The special counsel who described President Biden as a "well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory" defended his report before a House panel on Tuesday. Robert Hur, who investigated Biden's handling of classified documents and concluded no charges were warranted, told lawmakers in his opening remarks that "what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe," per the AP. He added: "I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly."
- Hur said his assessment of Biden's memory was necessary to include because he had to "show his work" and justify his decision not to bring charges, per the New York Times. "I could not make that determination without assessing the president's state of mind."
- But Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff contested that: "You were not born yesterday, you understood exactly what you were doing," Schiff said, per the Washington Post. "You cannot tell me you're so naive to think your words would not have created a political firestorm." Hur pushed back. "What I understood is the regulations," he said, adding that Schiff was suggesting that he "sanitize" his report.
- Hur took heat from both sides. Among Republicans, House Judiciary chair Jim Jordan said in his opening remarks that Biden should have been charged, just like Donald Trump, as did Matt Gaetz. "You find in your report that the elements of a federal criminal violation are met, but then you apply this senile cooperator theory," said Gaetz, per CNN. To which Hur replied: "I need to disagree with at least one thing that you said, which is that I found that all of the elements were met. One of the elements of the relevant mishandling statute is the intent element."
- However, Gaetz got Hur to agree, mostly, when he asked if Biden's public denial of sharing classified documents with a ghostwriter was accurate. Hur answered that Biden's comments were "inconsistent with the findings on the evidence in my report," per Politico. Hur answered the same when Gaetz asked him about Biden's claim that documents in his home were stored in filing cabinets.
- Democrats, on the other hand, sought to highlight differences between Biden's documents case and Trump's. Biden, said Jamie Raskin, "did not hide boxes of documents under his bed or in a bathtub," per Axios.
- Democrats also played a video montage of verbal gaffes made by Donald Trump, notes Axios.
(The
transcript of Hur's interview with Biden reveals a more "nuanced" version of events than had been previously reported.)
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