Robert Hur questioned Biden however Home Republicans made a significant mistake questioning Hur

On Tuesday, the Home Judiciary Committee grilled former Special Counsel Robert Hur about his investigation and report into President Biden’s mishandling of labeled info. 

As anticipated, each Republicans and Democrats utilizing Hur and his report to attain political factors. Democrats tried to show Tuesday’s listening to right into a present trial directed at former President Donald Trump for hiding labeled info at his Mar-a-Lago advanced. Republicans questioned why Hur declined to convey prices when he discovered that Biden had been taking labeled info residence and to his private workplace for many years.

However committee Republicans missed their huge alternative. Fairly than give attention to whether or not Hur ought to have indicted Biden, they need to have centered on why Hur didn’t indict Biden. Famously, Hur wrote in his report final month that he declined to convey prices towards the president as a result of, partially, he was an “elderly man with a poor memory” with whom a jury may sympathize. 

FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR TESTIFIES ON FINDINGS FROM BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS PROBE

For many People, the vital concern just isn’t whether or not Biden took labeled paperwork residence after the top of his vice presidency in 2017, however whether or not he’s mentally match to proceed serving as president.  Certainly, underneath long-standing Justice Division precedent, federal prosecutors are forbidden from bringing legal prices towards a sitting president.

Tuesday’s hearings revealed Hur to be a straight-shooting prosecutor, very like the excellent profession officers on the Division of Justice with whom we now have each labored.  Hur declared in his opening assertion that he would “refrain from speculating or commenting on areas outside the scope of the investigation.”  He caught to that all through the entire listening to, repeatedly referring to his written February 2024 report and refusing makes an attempt to get him to say one thing extra damaging about both Biden or Trump.

Curiously, some congressional Democrats determined to assault Hur’s integrity regardless that he had declined to convey prices towards the chief of their get together.  Congressman Hank Johnson, D-Ga., accused Hur of launching an deliberately partisan assault: “You used your report to trash and smear President Biden … and you knew that would play into the Republicans’ narrative that the president is unfit for office because he’s senile.”  (Hur later said that he didn’t discover Biden to be senile nor did he use that phrase in his report.)  Johnson additionally baselessly accused Hur of being a Federalist Society member (he’s not) and of “doing everything you can do to get President Trump reelected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice.”

Issues went downhill from there. 

SCHIFF SPARS WITH HUR IN HEATED EXCHANGE OVER REPORT THAT ‘DISPARAGED’ BIDEN: ‘THAT DID NOT HAPPEN’

California Democrat Reps. Adam Schiff (who’s at the moment operating to interchange the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein) and Eric Swalwell each attacked Hur. Swalwell claimed that Hur described Biden as having a “photographic memory” relating to his Wilmington residence and asking Hur to pledge that he wouldn’t search a task in a possible second Trump administration; Hur declined. 

For many People, the vital concern just isn’t whether or not Biden took labeled paperwork residence after the top of his vice presidency in 2017, however whether or not he’s mentally match to proceed serving as president. 

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., falsely claimed that Hur’s report was a “complete exoneration of President Joe Biden” – Hur needed to repeatedly state that he had not exonerated him.  Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., didn’t even hassle to ask Hur any questions and as an alternative gave a 5-minute speech that accused Trump of being the “white supremacist in chief.”

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Republicans made extra progress.  Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, had Hur affirm his report’s discovering that Biden earned $8 million from utilizing the labeled info to jot down his November 2017 e-book, “Promise Me, Dad.” Biden shared that info together with his ghostwriter. Matt Gaetz , R-Fla., obtained Hur to agree that President Biden’s repeated declare that he “never shared” any of the labeled paperwork was inaccurate.  Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., succeeded in persuading Hur to agree {that a} cheap jury may have convicted Biden, and that Biden’s actions risked significantly damaging nationwide safety.   

However Republican members didn’t mine crucial space for questioning.  Whereas the Justice Division launched the transcript of the interview, solely Hur’s private testimony may enable the American public to really perceive President Biden’s psychological health.  Committee members didn’t require Hur to deal with, for instance, Biden’s demeanor, alertness, reminiscence, truthfulness, and general psychological state. 

Republican members didn’t strongly observe up on Hur’s conclusion, in his report, that Biden’s solutions have been generally “not credible.”  They may have requested Hur to elucidate precisely which of his observations and Biden’s solutions led him to consider {that a} jury may not convict Biden, and whether or not the DOJ may rebut these arguments at trial. They may have requested Hur why he didn’t give attention to the labeled paperwork in Biden’s possession that have been from his senate days; senators could not take away such paperwork nor any notes about them from the SCIF, and thus Biden knowingly and wrongfully eliminated and retained these labeled paperwork.

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The Home Judiciary Committee members additionally may have delved deeper into the interview transcripts. The transcript confirmed that Biden couldn’t keep in mind when he was vp or when Trump was elected. 

It confirmed that Biden himself had introduced up his son, Beau, after which incorrectly stating that 2017-2018 was the “timeframe” when “my son [Beau] is – either been deployed or is dying.”  Beau Biden was deployed in Iraq from 2008-2009 as a member of the Delaware Nationwide Guard, and tragically died of mind most cancers on Could 30, 2015. 

The transcript reveals that President Biden answered Hur’s questions with “don’t know,” “don’t recall,” or “I have no god**mn idea” greater than 100 occasions and couldn’t keep in mind what a fax machine was. 

Was Biden offended? Obstructive? Did he truthfully not keep in mind or was he merely repeating a coached line when he was in bother?  Was Biden’s tendency to wander away into nostalgic tales as a result of his age or psychological decline, or was it evasive and/or obstructive?

Congress ought to significantly think about exploring these questions additional. Chairman Jordan already has taken the following step by demanding that DOJ flip over all audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews. With Biden having basically secured the Democratic Celebration nomination and Trump on the verge of securing the Republican one, the Home Judiciary Committee owes it to the American public to disclose info on whether or not the incumbent is mentally match for a second time period in workplace.   

John Shu is a authorized scholar and commentator who served within the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

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