The Justice Department has released a transcript of Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, and the Wall Street Journal has read it:
Other news outlets basically agree, mostly opting to present their findings as "nuanced" or providing "context." But they fundamentally say the same thing: Biden was being Biden. He joked, he veered off into stories, and he got two or three things wrong during a five-hour interview. In no way did he seem like a forgetful grandpa, as Hur gratuitously implied in his report.
This whole thing has been a travesty. Someday maybe we'll get a special counsel—just one!—who isn't a partisan Republican with an axe to grind. Someday.
"Someday maybe we'll get a special counsel—just one!—who isn't a partisan Republican with an axe to grind. Someday."
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
And maybe, just maybe, the fucking press won't fall for another partisan Republican hit job hook line and sinker.
It's the fucking press's fucking job to fall for partisan Republican hit jobs hook, line, and sinker.
Exactly!
But the press does fall for GOP hit jobs with such relish time and again. It's not an accident. GOP dirt is great for them, a pretext to stir up trouble. For those of us who like to think we're on the side of what's best for this country, we need to remember that the press is not on our side.
Good point.
I'd say that Jack Smith is a special counsel who isn't a republican with an axe to grind.
Yay! There's 1 token non-Republican special counsel out there! Problem solved! Just like how we all solved racism forever by electing 1 black guy to the WH.
Kevin said that someday maybe we would get just one. I think Smith can be said to be one.
In the 4 days following the release of the Hur report, 3 newspapers --- the NYT, WaPo, WSJ --- collectively published more than 80 stories on Biden's age!
At the height of the mania, the not-so-young-anymore NYT columnist Ezra Klein advocated the craziest scheme of political self-sabotage in modern history, for Democrats to dump their incumbent and highly accomplished president, Joe Biden, at their convention this summer. Biden was "too old." Just like Hur said.
No one will pay a price --- or even admit their error --- for the Great Freakout of 2024. But no one should forget, and when it comes to reporting or commentary on politics, no one should trust them ever again.
Well, to be fair, Biden is super duper old. Like 3.5 years older than his opponent! And as we see everywhere in Washington DC, if there's one thing voters don't like, it's sending old people to Washington DC. Off to Carousel with him.
NYT headline writers have no apparent interest in correcting the record. Two stories on the paper's home page on today's testimony.
(1) "both sides"
(2) "Biden's memory"
(1) "'significant' memory problems"
Special Counsel Is Attacked From Both Sides Over Biden Documents Inquiry
Robert Hur faced sharp scrutiny over his conclusion that the evidence was insufficient to charge President Biden and his remarks about Mr. Biden’s memory.
How the Special Counsel’s Portrayal of Biden’s Memory Compares With the Transcript
Robert Hur accused President Biden of “significant” memory problems. The interview transcript offers context.
But he's OLD!
"Someday maybe we'll get a special counsel—just one!—who isn't a partisan Republican with an axe to grind."
If he or she investigates a Democrat, Republicans will holler "Whitewash!" If a Republican is the target, they'll holler "Witch hunt!"
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. So - don't. Forget what Reps say. You can't win anyway.
But Hur testified in Congress that the hit job was necessary and the he didn't "exonerate" Biden.
That's about all I'm seeing in the headlines.
“This whole thing has been a travesty.”
But it didn’t have to be. The media outlets could’ve simply done, you know, some reporting. Instead, their hysterical and inexplicable freak out was the single most worrisome development in this whole election cycle so far. They more or less invented a crises out of nothing.
And at this point I’ve lost count of how many otherwise intelligent writers have lost creditability in my eyes by losing their minds over the fact that the president is over 80. Ezra Klein @ the NYT has been particularly obnoxious, first unnecessarily utilizing thousands of words to try and invent a national emergency out of Biden’s age, and then shamelessly declaring a Biden “comeback” after the State of the Union. But there was nothing for Biden to come back from, the ostensible problems relating to his age had been all narrative, not news.
And I could go on. The press, numerous pundits, and our ageist society writ large have all deeply implicated and discredited themselves in a bigoted and hysterical travesty of an overwrought and ill conceived tantrum of epic and supremely dangerous proportions. The American press, at present, might be one of the greatest dangers that our country faces.
As long as we have the maga's and t-Rump, this will never end. Prepare for the onslaught until the election. Vote blue folks and put a stop to this mephitic trash.
Had to look that up. Perfect description of the Republican Party.
I enjoyed the Mongolia story!
Is there a way to reframe the preponderance of Republic special counsels as a violation of email security protocols? Surely the NYT would then assign resources to cover it.
Maybe not. All in all, it's been pretty gentle. I don't remember what year my brother died of aids; my father died of cancer, either; in no small part because the emotions attached overwhelm.
This builds sympathy to Biden where it can, and it smooths off the rough edges for others. Maybe strategically for Biden, it's the best way to neutralize the 3.5 year age-deficit advantage the GOP has.
double negative intended.
Just another example that without bad faith…
Republicans would have no arguments at all.
And then TikTok is to blame!? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Just because an app wasn't used, shitty influence of this kind isn't punished? That...attorney should be pilloried on the backs of the editors that abetted him on a slowly disintegrating cardboard raft floating over the Mariana Trench.
You realize Hur is auditioning for Trump's AG, right?
Too bad we can't see a Hur interview of trump, live.
.
And I have been wondering when Grassley will retire, ever since the Clarence Thomas hearings. His constituents are apparently quite satisfied with his representation.