Harris slams 'politically motivated' report as Biden to name task force to protect classified docs

The report from Robert Hur, the former Maryland U.S. Attorney selected by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden found evidence that Biden willfully held on to and shared with a ghostwriter highly classified information, but laid out why he did not believe the evidence met the standard for criminal charges, including a high probability that the Justice Department would not be able to prove Biden’s intent beyond a reasonable doubt.

The White House admits Biden erred in having the documents in his home and Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office, said Friday that Biden would soon name a task force “to ensure that there are better processes in place” to protect classified materials when administrations change.

The Hur report described the 81-year-old Democrat’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It noted that Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

Asked whether the White House would release a copy of the transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur that could dispute Hur’s characterizations, Sams said parts of it were classified, but that if parts of it could be declassified, “we’ll take a look at that and make a determination.”

Taking a question from a reporter at the conclusion of a gun violence prevention event at the White House, Harris said that as a former prosecutor, she considered Hur’s comments “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate.”

She noted that Biden’s two-day sit-down with Hur occurred just after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, where more than 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage — including Americans.

“It was an intense moment for the commander in chief of the United States of America,” Harris said, saying she spent countless hours with Biden and other officials in the days that followed and he was “on top of it all.”

She added that “the way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous.”

Harris concluded saying a special counsel should have a “higher level of integrity than what we saw.”

Her comments came a day after Biden insisted that his “memory is fine” and grew visibly angry at the White House, as he denied forgetting when his son died. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

Sams suggested that the political environment led Hur, who was appointed as U.S. attorney by former President Donald Trump, to include the comments.

“There’s an environment that we are in, that generates a ton of pressure, because you have congressional Republicans, other Republicans, attacking prosecutors that they don’t like,” he said.

The report

Hur’s report concludes that no criminal charges against Biden are warranted, a key difference from Donald Trump’s situation.

Trump is under criminal indictment for knowingly hanging on to to classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and resisting turning them over, perhaps the most damning — and stickiest — of the four criminal cases against him.

Weeks after the FBI searched Trump’s private residence and turned up classified documents, Biden slammed his predecessor as “totally irresponsible.”

As Biden ramps up his 2024 reelection campaign — and his case against Trump — he’s not likely to try that argument again.

Biden, 81, was already dogged by questions about whether he’s too old to serve a second term. The special counsel report will hardly be helpful on that count.

Hur noted that “Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited” in interviews with the special counsel office as well as with a ghostwriter that Biden worked with.

In his interview with the special counsel’s office, Hur writes, Biden twice appeared confused about when his term as vice president ended. The report notes that Biden, who speaks frequently about his son Beau’s death, could not remember “even within several years” when he died.

“And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him,” the report said. “Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”

Polls have shown that many Americans, including Democrats, have concerns about Biden’s age. He would be 86 at the end of his second term if reelected.