President Joe Biden’s personal attorney said Sunday he went to both the special counsel and the attorney general to register concerns over what he viewed to be pejorative and unnecessary digs at the president’s memory.

“This is a report that went off the rails,” Bob Bauer said on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday. “It’s a shabby work product.”

The special counsel was investigating whether the president mishandled classified documents during his previous positions as vice president and senator, and found this week that no criminal charges were warranted.

But in building his argument for why no charges were necessary, Special Counsel Robert Hur, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, detailed in part that Biden’s defense of any potential charges could possibly be that: “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Why is the AP leaving out the fact that Robert Hur, who made the report, is a Republican who was brought into the DOJ under Trump?

    You would think they might find that at least a little suspicious.

    • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Or that he’s not a psychologist or neurologist, did not administer any kind of formal cognitive examination, and is not qualified to make this kind of claim.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Not to mention that it has nothing to do with the classified documents. It’s not a normal thing for a special counsel to talk about.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Hur is a Republican, and a former U.S. attorney under Trump.

      “So you have to wonder with those pressures impinging on the investigation from the outside knowing the attacks that Republicans have levied on the law enforcement process, did he decide we would have to ask that we reach the only legal conclusion possible and then toss in the rest of it to placate a certain political constituency?” Bauer asked.

      The Justice Department has not commented on the criticism.

      They explicitly mention it and then quote someone talking about how it’s suspicious.

  • designatedhacker@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    “Poor memory” he probably answered a ton of incriminating questions with “I don’t recall.” Just like any sane person. Selectively forgetting only the points they don’t have evidence for demonstrates great mental clarity. Neither side can just say that though.

    • rayyy@lemmy.world
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      It’s not like Republicans,and their shills, didn’t give a free pass to Ronald Reagan, Trump and his family when the “couldn’t remember” hundreds of times - those folks have very poor memories themselves.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    So, Merrick really is fucking this up.

    Well, wouldn’t be the first time an Obama capitulation was leveraged to serve the GQP.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    And then he went on to cite examples where investigators said the president’s memory lapsed, including over when his older son Beau had died.

    Democrats are now answering the widespread questions about the 81-year-old president’s age and readiness by affirming that Biden is capable of being commander in chief and trying to discredit people who portray him feeble.

    Bauer, who is married to Biden’s top White House aide Anita Dunn, said he raised concerns over the inclusion of these details to both Hur and Garland, which he viewed to be a violation of the Justice Department norms that essentially work to avoid prejudicing the public against people who are not charged with a crime.

    Former Trump Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defended the report on CNN’ “State of the Union” Sunday.

    “When you conduct a criminal investigation, some of the information that you uncover and some things that you evaluate don’t necessarily put the subject in a favorable light.

    “It’s unfortunate that the special counsel process results in public reports that expose things that otherwise would remain sealed in Department of Justice files.”


    The original article contains 724 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    You know…the very right biased Supreme Court could practically guarantee a Republican 2025 president by keeping trump off the ballot for being an insurrectionist.

    Biden would have no chance against almost anyone else that became an option. Instead of two old people barely keeping their shit together that a sizeable portion of Democrats or Republicans are against, trying to pit Biden against someone younger who was even slightly less of a nut job than Trump would be really easy.

    The Democrat’s would see trump getting booted as a major victory, but what it will really end up doing is driving masses of Republicans to go vote straight ticket and flushing our country down the shitter.

    The Supreme Court will probably wait until there isn’t a lot of time left before ruling. After the ruling the DNC will know that Biden won’t have a chance against Nikki Haley. She’d get all the pissed of MAGA voters, a lot of female voters, the ones who just know Biden is too old, and the other red voters to show up. The left side won’t be motivated to go vote for Biden, and with a late ruling the DNC won’t have the time to get Biden to announce he’s not going to run a 2nd term and get anyone else to run other than VP Harris, but it seems a lot of people don’t like Harris and she just wouldn’t stand a chance against the right being angry and motivated over Trump getting booted.

    • Ashyr
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      That’s just not true. A significant portion of the republican party will only turn out for Trump.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        I think that’s true right now, but the trump crowd is dumb and easily angered. You honestly don’t think they’d be angry enough to go vote against Biden if their lord Trump got thrown in prison and Nikki eludes to pardoning Trump as a priority when she gets into office after the conniving democrats locked him up and/or stopped him from running? Do you not think Trump will back another candidate and tell his Lil fan club to go vote for them if Trump thinks it will keep him out of prison?

        I work around some of these people. I can assure you that they will go vote.

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          You honestly don’t think they’d be angry enough to go vote against Biden

          No, I don’t. They would whing that the system is rigged, just like they did in the last election, and not bother voting at all.

