A Political Hit Job
Trump appointee Robert K. Hur just delivered the goods for Donald Trump
by Ben Cohen
This isn’t an article about President Biden’s age, or his cognitive ability. This is an article about the extraordinary hit job we just saw from Robert K. Hur, a Trump nominated prosecutor with the DoJ.
Here’s how the Washington Post described Hur’s decision yesterday not to file criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling classified documents:
Special counsel Robert K. Hur’s report, while concluding that criminal charges were not merited for Biden’s careless handling of classified documents, painted a devastating portrait of an 81-year-old president whose age has become a central issue in his reelection campaign, saying his memory was “significantly limited” and that he had “limited precision and recall.” One reason prosecutors concluded they would have trouble pursuing a case was that a jury might see Biden as an appealing — if forgetful — senior citizen.
“At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the prosecutors wrote in their report released Thursday. “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
The report has set off a political firestorm, putting Biden’s age and ability to run the country under immense scrutiny. The damage was so bad Biden held a press conference afterwards where he forcefully disputed the characterizations and attacked Hur for smearing him. Biden was particularly incensed about Hur’s description of him not being able to recall the date of his son’s death. “I don’t need anyone to remind me of when he passed away,” he said angrily.
There are a few points worth making here, but I think it relevant to mention first that I do have concerns about the President’s age. I do not believe Biden should drop out of the 2024 presidential election, but I think it’s clear he is not the same force he once was. Biden’s advanced age is very noticeable, and it does contrast with Donald Trump’s more vigorous presence. Ideally the Democrats would have a younger, less gaffe prone candidate, but I still believe Biden’s strengths outweigh his weaknesses, as I’ve argued at great length on these pages before. The fact is, Biden has received stellar and publicly available health evaluations that as of last year, conclude he “remains a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
Irrespective of Biden’s cognitive state, it is important to understand why Hur went to such great lengths to portray the President in such a damaging way.
Perhaps most notable was Hur’s perplexing decision to include the withering descriptions of Biden’s memory and age in what should have been a narrowly defined legal report. Hur was appointed by AG Merrick Garland with a very specific mandate to determine whether Biden had committed a crime. The facts of the case were very straightforward: Biden found classified documents in his residence, notified the DOJ, returned them all, and then cooperated with the investigation. Hur was not appointed not evaluate the President’s memory, age or physical well being.
What also stands out is Hur’s fixation over Biden’s inability to recall specific dates. This isn’t unusual in the slightest — and I speak here from experience. I was once a witness in a criminal court case several years ago, and I managed to confuse almost all of the dates in my testimony. I was shocked at my memory recollection, but came to learn later that this is extremely normal. When dealing with a medical insurance issue for my kids recently, I mixed up the year my second son was born and had to double check with my wife. I was tired and dealing with a series of complicated tax software problems, so wasn’t firing on all cylinders — and I’m only 42 years old.
President Biden took part in the five hour interview with investigators in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack in Israel. As Biden said in his press conference, “I was so determined to give the special counsel what they needed that I went forward with five hours of in-person interviews over two days on Oct. 8 and 9 of last year, even though Israel had just been attacked on Oct. 7 and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis.”
Not recalling dates, especially under these circumstances is entirely unremarkable. Instead, Hur mentions Biden’s memory on nine separate occasions — a bizarre addition to what should have been a cut and dry legal report on whether the President willfully mishandled classified documents. Hur might well think that Biden is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” but why on earth does he think the public wants to hear this?
The answer of course, is that Hur’s language was specifically designed to harm the President politically. As Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) noted on CNN:
What you really need to look at is what marked classified documents did he [Biden] possess that he knew he possessed and maintained, and the notion that his own credibility or recollection would have anything to do with the evidence, which was plainly insufficient, is a fallacy.
And not only that, but it’s you’re assuming that, the defendant in this case would testify at trial. I was a prosecutor for ten years. I did not consider the defendant’s credibility as a witness. I may have considered the defendant’s credibility in explaining the evidence, and whether or not it would rise to the level of knowing intent.
And so this was extremely gratuitous, unnecessary. And it was just a political potshot in the middle of an election year.
Hur could not convict Biden of a crime, but the Trump appointed Republican could cause almost as much harm by feeding right wing conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, it worked, and the media’s attention is now squarely focused on Biden’s ability to recall dates rather than the criminal running against him.
How much damage will this do to President Biden long term? It’s hard to say, but we now know what kind of a contest 2024 is going to be.
On 1-A on NPR this morning, a woman had emailed in and talked about how her daughter, 39, had had to go through four names before she hit on her kid's actual name. The emailer referred to it as "the dementia of being extremely busy." And she wasn't juggling multiple foreign crises.
All absolutely accurate. Is it ideal that Biden isn’t what he once was? Of course not. But his deficiencies pale in comparison to the malicious megalomaniacal sociopathy of Burrito Mussolini (who’s memory is easily as faulty as Bidens… though more because he is a pathological liar who will believe whatever the last thing spewed from his maw to be an actual fact).
Additionally no one expects the president to have total recall. Thats why they have stacks of briefing papers and dozens of close advisors/entire departments to help execute the work of the government.