It was almost a schizophrenic report from Special Counsel Robert Hur.
What was more damning – the contents of top-secret classified information and documents that were “willfully,” and inappropriately, retained and disclosed by Joe Biden for years as senator and vice president, or Hur’s report that characterized him as an old man with a poor memory who is not in command of his surroundings?
Hur thread the needle between laying out an airtight case against Biden for possession of the papers and utter incompetence as president.
Even some of Biden’s greatest Democrat champions were baffled by the damning report and what Biden did to counteract it with an angry press conference later that evening.
“This is terrible for Democrats,” said former Clinton adviser Paul Begala.
It was either an non-indictment on the documents issue or something far worse – an indictment under the 25th Amendment.
Already, at least one member of Congress, Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., has asked Hur’s boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, to invoke it immediately to remove Biden from office.
Hur said the president’s practices had presented “serious risks to national security,” and described in his report several instances of the president suffering from memory loss. He added that part of the reason he didn’t pursue charges against Biden was because the president could portray himself as an “elderly man with poor memory” who would be sympathetic to a jury.
Every conscious American has witnessed this firsthand. Never before has a president showed so clearly a case of incompetence. Hardly one of his press conferences or public appearances fails to show the evidence. It has become embarrassing. It has become newsworthy. If the man can’t be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors, surely he must be stripped of his office, even if it means Vice President Kamala Harris would replace him.
The 25th Amendment would do that. One of its sections provides the vice president and majority of either the Cabinet “or such other body as Congress may by law provide” with a mechanism to transfer power from the president.
“President Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed,” wrote Tenney. “There is no middle ground.” She added that it was “incumbent” upon Garland to begin those proceedings.
“We don’t prosecute or decline to prosecute people based on their personalities, or on the public’s anticipated perception of them,” Tenney wrote. “If Special Counsel finds that the evidence forms a reasonable basis to bring charges, he must do so.”
Tenney compared Hur’s decision in his investigation of Biden to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s bringing charges against former President Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The Department of Justice “cannot ethically bring charges” against Trump “because he has mental acuity and a forceful personality” while declining to bring charges against Biden because of his “cognitive decline.”
Hur raised the issue most Americans are speculating about – people including former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Biden poses a danger to the entire country. What else can we do?
What makes Joe Biden untouchable? He’s a doddering old man. I don’t think so – and, according to a recent poll by NBC News, three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, say they have concerns about his mental and physical health. ABC News found that 86% of Americans think Biden is “too old.”
Do you? Is that the only concern you have about him?
