed on its contents and called it “deeply disturbing” and “horrific.” FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was also at the briefing, said he was “appalled” by the video.

“I have seen the video myself, and I will tell you I was appalled,” Wray said. “I’m struggling to find a stronger word, but I will just tell you I was appalled.”

Wray added that all of the FBI’s field offices have been alerted to work closely with their state and local partners, particularly in Memphis, “in the event of something getting out of hand” during protests over the weekend. U.S. Capitol Police have beefed up security on the Hill — with bike-rack style security fencing erected overnight — as police departments across the country are also bracing for protests related to the footage.

“There’s a right way and a wrong way in this country to express being upset or angry about something, and we need to make sure that if there is that sentiment expressed here, it’s done in the right way,” Wray said.

The White House on Friday echoed the calls for peaceful protests ahead of the video's release. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing that the White House has been "in coordination with the relevant agencies to ensure they prepare if protests become violent."

"We understand the outrage people have currently, and how hurt and painful this is, but we are going to continue to say, violence, but violence is unacceptable," Jean-Pierre said.

Many lawmakers took to Twitter, mourning the loss of Nichols and expressing that action needed to be taken.

“Although Senate action on policing reform has proven difficult, from the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to more targeted reforms, I will never stop working to build a broad coalition to enact the changes that will make our nation safer, stronger, and more just," Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said.

"We must support the efforts of local, state, and federal authorities as they continue their investigation into Mr. Nichols’ death. And elected officials must continue taking steps to create a justice system that is truly equal for all. I’m committed to working with Senator Booker and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to finally achieve critical reforms," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said.

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said, "Tyre Nichols should still be here today. We must change the culture that perpetuates these tragedies and bring those accountable to justice."

Rep Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said on Twitter that "police who break the law by brutalizing and murdering citizens endanger the social contract and become outlaws."

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said the "inhumanity" of the officers' actions was "intolerable by anybody, but especially by people whose job and responsibility it was to protect him."

"The video released shows abhorrent behavior and these officers must be held accountable for their deadly actions and clear abuse of power,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

Julia Marsh and Shia Kapos contributed reporting.

Jeff Zients: 5 things to know about Biden’s new chief of staff

Jeff Zients, who’s developed a reputation as “Mr. Fix-It,” is expected to become President Joe Biden’s next chief of staff after holding a number of high-level positions across the Obama and Biden presidencies.

From a failed attempt to purchase the Washington Nationals to investing in the Call Your Mother bagel shop, here are five things to know about Biden’s next chief of staff.

Zients headed Biden’s Covid task force

Zients served as the White House’s Covid-19 coordinator until he left last April. While Zients is not a scientist, he came to the task force with a range of management experience and was charged with working across government agencies to curtail the coronavirus outbreak.

Zients won internal praise for his management skills and initial success in bringing the pandemic under control.

He was the first chief performance officer in the Office of Management and Budget

In 2009, then-President Barack Obama created a position for Zients in the Office of Management and Budget called chief performance officer. The role required Zients to head an effort to streamline government and cut costs.

Zients invested in Call Your Mother bagels

Zients was known to have invested in D.C.’s popular “Jew-ish” deli Call Your Mother. Zients also acted as “adviser and mentor” for the bagel shop, where a lot of the recipe tasting took place in his home.

He unsuccessfully competed for ownership of the Washington Nationals

In 2005, Zients was part of a group of investors that included Fred Malek and Colin Powell, who tried to buy the Washington Nationals the first time around but lost out to the Lerner family.

He made Fortune magazine’s 40 under 40 list

In 2002, Zients was ranked 25th on Fortune magazine's list of the 40 richest Americans under age 40. At the time, the magazine estimated his wealth at $149 million, leaving him one place above Julia Roberts and two behind Elon Musk.

Harris calls out ‘extremists’ over abortion as Florida Republicans eye more restrictions

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday brought the battle over abortion directly to the doorstep of potential 2024 president contender Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of what could become another contentious fight over abortion in the weeks ahead in Florida.

Harris gave a midday speech in Tallahassee highlighting the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, where she not only weaved in several mentions of “freedom” — a subtle dig at DeSantis’ recurring remarks about the “free state of Florida” — but said “extremists” in the statehouse had passed a “radical abortion ban” last year.

“And can we truly be free if so-called leaders claim to be ‘on the vanguard of freedom’ while they dare to restrict the rights of the American people and attack the very foundations of freedom,” Harris said.

The Biden administration has clashed repeatedly with DeSantis over the last two years, but Harris’ appearance just a mile from the state Capitol seemed to signal a higher level of engagement with the governor, who is viewed as the top challenger to former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.