  • Jakeroxs
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    9 months ago

    So much cope in this thread, Biden is unfit and clearly has been for a while, he couldn’t remember the date of his own sons passing, has mentioned several long dead politicians that he had “talked to recently”, during the press conference about this report he confused Mexico with Egypt when talking about the Israel/Gaza situation.

    I’m a leftist and it’s clear as day he should not be the president nor should he run again.

    • PsychedSy
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      The fuck does unfit even mean anymore? At least his handlers can keep him leashed.

      • Jakeroxs
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        It shouldn’t be a hot take that the “commander in chief” shouldn’t have to have “handlers” to this extent. Come on

        • PsychedSy
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          I don’t disagree, but we’re past that in the last few elections.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    Jesus Christ, Joe. Let it go. Complaining about it extends the story. Firing Hur isn’t going to make people think you’re not 80 years old. Either prople already think he’s a partisan hack taking cheap shots or they think he’s a patriot for raising legitimate concerns. Either way, you can’t argue you don’t have memory problems whilst making gaffes and having memory lapses in that very speech, because that’s the part of the story people remember.

    You need to change ths subject and start rebuilding your image with some gaffe-free speeches and interviews.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    Trump and Biden both moaned and whined about their own mental wellness reports

    if both people are such questionable candidates then why are they on the ballot?

    are there no other candidates that could run for the Democrats or Republicans?

    US voting is starting to look more staged than ever

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      US voting is starting to look more staged than ever

      That’s exactly what Republicans, especially Trump, want everyone to think.

      • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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        And when Trump wins this the left will claim it was rigged. I don’t want him to win either, but I’m certain he will.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          I don’t remember Hillary declaring the election was rigged. Can you point out when she did that?

          • HACKthePRISONS@kolektiva.social
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            Trump “knows he’s an illegitimate president,” Clinton said. “I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they used, from voter suppression and voter purging to hacking to the false stories — he knows that — there were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did … I know he knows this wasn’t on the level.”

            In an October 2020 interview with The Atlantic, Clinton said, “There was a widespread understanding that [the 2016] election was not on the level. We still don’t know what happened … but you don’t win by 3 million votes and have all this other shenanigans and stuff going on and not come away with an idea like, ‘Whoa, something’s not right here.’”

            don’t believe me, though. search for the phrases and come to your own conclusion

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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              9 months ago

              Clinton SAYS that to detract from her own incompetence as a candidate. All of her problems, all of her fake stories, the buttery males, all of it is irrelevant compared to:

              1. Telling coal miners next to Pennsylvania that she wanted to put them out of work. “Buh, buh, what I actually said…” bullshit. She said their lifelong careers shouldn’t exist, and while West Virginia was NEVER going to vote Democratic, it cost her Pennsylvania instead. -20 Electoral College Votes.

              2. Taking Michigan for granted. The prime autoworker state should have been a slam dunk. Take a tour, remind everyone how the Republicans wanted to let them twist in the wind. She skipped the state and it cost her. -16 Electoral College Votes.

              3. Same thing in Wisconsin, except Wisconsin showed it could and would vote Republican in repeated state-wide elections. She skipped it, they skipped her. -10 electoral college votes.

              Had she not been an idiot, and swung just these three states… +46 EC votes… 273-258 - Clinton wins.

            • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              thanks for actually replying and using quotes

              here lately people seem to forget facts and play football politics hardcore

              people instantly confused me with being in the republican camp when in fact democrat and republican politics keep me from being allowed to vote

              • HACKthePRISONS@kolektiva.social
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                9 months ago

                i’m not following you. i’m reading the feed and responding. i didn’t even notice your username until after i’d corrected you. but i would be happy to help you find the block button. it’s on my profile page, in the upper right.

                • vlad@lemmy.sdf.org
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                  9 months ago

                  Also, there are like 10 people on this platform. We’re going to keep bumping into each other.

        • HACKthePRISONS@kolektiva.social
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          i think it’s interesting that the objection to your very factual claim is that one specific person didn’t phrase it that way: i remember keith olberman and rachel maddow. how could we forget?!

      • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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        sounds like the kind of thinking the Democrats want you saying

        that is the crux both parties using the same lines both full of themselves

        football politics with no meat on either Canidate’s resume

        where are any candidates that run based on their past accomplishments that helped society in some way or just something other than “we are not that other party and it is the other party’s fault we are underwhelming in every way possible”

    • highduc@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Not only in the US, it’s the same thing in lots of countries.
      Choices are between solid shit and diarrhea. Vote! Lol.