The Justice Department report regarding Joe Biden’s handling of classified information after leaving office has ignited an election-year row between Democrats and special counsel Robert Hur, with Democrats criticizing Hur’s suggestion that Biden may present poorly before juries due to memory difficulties.
Republican lawmakers urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Biden from office.
The Report Prompts a Lawmaker to Call for Biden’s Removal
Attorney General Merrick Garland chose Robert Hur, a Republican former U.S. Attorney from California who filed his 388-page report Thursday depicting Joe Biden as an elderly person with poor memory skills and limited cognitive capabilities.
Reporters determined that Biden willfully retained classified materials in both his home and office after leaving the White House, sharing them with a ghostwriter for his book about his time in office. Their investigation revealed this material included “highly sensitive intelligence sources and methods” related to Afghanistan as well as details of American operations there. FBI agents discovered this material stored in a box in Biden’s Wilmington home garage along with other documents and household detritus; whether or not Biden knew this information was classified is unknown but investigators reported he presented himself as “an elderly sympathetic person with poor memory” during interviews conducted by their agents.
Democratic critics quickly condemned the report, as an election year attack and politically motivated attack against their candidate, Biden. White House Spokesman Ian Sams termed it as an attempt at “gratuitous hit-job on Biden”, while California Sen. Kamala Harris labeled it as politically driven.
But according to Gene Rossi, an experienced Justice Department prosecutor under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, it was crucial for Hur to include details of Biden’s supposed poor memory as part of their investigations in order to ascertain whether Biden knew classified information was in his possession and disclosed it. Rossi asserts that investigators needed to know whether Biden understood that what he talked about with his ghostwriter or others relating to his material was classified.
Political damage from the Hur report has yet to be fully mitigated, with both Republicans and some Democrats pressuring Biden to dismiss its lawyer behind it. They note his role in James Comey’s dismissal and feel he cannot protect their party against GOP attacks like those seen with regard to Biden’s presidential bid.
Though the report has caused considerable political damage, some Democrats believe its release at such a late date can actually work in their favor. They argue that by delaying its release until late in the campaign season, more time can be taken to alter voter perceptions of Biden and create more time between his race with Trump (who faces his own legal issues) and Biden being on trial will give voters time to reconsider him as their candidate of choice. They also note Trump’s weak standing among key voting blocs could cause voters to turn against him when already doubting his legitimacy – further suggesting GOP plans by delaying report release is intended to dissuade voters from supporting Trump.
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