‘For posterity’s sake.’
Those words from President Joe Biden sum up the crushing impact of the leaked audiotapes from the interview between him and Special Counsel Robert Hur. Not only did they remove any doubt over Biden committing federal crimes, but they also constituted what is akin to a political racketeering indictment against much of the Washington establishment, from the White House staff to Democratic politicians to the media.
The interview, conducted from Oct. 8-9, 2023, has long been sought by Congress, but was kept under wraps by Biden’s Justice Department even as Biden campaigned for a second term.
Many of us balked at the conclusion of Hur that no charges were appropriate despite the fact that the president had removed classified documents for decades, stored them in grossly negligent ways, and moved them around to unsecure locations, including his garage in Delaware.
Given President Donald Trump’s indictment for the same offenses, it was hard to imagine how the special counsel could not recommend the same criminal charges (presumably after he left office).
Instead, Hur declared it would have been hard to get a jury to convict Biden because he was ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’
It appears that Trump, on the other hand, was presumptively not sympathetic or well-meaning and possessed a good enough memory to face prosecution.
The contrast was glaring and only reinforced the view of many citizens that there are two tracks for justice in Washington.
Soon after the report’s release, Biden gave an irate press conference at which he lied about the findings of his culpability and lashed out at any suggestion that he had gapped or stumbled in the interview.
For example, when reporters raised Hur’s assertion that Biden had forgotten when his son Beau died, Biden angrily responded, ‘How in the hell dare he raise that?’ Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.’
However, it was not Hur but Biden himself who raised the death of his son, and he forgot a wide array of dates, including when he served in office.
The interview shows that in 2023 it was clear that Biden was mentally diminished despite claims from many allies and former aides that there was a sudden loss of capacity just before the disastrous debate in 2024. It is now undeniable that the White House staff actively hid the president’s incompetence from the American public. That includes the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (who left her post in May 2022) and her successor, Karine Jean-Pierre, who insisted that Biden was sharp and ‘running circles’ around the staff.
Of course, the media is now covering the story after the public saw the truth in the debate. Figures like CNN’s Jake Tapper have even written books that belatedly pursue the question despite previously insisting that there was no evidence of a diminishment in Biden’s mental state.
