Biden suggested the classified documents found in his garage were safe because it was locked with his Corvette in there

• President Joe Biden downplayed security concerns after classified documents were found at his Delaware home.
• Biden told reporters the documents were in his locked garage, not "sitting out on the street."

President Joe Biden confirmed Thursday that a second batch of classified documents was found in his garage, but suggested they were safe because the garage — which stored his Corvette — was locked.

At a White House press conference, Biden downplayed security concerns about the materials found at his house in Delaware.

When a Fox News reporter asked what Biden was thinking by keeping documents in his garage next to his Corvette, Biden pushed back. "By the way, my Corvette's in a locked garage, OK? So it's not like they're sitting out on the street," he said.

"So the material was in a locked garage?" asked Fox News reporter Peter Doocy.

Biden responded: "Yes — as well as my Corvette."

—CSPAN (@cspan) January 12, 2023

On Thursday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to probe the matter and the White House said it would cooperate with the investigation.

The latest cache of classified documents being unearthed comes after a first batch of classified documents were discovered last fall at Biden's former private office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. CNN reported the documents covered topics that included Ukraine, Iran, and the UK.

It is currently unclear how many documents are in the new batch and what they were about.

"People know I take classified documents and materials seriously," Biden said on Thursday, adding he was "cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department review" of the matter.

Biden also takes his 1967 Corvette seriously, a wedding gift from his dad who ran a Chevrolet dealership.

Biden once laughed at The Onion's parody of him washing a Trans Am, shirtless in the White House driveway. "You think I'd drive a Trans Am?" he joked in a 2011 Car and Driver interview.

As vice president, he famously burned rubber in his classic Corvette Stingray convertible when he took Jay Leno for a ride.

"It feels great, man," he said. "I shouldn't say it on television...I like speed."

Then former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who died in 2021, passed him in a newer model. "I wondered who the hell that cowboy was in front of me," Biden shouted at Powell.

His son Hunter Biden was with him on that day and the two spoke with Popular Mechanics, giving a deeply personal father-son interview, after Joe Biden's joy ride. "We just love beautiful machines," Hunter Biden said.

Fox News on Thursday unearthed a 2020 campaign video with 7.5 million views of Biden backing the car a garage, though it wasn't clear if the garage in the video was the same one where the documents were found.

The Justice Department is already investigating Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, for keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and allegedly obstructing investigators.

In September, Biden trashed Trump's own handling of documents in a 60 Minutes interview as "totally irresponsible."