Before Harris took the stage at the Moon nightclub in Tallahassee, attendees in the audience chanted “Hey ho, DeSantis has to go.”

Harris, in her remarks, criticized the DeSantis administration after Florida health regulators told health care providers they could risk criminal charges if they distributed abortion pills. That warning — which went to pharmacies — was distributed after the FDA dropped long-standing restrictions that banned the abortion pill from being sold at retail pharmacies.

President Joe Biden sent out a memo on Sunday calling on federal agencies to look at barriers of patients accessing abortion pills, setting up the possibility that the administration could take action sometime in the future.

The DeSantis administration did not respond to questions about Harris’s comments. The Republican Party of Florida put out a statement that stated “Democrats are proudly cheerleading barbaric policies to allow unrestricted abortions — including infanticide. That's all anyone needs to know.”

Democrats were able in many states to galvanize voters in the midterms over abortion, but DeSantis crushed his Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist, in November by nearly 20 points. Crist spent weeks highlighting abortion restrictions in the run-up to the November elections.

Florida’s Legislature last year passed a controversial ban on abortion after 15 weeks without exceptions for rape and incest. A legal challenge to it is being considered by the state Supreme Court. DeSantis supported the ban and has said he backs abortion restrictions beyond the current law, although he has stopped short of specifics.

Harris zeroed in on the laws passed in Florida and other states as “designed by extremists.” She called the Florida law a “a radical abortion ban with no exceptions, even for the survivors of crimes like rape and child molestation and human trafficking.”

But it’s not clear what GOP legislators plan to do. Florida House Speaker Paul Renner late last week was non-committal about what lawmakers would do next, saying that while there is a “pro-life majority” in the House that “we have not finalized anything in that regard.” Renner said some members were supportive of the current restrictions, while others wanted to restrict access further. Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) previously said she supports restricting abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy but with exceptions for victims of rape and incest.

State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the House Democratic leader, “fully anticipates” legislators will tighten the state’s current ban in order to aid a DeSantis presidential run.

“DeSantis is running for president in 2024,” said Driskell shortly after Harris spoke. “He controls everything in that building.”

Harris’ speech was given inside a nightclub located a mile from the Florida Capitol due to the threat of rain and bad weather. Nikki Fried, Florida’s former agriculture commissioner who attended the event, said that both Florida State University — and Florida A&M University, a historically Black college and university — turned down requests to have Harris appear on campus.

Fried she had been working with Planned Parenthood on an event noting the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and was asked to help with logistics once the White House confirmed that Harris was coming to town.

Fried suggested that the schools turned down Harris because the institutions feared angering DeSantis, but Dennis Schnittker, assistant vice president of communications for Florida State University, said the university “was unable to accommodate the Vice President due to previously scheduled events and operations.”

Manchin: It’s a mistake to ‘not negotiate’ with Republicans on debt ceiling

Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday said it’s a “mistake” that the Biden administration won’t negotiate with Republicans on the debt ceiling limit.

“This is a — this is a democracy that we have. We have a two-party system," Manchin (D-W.Va.) said, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And we should be able to talk and find out where our differences are. And if they are irreconcilable, then you have to move on from there and let the people make their decisions.”

President Joe Biden said Friday that he would speak with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the debt ceiling, but stated that if “we don’t meet our national debt and renege for the first time, we have a calamity that exceeds anything that’s ever happened financially in the United States.” And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said raising the debt ceiling was too important to be haggled over. “Congress has always done it, and the president expects them to do their duty once again," she said. "That is not negotiable.”

No date has been set for the Biden-McCarthy meeting.

“I’m optimistic they will sit down, as this White House always has, and that's why we were able to accomplish so much in a bipartisan way last Congress. It takes constructive conversation," Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said on "Fox News Sunday." "There's things that are reasonable on the table, and there are things that are unreasonable. Gutting Social Security and Medicare is on the unreasonable.”

On the Republican side, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Biden not negotiating with Republicans is “not how to unify our country.”

“We are very divided right now. We have $31 trillion of debt. The responsible thing to do would be to get to the table with Republicans and negotiate a way,” Mace said.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said on "Fox News Sunday" it’s a problem that the Biden administration won’t negotiate with Republicans. It’s “not leadership,” he said.

House Republicans want a deal that includes spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling, but Biden officials have insisted that Congress pass a clean debt ceiling increase. Democrats have noted that Congress passed three increases on the debt ceiling under former President Donald Trump without demanding spending cuts.

Manchin said the cuts proposed by Republicans are “not going to happen.”

“Take that off the board right now and look at ways that we have wasteful spending that we can be held accountable and responsible,” the West Virginia Democrat said.

