The House Judiciary Committee began their hearing with Special Counsel Robert Hur this morning, where the topic was the investigation into Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified information. House Democrats have long waited in the tall grass to ambush Hur, who included damning portions in his report about the president’s memory, which included Biden forgetting his vice presidency under Obama and when his son, Beau, died. Madeline covered Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) sparring with Mr. Hur about the “elephant in the room.” To his credit, Hur defended his assessment of the president’s cognitive abilities, which the American people know has been severely degraded.
Special Counsel Hur defends his assessment of Biden's memory in his report:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2024
"The evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue...my assessment in the report about the relevance of the president's memory was necessary and accurate and fair." pic.twitter.com/qZ36KOWeuh
The critical point here is despite zero charges being filed against Biden due to his age and senility, Hur never exonerated the president. He willfully retained classified materials and divulged them to unauthorized persons, namely his ghostwriter. One of the reasons Joe took these files, most of which involved the Afghanistan War, is that he feels his position, which Obama rejected, was the correct one: Biden wanted a counter-terrorism approach, not counterinsurgency.
Hur also slapped down Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-WA) attempt to gaslight the committee by saying Hur exonerated the president. When Hur said he did not in his findings, the Washington progressive was not pleased:
Rep. Jayapal: "You exonerated [Biden]"
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 12, 2024
Hur: "I did not exonerate him"
Rep. Jayapal: "“Sir, it’s my time. Thank you." pic.twitter.com/q6w5Cq2vnG
Rep. Jayapal just told Hur that he "exonerated" the President. Hur objected and said that he "did not exonerate the President." Jayapal immediately cut him off and said "it is my time" and he did exonerate the President.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
No doubt, Democrats are going to grill Hur hard about why he included the memory observations. The ongoing liberal narrative is that Hur is a Republican out to smear the president. what he did, however, was well within department policy in listing mitigating circumstances that could be brought up during a potential prosecution.
While not as explosive, Democrats are running into the same problem they had trying to discredit IRS whistleblowers Joseph Zeigler and Gary Shapley: they’ve got nothing. Zeigler and Shapley were credible IRS agents who detailed at length the pervasive interference they encountered by the Democrat-run Department of Justice when trying to investigate Hunter Biden. Hur is also a credible DOJ official who has thus far demonstrated he’s not some right-wing hack. Democrats asking if he was a Federalist Society member exposes the same failed playbook here:
Rep. Hank Johnson just ask "you are a member of the Federalist Society" are you not? Hur said no, but Johnson then attacked him for being a Republican and trying to "smear" the President. It is a measure of our times that prosecutors are now greeted with McCarthy like demands to…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
Hur just contradicted the claims of Democratic members that Biden and the White House did not try to change his report or remove material. He confirmed that the White House made multiple such objections to Attorney General Garland and did send such a letter seeking changes.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
...That stands in direct contradiction of what President Biden claimed publicly before and after the interview. Hur is saying that he was deterred from bringing charges due to the higher standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." He had to consider the President's "overall mental…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
...Hur did a great job in explaining calmly and clinically why the President's mental faculties were relevant to explaining his conclusions on the underlying allegations...
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
...Hur further admits that Biden told a third party that he just found classified material downstairs. Hur ultimately dismisses the weight of such evidence, which is curious. That is particularly the case when you have an audio recording of Biden saying "I just found all the…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
...However, Biden's ghostwriter later destroyed the audio evidence around the time of the appointment of the Special Counsel.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 12, 2024
Biden willfully retained classified materials and has a bad memory but wasn’t charged. That’s the gist of it, but Democrats are still stark-raving mad, mostly because they see this as a retread of what happened to Hillary Clinton and her unsecured and unauthorized server from which she conducted all State Department business as secretary of state.
If anything, Republicans should be more incensed over the double standard here.