Congressional testimonies often don’t live up to the hype, but Robert Hur’s trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday was everything Republicans were hoping it would be.
The now-former special counsel was in charge of investigating Joe Biden’s theft and mishandling of classified documents, some of which were found unsecured in his garage. That led to a report from Hur that was lambasted by Democrats for supposedly overstepping its bounds. What was the issue? It included ample evidence of the current president’s senility, including significant memory loss.
But if Democrats were hoping to beat back some of the narratives produced by Hur’s accurate portrayal of the facts, they quickly found out he wasn’t there to play along with their gambit.
READ: Hur Shatters WH Spin on Biden’s Memory Problems
Special Counsel Hur defends his assessment of Biden’s memory in his report:
“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
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2024
Hur did not back down on his assessment of Biden’s memory, proclaiming that the “president himself” made it an issue. In one case, the president tried to deflect from his inability to recall an event by claiming his son had died in the same year As Hur notes, his son actually died two years earlier in 2015. The White House lied about that exchange in the initial aftermath of the report, claiming that it was the special counsel that had brought up Beau Biden. The president repeated that assertion during a disastrous press conference. The transcript, which Hur had at the ready during the hearing showed otherwise.
On that same topic, Hur was asked about whether the White House pressured him to change parts of his report to protect Biden politically. He confirmed that did happen, sharing details of a letter in which it was demanded that mentions of Biden’s failing memory be removed.
READ: White House Tried to Pressure Robert Hur to Sanitize His Report on Joe Biden
Another big blow to Democrats came when Rep. Pramila Jayapal tried to claim that Hur had “exonerated” the president. The former special counsel responded by flatly denying that his report did any such thing.
SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR: We did NOT exonerate Biden pic.twitter.com/mLHW3rgdSe
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 12, 2024
As RedState reported at the time, the report pointed to ample evidence that Biden broke the law. The reason Hur didn’t recommend prosecution was two-fold. First, a sitting president can’t be indicted under current DOJ protocol. Secondly, according to the report, Biden is just too old and cognitively challenged to stand trial.
Another incredible exchange came when Rep. Adam Schiff suggested that Hur should have released a sanitized version of his report so as not to make judgments about someone who wasn’t criminally charged.
READ: Schiff Goes After Special Counsel for Telling the Truth About Biden, Hur Shuts Him Down
BREAKING: Former Special Counsel Hur accuses Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) of implying that he should have released a sanitized version of the report to the public and a different version to the DOJ. WATCH pic.twitter.com/QSrPHKeXGz
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 12, 2024
Of note is that Schiff fully supported Robert Mueller’s special counsel report, which made all sorts of negative claims about Donald Trump despite the former president not being charged with any crimes. The California congressman also lived on television for several years, making all kinds of wild accusations involving Russian collusion, including claiming to have proof. For him to go after Hur for reporting the facts on Biden’s activities and testimony is the height of irony.
When it was Rep. Jim Jordan’s turn to question Hur, he brought up the evidence that Biden kept the documents so he could illegally leak them to his ghostwriter. The president made $8 million from the book advance. The former special counsel testified that there is reason to believe that was the motivation.
READ: Jim Jordan Grills Robert Hur About Biden’s 8 Million Motive for Mishandling Classified Documents
Jordan: “Pride and money is why [Biden] knowingly violated the rules…Do you agree with that, Mr. Hur? You wrote it in your report”
Hur: “That language does appear in the report, and we did identify evidence supporting those assessments.” pic.twitter.com/HWdxuddK70
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2024
In yet another exchange, Hur was asked about Biden’s ghostwriter and whether he destroyed evidence.
Jordan: “What did that ghostwriter do with the information Joe Biden shared with him…what did he do after you were named special counsel?”
Hur: “He slid…those files into his recycle bin on his computer.”
Jordan:”Tried to destroy the evidence, didn’t he?”
Hur:… pic.twitter.com/9wv5tTGWxr
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 12, 2024
David Petraeus was prosecuted for doing the same thing, which begs the question of why no one is being brought to justice in this case. Of course, no one will be. As a criminal matter, Biden’s DOJ has already shut the door and there’s no reason to think it will be opened again. As a political matter? Well, that’s a different story.
Hur’s testimony was a disaster for Democrats. It produced a litany of viral moments, all showing Biden to be both flagrantly disrespectful of the law and in steep mental decline. It’s a news cycle the White House couldn’t afford given the current president’s already tenuous re-election effort.
