The split screen of Biden closing the deal on the nomination even as the White House was claiming that he was innocent on account of senility is really something. It’s another insane milestone in the surreal politics that would have seemed like over-the-top satire back in say 2006 before our political system completely lost its mind.
And since we are living in that world, it now entirely makes sense that the Biden administration would argue that Biden has been cleared on the grounds of senility and that he’s fit to lead the free world.
The White House began an online rapid response campaign soon after Hur began testifying Tuesday morning, culminating the day with a rare in-person Sams appearance before reporters at the White House.
“The case is closed. The evidence does not support bringing charges and it’s over, time to move on,” Sams told reporters. “There is no case here, the president is innocent. And that was the conclusion of this case.”
Hur clarified in his testimony earlier Tuesday that his report did not “exonerate” Biden as some Democrats claimed, though he ultimately did not find charges were warranted. When questioned if the White House disagreed with Hur’ and that the report exonerates Biden’s assessment on that, Sams avoided using the term exonerates.
“I think the report cleared President Biden,” Sams said. “The prosecutor had to decide, do I charge him or do I not charge him after this long investigation, and the decision was made not to charge and the case is closed. The president’s been fully cleared.”
Never has “fully cleared” sounded any worse.
Democrats want Biden cleared but they spent the hearing attacking the basis on which he was cleared. And when that failed, have turned to a popular whataboutist gimmick.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) opened the hearing with a video montage of past Trump statements in which he appeared to confuse Biden with former President Obama, mixed up former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with GOP rival Nikki Haley and mistakenly called Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán the president of Turkey.
“That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability, a man who is wholly unfit for office, and a man who at the very least ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline,” Nadler said.
This isn’t even a defense of Biden. Unable to do that, House Dems are reduced to arguing that everyone else is senile too.
The administration had tried to strike this material from the Hur report.
“We request that you revisit your descriptions of President Biden’s memory and revise them so that they are stated in a manner that is within the bounds of your expertise and remit,” the attorneys wrote.
What’s there to do about that except lie?
House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said at the start of the hearing that the president did not “seek to redact a single word of Mr. Hur’s report” — despite repeated entreaties by his lawyers to Justice Department officials.
Most conservatives insisted on not believing that Biden would run again. I said he would. He now has the nomination. Most still believe that he won’t make it to the election and that he’ll be replaced by Michelle Obama at the finish line. In our current insane political reality, anything can happen, but I still don’t think this one will.
Biden is the nominee and unless he steps down or breaks so badly that he has to be replaced, this is likely to be it. There will be no last-minute twist endings or surprises. He’ll accept the nomination and the election will play out the way that everything has until now. Everyone, including his own party, knows that he’s suffering from severe problems, they don’t even think he can win, but they’ll stand behind him anyway.