Special Counsel Robert Hur Tuesday defended his probe into mishandling of classified documents by President Biden — and his controversial report that highlighted the president’s age.
The Republican ex-federal prosecutor told a House committee that he stands by both his decision not to charge Biden and also his jibes about Biden’s memory that the White House derides as inappropriate and misleading.
“What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows,” Hur said. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
“I do all my work for the department fairly, thoroughly and professionally,” Hur added.
Republicans said the main takeaway from the report is that Biden is too old to be reelected.
“Joe Biden broke the law. But because he’s a forgetful old man who would appear sympathetic to a jury Mr. Hur decided not to bring charges,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said in an opening statement.
Democrats countered that the report cleared Biden, who cooperated fully with the probe. They stressed the differences between Biden’s actions and those of former President Trump, who brought hundreds of classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate, refused to return them and obstructed the investigation.
“Mr. Hur completely exonerated Mr. Biden,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).
Although the hearing was supposed to be about mishandling of classified documents, both sides focused on the mental states of Biden and Trump, who are careening towards a White House rematch.
Republicans rolled videotape from a Biden news conference in which he forcefully rejected Hur’s findings, but also misidentified the president of Egypt as the leader of Mexico.
Democrats played a mash-up of Trump mixing up Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi and referring to Biden as former President Barack Obama.
A transcript of the five hours of Hur interviews with Biden was released on the eve of the hearing.
The document shows a chatty Biden repeatedly telling the special counsel that he never intended to retain classified information after he left office as vice president.
The genial president was at times fuzzy about dates and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.
Hur mentioned Biden’s supposed failure to recall details about the death of his son, Beau. But the transcript shows Biden mentioned the date of Beau Biden death, although he seemed confused about the year.
Hur’s report cited evidence that Biden intentionally kept highly classified information and shared it with a ghostwriter.
Unlike Trump, Biden immediately notified authorities about the documents when they were found.
Hur detailed how his findings about Biden were far different from those against Trump, who is awaiting trial for retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing the probe.