Trump issued a warning to Republican lawmakers on Friday, saying that Republicans shouldn’t vote to cut "a single penny" from Medicare or Social Security.

“It’s ironic,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said on MSNBC, “that Kevin McCarthy and his fellow Republicans in the House are now suddenly discovering that deficit and debt is this important issue, because they’re the same folks who voted to raise the debt ceiling, and never said a word when Donald Trump was adding more to our national debt than any president in our American history.”

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the U.S. had reached its debt limit and would need to use extraordinary measures to avoid a default. Yellen has projected that Congress has until at least June to pass a debt ceiling increase.

If the federal government exhausts its use of extraordinary measures for the first time, it could impact Americans who depend on government benefits and “would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability,” Yellen has said.

Democrats ding Biden on documents even as they push back against GOP

Democrats on Sunday criticized President Joe Biden even as they pushed back on GOP attacks after officials from the Justice Department recovered additional classified items from Biden’s Delaware home.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Biden “should have a lot of regrets” on handling classified documents.

“I would think that. I say, whoever's responsible — I mean, if I hold people accountable ... — whether it be my chief of staff or, you know, my staff that were doing this and I'm looking at — then I'm going to hold someone accountable, but basically, the buck stops with me,” Manchin said.

Another Democrat, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, said he is concerned about the number of documents officials keep finding at Biden’s home.

“Well, I'm concerned; there's a standard we follow when it comes to members of Congress and classified information," the Illinois Democrat said. “To think that any of them ended up in boxes in storage one place or the other is just unacceptable."

But Durbin's statement was also in line with what other Democrats have said — arguing that no matter how careless or problematic Biden's handling of classified documents has been, it's still better than the way former President Donald Trump handled the same type of material after leaving office.

"Joe Biden has shown total cooperation in this effort. That's a sharp contrast to President Trump,” Durbin said.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) downplayed concerns about Biden’s handling of classified documents, adding: “I don’t think this is an issue that is keeping Americans up at night.”

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Coons said that concern over the discovery of additional classified documents at Biden’s residence in Delaware is, more than anything else, distracting the nation from more important issues. Coons noted the search was “consensual,” contrasting it with how Trump pushed back on those seeking to recover classified materials and how Trump has continued to argue that he had the right to possess those documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Fla.

Biden’s attorneys discovered a series of classified documents on multiple occasions from November 2022 to January 2023. On Saturday, it was announced that six additional documents marked as classified were found at Biden’s Delaware home after the Justice Department searched for nearly 13 hours.

In a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday on ABC's “This Week,” 34 percent of Americans said they think Biden handled classified documents appropriately after he left office as vice president, compared with 64 percent of Americans who think he acted inappropriately.

Those numbers were still better than those for Trump; 77 percent of those polled said they thought the former president acted inappropriately. But the polling was conducted before the announcement of more documents being discovered in Biden's possession.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), speaking on Fox’s “Fox News Sunday,” echoed Coons’ sentiments, saying that there’s a “stark comparison to the other investigation of classified documents with former President Trump.”

“The White House needs to cooperate with the Justice Department,” Gottheimer said. “That's what they've been doing for months. I think as long as the White House does what it should do, which is cooperate fully so we can get to the bottom of this, there's the appropriate process."

In November, lawyers to the president discovered Obama administration documents in a Biden-associated Washington think tank. Days later, Biden’s legal team found additional documents in Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Del., one of Biden’s lawyers announced.

Biden aides found five additional documents in this president’s Delaware home, the White House announced Jan. 14. They were then turned over to the Justice Department, which had appointed a special counsel to investigate the matter.

On Sunday, Republicans were less forgiving than Democrats on the matter.

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) called Biden a “serial classified-document hoarder” while insisting that the investigation looks more like a cover-up.

“That is why the special counsel's work is going to be really important, because I can think of no reason why the President should have taken home, as a senator or as vice president, any classified documents that clearly have no protection. They're available and open to anybody,” Turner said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Speaking after Coons, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) wondered why any public official was taking any classified material home and said the fallout could still end up being much larger than anticipated now.

“Watergate started as a very small burglary, and it led to the president of the United States resigning," said the new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "So, I don't know what's there until we see the documents — if there are national security documents relating to foreign nations adversaries, particularly China.”

On Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," Rep. James Comer, the new chair of House Oversight Committee, also expressed concern that the situation was worse than originally portrayed.

"I took the president at his word," the Kentucky Republican told host Maria Bartiromo, "when the first set of documents were found at the Biden Center for Diplomacy that he had just inadvertently misplaced those documents. But now this has gone from simply being irresponsible to downright scary."