Democratic Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson accused special counsel Robert Hur without evidence of doing everything he could to re-elect former President Donald Trump during a congressional hearing.
Hur appeared in front of Congress on Tuesday to testify regarding his report detailing President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. The special counsel report, though finding that Biden willfully retained classified documents, declined to charge the president because the jury might see Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Johnson questioned Hur about his decision to include multiple notes about Biden’s memory in his special counsel report, claiming that the special counsel made a partisan choice to “trash and smear” the president. (RELATED: FLASHBACK: Democrats Had No Problem With Robert Hur Until He Became A Thorn For Joe Biden)
“Despite clearing President Biden from being prosecuted, you used your report to trash and smear President Biden because he said in response to questions over a five-hour interview that he didn’t recall how he got the documents, and you knew that would play into the Republicans’ narrative that the president is unfit for office because he’s senile. And the American people saw during the State of the Union address that that was not true. and yet that is what you tried to offer to them and that’s why they are having you here today. So that they could expand on that narrative. And you knew that was what was going to happen, didn’t you?” Johnson asked Hur.
“Congressman, I reject the suggestions that you have just made —” Hur began to respond before Johnson cut him off, trying to “move on” and ask Hur if he was a member of the Federalist Society.
Johnson then asked Hur if he was registered Republican, which the special counsel confirmed. Light clapping appeared to be heard in the background following Hur’s response.
“And you are doing everything you can to do to get [former] President Trump reelected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice. Isn’t that correct?” Johnson asked Hur.
“Congressman, I have no such aspirations, I can assure you. And I can tell you that partisan politics had no such part what-so-ever in my work. It had no place in the investigative steps that I took. It had no place in the decision that I made. And it had no place in a single word of my report,” Hur responded.
The White House has been live-tweeting ‘fact checks’ of Special Counsel Hur’s testimony, calling out specific lawmakers for what they’re painting as twisted takes on Hur’s report. But they haven’t touched one big distinction: Biden wasn’t found innocent, he just didn’t face…
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) March 12, 2024
Hur’s report noted that Biden had appeared to forget when his vice presidency began and ended and added that the president forgot the date of his late son’s death. Following the release of the report, Biden gave an unexpected press conference in an attempt to quell concerns about his declining memory. Biden criticized Hur for raising questions about Beau Biden’s death, though a released transcript of the interview shows that the president was the one to raise the date.
The White House has rebuked the notes of Biden’s memory in the report “flatly wrong,” “inappropriate” and “politically motivated.”