What did you expect from Democratic partisans following the release of the devastating Hur Special Counsel report? Did you believe that they'd acknowledge their mistakes and apologize?
It's hard to fathom the collision of reality and partisan politics that occurred with the revelations in the Hur report. For some on the left, it was simple denial.
Josh Marshall wants us to believe that Hur is a pro-Trump, rabidly partisan Republican.
First off, this is another example of the universal rule: Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Democrats. And Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Republicans. It may not have been a great idea for Merrick Garland to have a two-time Trump appointee investigate Joe Biden. But here we are. Robert Hur totally slimed Biden with these gratuitous comments about his mental acuity and memory, referring to him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Even if you assume they are the product of a good faith evaluation they are still wildly inappropriate.
The problem with that "analysis" is that Hur doesn't make the point about Biden's memory one or two times. There are 17 examples cited by Hur of Biden's faulty memory. That makes the defense by Biden's lawyers sound faintly ridiculous.
The Hur report “uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events," they wrote. "Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report, particularly one that in the first paragraph announces that no criminal charges are ‘warranted’ and that ‘the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt.’”
Again, Biden's lawyers would have a valid argument if it were one or two lapses in memory. But the loss of recall by Biden is frightening, and the one that hurts the most is Biden's seeming inability to recall the year of his son Beau's death.
“The president’s inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual," wrote Biden's lawyers Bob Bauer and Richard Sauber. Not being able to recall the year of his son's death is nearly incredible. But how about forgetting the major highlights of his life?
Mr. Biden’s memory also appeared to have significant limitations … Mr. Biden’s recorded conversations with [ghostwriter Mark] Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries. In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).
The media has been covering Biden's feebleness for three years. Most haven't bothered reporting the misstatements of fact, the confusion of world leaders with dead ones, the evident confusion of the president when exiting stages, the stumbles, and the vacuous stares he's prone to when listening to other speakers.
History will judge them harshly. Meanwhile, Democratic partisans will soon see that their efforts to deny and distract from Biden's difficulties will only lead to the further erosion of the president's position.
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