House GOP members are continuing to question the details surrounding special counsel Robert Hur‘s report on President Joe Biden and are now angling to get Hur to testify on Capitol Hill.
Hur released his report on the president’s handling of classified documents last week, presenting Biden as an “elderly man” with “poor memory” and declining to bring criminal charges. After the report’s release, top House Republicans asked the Department of Justice for a transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden that he conducted last year.
Now House GOP leaders are preparing to launch a weeks-to-monthslong plan that will keep questions surrounding Biden’s mental competency in the spotlight. The plan will include hearings and possibly subpoenas for other documents and recordings, sources close to Republican leaders told Axios.
The sources told the outlet that the next step is requesting Hur’s testimony about how Biden’s storage of classified documents may have jeopardized national security and the level of Biden’s mental acuity when he was interviewed in the case.
Back in October, Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledged that “usually, the special counsels have testified at the end of their reports.”
Hur said in the report that it would be hard to find a jury that would convict a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,” Hur wrote. “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Hur’s testimony could be detrimental to Biden and his reelection campaign, as the president’s age has been a top issue among voters who are worried about whether Biden can handle another term in the White House. Democrats are concerned about the report and Hur’s testimony, even as the White House has been aggressive in its messaging to dismiss claims that Biden is mentally incompetent.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced a number of questions on the subject, reiterating that Hur is “obviously a Republican prosecutor” and should not have commented on Biden’s mental condition.
The White House also promised Biden’s attending physician would produce a physical ahead of the 2024 election but did not commit to allowing Dr. Kevin O’Connor to field questions from the press on Biden’s health.
If Hur does arrive to testify on Capitol Hill, House Democrats may use his ties to former President Donald Trump (who nominated him) to undermine his findings. However, prominent Democrats previously doled out praise for Hur, with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) saying he’s a “distinguished prosecutor” and that he was confirmed on a “bipartisan basis.”
In the letter sent by Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Jason Smith (R-MO), the House chairmen gave the Justice Department a Monday deadline to provide the transcript.
House Republicans are also preparing for Hur’s possible testimony, likely before the House Judiciary Committee.
“Someone might ask him if Biden is unfit to lead,” a leadership source said to the news outlet. “Give him a chance to frame it.”
The hearing will likely focus on the national security dangers Biden’s document storage posed as another tie into the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into Biden and his family’s alleged foreign business dealings. It also could focus on how the Justice Department handled the investigation into Biden, as several Republicans blasted Hur’s report as an example of a “two-tiered system of justice.”
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However, Hur’s testimony could inadvertently cause severe blowback for Republicans, particularly as Trump faces 32 felony counts for his handling of classified documents.
Republicans are “going to focus on something that will draw even more attention to Trump’s #1 vulnerability in the election: his potential criminal guilt,” a person close to the White House said.
