I generally dislike watching congressional testimony. There are always characters on both sides of the aisle who don’t even bother questioning the witness or the nominee; they just want to state their own opinions about the issue at hand. On Tuesday, special counsel Robert Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and that’s pretty much exactly what we saw.
As aggravating as it was, it was a very informative event to witness. Democrats see the Hur report as an exoneration of Joe Biden but simultaneously blast Hur for assessing Biden’s poor memory, which was the basis for his decision not to recommend charges. In short, Biden’s senility saved him from criminal charges, and Democrats were up in arms, accusing the special counsel of being a partisan hack trying to help Donald Trump win the 2024 election.
First, let’s get one thing out of the way: the report is not an exoneration of Joe Biden. Hur said as much during his testimony.
"Your report is not an exoneration so much as a determination that the evidence as you saw it would not overcome the defenses that you had identified, plus whatever lack of evidence you perceived,” noted Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) "So, it's not an exoneration, is it?"
“The word ‘exoneration' does not appear anywhere in my report,” Hur replied, "and that is not my conclusion."
That hasn't stopped the Democrats from repeatedly describing it as such, or implying that it was. While they may believe that Biden was exonerated, they revealed that the legal consequences (or lack thereof) weren’t nearly as consequential as Hur's assessment of Biden’s memory. The White House even tried to get that language removed from the report.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) gave the game away during his questioning. He essentially accused Hur of trying to “disparage” Biden and thwart his chances of reelection in November, and he suggested that Hur should have avoided assessments of Biden’s memory.
“Congressman, I could have written my report, theoretically, in a way that omitted references to the president’s memory but that would have been an incomplete and improper report,” Hur replied.
“You could have written your report with comments about his specific recollection as to documents, a set of documents, but you chose a general, pejorative reference to the president. You understood when you made that decision…that you would ignite a political firestorm with that language, didn’t you?” Schiff accused.
Hur was having none of it and insisted that politics played no role in his report. And then Schiff proved how damaging the Democrats really think the report is.
“Mr. Hur, you cannot tell me you’re so naive as to think your words would not have created a political firestorm. You understood that, didn't you?” Schiff asked. "When you wrote those words? When you decided to go beyond specific references to documents? You understood how they would be manipulated by my colleagues here on the GOP side of the aisle and by President Trump. You understood that, did you not?”
“Congressman, what I understood were the regulations that govern my conduct as special counsel,” Hur explained.
“Those regulations—" Schiff started to interject.
“Those regulations required me to write a confidential report to the attorney general—” Hur explained before being interrupted again.
“Which you knew would not be confidential, which you knew — Mr. Hur, you knew it would not be confidential — which you knew would be released.”
“It was up to the attorney general to determine which portions of the report would be released, consistent with DOJ policy,” Hur shot back. "I understood from the attorney general’s public comments that he would make as much of my report public as he could consistent with legal requirements and DOJ policy."
Related: Hur Transcript Released: Things Just Got a Lot Worse for Joe Biden
“What you did write was deeply prejudicial for the interest of the president and you say it wasn’t political and yet you must have understood the impact of your words…when you knew it would be amplified by his political opponent, when you knew it would influence a political campaign,” Schiff claimed, without evidence.
“What you are suggesting, is that I needed to provide a different version of my report that would be fit for public release,” Hur told him. "That is nowhere in the rules."
“You were not born yesterday,” Schiff shot back. “You understood exactly what you were doing,”
“What you are suggesting,” Hur began, "is I shape, sanitize, omit portions of my reasoning and explanation to the attorney general for political reasons."
That’s when Schiff’s time ran out.
Schiff: You cannot tell me you are so naive to understand your words would create a political firestorm? You understood how they would be manipulated by my colleagues here on the GOP side of the aisle and president trump. You understand that, did you not? pic.twitter.com/t4hrXLBeVR
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 12, 2024
It’s clear that despite their public insistence on the report serving as exoneration, Democrats are acutely aware of its political ramifications. On one hand, they claim Hur exonerated Biden, but on the other, they’re accusing him of trying to hurt Biden in the upcoming election.
Democrats can’t look at this objectively, just through a political lens. And what they see is that Biden’s chances in November are severely threatened by perceptions about his cognitive decline. During Hur’s testimony, Democrats not only repeatedly brought up Trump in an attempt to draw a contrast, but they also made multiple references to Biden's State of the Union as evidence of his mental acuity. This was an admission on their part that the Hur report didn’t exonerate Biden legally or politically, and they are trying to contain the fallout.
