Jordan: Withholding Hur Tape Is Tipping Scales of Election for Biden
President Joe Biden invoked executive privilege last week to prevent House Republicans from listening to the audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
The topic of discussion in the October 2023 interview was how the president handled classified materials. Republicans intended to hold Attorney General Garland in contempt of Congress for not providing the audio, despite their request for it. Amna Nawaz and Carrie Johnson talked further.
As a result, the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees voted along party lines in back-to-back sessions that almost ran into early Friday to further an effort to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over the records.
During an interview on Fox News, Jordan and host Sean Hannity tore into the DOJ for protecting Biden as the November election is just months away.
Below is a transcript of the interview, via Grabien:
Hannity: “Now, didn’t the issue of — for example, you’re the chairman of a committee. Last time I checked, we have three coequal branches of government and your Branch of government, you’re a member of Congress, the legislative Branch, that you would have oversight over the executive Branch and that would be part of Congress’ role, correct?”
Jordan: “Sure is. One of our constitutional duties is to do oversight of the executive Branch and the agencies that fall under our jurisdiction, Homeland Security and, of course, the Department of Justice.”
Hannity: “All right, can you do then, Jim Jordan, congressman, can you explain to me, based on what you just said, how it is that Garland actually mentioned the political impact of the tape early on, when the request came in to turn the tape over and transcript over that they didn’t want to turn over, that it might have an impact on the election? Because withholding it, sounds to me like he is trying to tip the election or the scales of the election in favor of his boss, Joe Biden.”
Jordan: “Yeah, and you just played, they said Biden and the attorney general said they wanted to be independent and impartial. Okay. That’s what we are supposed to evaluate. That’s part of our oversight. What we do know is you’ve charged President Trump with a crime on the classified documents issue and you didn’t charge Joe Biden. Are you really being impartial, particularly when on page 1 of Robert Hur, the special counsel’s report, he says Joe Biden knowingly kept and Joe Biden knowingly disclosed classified information. On page 231 of his report, he said Joe Biden had strong motivations for ignoring classified procedures, he knew he was writing a book — a book for which he got paid an $8 million advance. So we have motive, an $8 million motive, we have the elements of the crime then, but Robert Hur says, We’re not going to bring a charge, we won’t recommend charges because he is a forgetful, elderly gentleman.’ Okay, so give us all the evidence. By the way, Joe Biden has already waived executive privilege when he released everything, including the transcript. We just want the best evidence so we can evaluate if, in fact, the Department of Justice is truly being independent and impartial, which is our job under the Constitution. That’s why we held him in contempt and it passed out of the committee earlier today.”
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