Hur On The Hill

Special Counsel Robert Hur testified for hours before the House Judiciary Committee today. Prior to his testimony, the transcript of his interview with Joe Biden was released to the public, and we learned that Joe Biden lied when he accused Hur of making an issue of his son’s death.

Think about that for a moment. Joe Biden exploited his son’s death in order to smear Special Counsel Hur. We also learned Biden joked that investigators might find risque photos of his wife. Weird.

I was struck by a number of things Hur told members of Congress today.

In response to critics who blasted his report as a “partisan hit job on the president,” Hur replied that he set a high standard to thoroughly explain his decision when “investigating the attorney general’s boss.”

As for Biden’s “willful retention and disclosure” of classified material, Hur noted that Joe Biden told the ghostwriter of his book, “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” So, he clearly knew he had classified information.

Asked to explain why he didn’t charge Biden, Hur said he needed to ascertain the president’s state of mind, adding that he did not sanitize his explanation or unfairly disparage the president. And he stood by his description of Biden as “an elderly man with a poor memory.”

When pressed to clarify his findings, Hur said that he did not find Biden innocent, only that Hur would likely lose a jury trial.

That left me wondering how a man too befuddled to stand trial can be capable of governing the country.