The president believes the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents went beyond his remit. And part of the blame is being placed on the AG.

Joe Biden has told aides and outside advisers that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not do enough to rein in a special counsel report stating that the president had diminished mental faculties, according to two people close to the president, as White House frustration with the head of the Justice Department grows.

The report from special counsel Robert Hur ultimately cleared Biden of any charges stemming from his handling of classified documents that were found at Biden’s think tank and his home. But Hur’s explanation for not bringing charges — that Biden would have persuaded the jury that he was a forgetful old man — upended the presidential campaign and infuriated the White House.

Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to Hur’s report, including around the descriptions of Biden’s faltering memory.

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    Maybe you’re right; maybe they’re not stellar people. However:

    1. These weren’t my main points.

    2. Regardless of their motives, their actions are what matter; for as I said, there were many Trump supporters who were spited by Trump but who still kissed his ass. For whatever reason that you and I cannot elucidate, these individuals broke with the rest – often to their own downfall – unlike other individuals, again such examples being DeSantis or Cruz. If enough people in the Republican party at least had this level of self-respect, then perhaps we wouldn’t be where we are today (though an argument can be made such people enabled Trump to be created like Frankenstein’s monster.)

    My main points:

    • Obama didn’t have Senate control; he was never going to get an idyllic progressive into the Supreme Court under a Republican Senate; he couldn’t even get a formerly-bipartisan supported candidate like Garland into the Supreme Court – This point remained untouched.

    • There is substantively NOTHING Garland is doing wrong and every complaint I’ve thus far seen has been pure speculation from people who are not legal experts and are just impatient – This point, too, remains untouched.