The transcript with Special Counsel Robert Hur and President Biden makes clear that completely misrepresented President Biden and his state of mind in his report. But don’t take our word for it – experts and commentators agree that the President was nothing but “clear and forceful” in his testimony, and Hur made nothing but “lies” and “false claims” in his report. The Trump-appointed prosecutor couldn’t miss his opportunity to take a political stab at the President, all to help distract from Trump’s two impeachments, 91 criminal indictments, the insurrection he started, and to help Trump return to the White House in 2024.
Hur’s report concluded that no crime was committed by the President and recommended no charges be filed. Hur went outside of his job description and Department of Justice standards to smear the President, and this hearing is more of the same. It’s time for Congress to move on and address the American people’s priorities.
Adam Kinzinger (Former Republican US Congressman): “Reading the transcript it seems obvious that Biden was not as demented as Robert Hur made him out to be. Seems like a normal interview actually. Way to go GOP, you’re about to be embarrassed again.”
Weijia Jiang (CBS News): “The President was fired up about Hur’s claim that he couldn’t remember when his son Beau died… because it was false. He immediately said the date, according to the interview transcript.”
Kyle Cheney (Politico): “CAN’T MAKE IT UP: In the first sentence of the first part of Hur’s Biden interview — which has become about Biden’s grasp of dates and recall — Hur gets the time of day wrong.”
Molly Jong-Fast (Vanity Fair): “So Hur Lied?”
Tim Miller (The Bulwark Podcast): “‘What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30,’ he said, naming the correct day, according to a transcript of the exchange reviewed by The Washington Post. Not a good look for Hur…”
Zach Beauchamp (Vox): “I *think* Biden might be owed an apology.”
Aaron Rupar (Public Notice): “completely reprehensible that Republicans smeared Biden for not remembering when his son died when that’s clearly a lie”
David Axelrod (CNN): “Stumbles notwithstanding, the @POTUS in this transcript doesn’t comport with the portrait painted by the special counsel’s report.”
Keith Olbermann (Independent Journalist): “The Hur hearing hasn’t even started yet and he’s been caught lying about whether Biden remembered the date of his son’s death (CBS), outed by the transcript as falsely depicting Biden’s memory (AP), and himself getting the time of day he interviewed POTUS wrong (Politico).”
JJ Abbott (Former Press Secretary, Pennsylvania Governor): “This should be the prevailing Hur storyline of the day: he lied and abused his DOJ position to help Donald Trump.”
Jim Messina (Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff): “The Hur testimony should be treated exactly like what it is: political partisan hackery.”
Tommy Vietor (Crooked Media): “Hur’s claim that Biden couldn’t remember the day his son died was an outrageous lie. It’s also cruel & irrelevant. Anyone who has experienced loss like that can remember images, smells, bit of conversations. The pain is burned into you. Dates blend together bc they’re irrelevant.”
Judd Legum (Popular Information): “So Hur said that Biden couldn’t remember when his son died within several years and that was proof that his memory was shot but now the transcript has been released and it turns out Biden immediately recalled the MONTH and DAY.”
Mike Memoli (NBC News): “Nearly 260 page transcript offers a fuller picture of the Biden-Hur interviews. Over the 5 hours during 2 days, @POTUS sometimes offered detailed explanations, at others said he couldn’t recall. He flashed frustration, and also humor.”
Tim O’Brien (Bloomberg Opinion): “A full transcript of Biden’s special counsel interview shows that ‘the president doesn’t come across as absent-minded as Hur has made him out to be.’”
The New York Times: How the Special Counsel’s Portrayal of Biden’s Memory Compares With the Transcript.
- “A transcript of a special counsel’s hourslong interview of President Biden over his handling of classified files shows that on several occasions the president fumbled with dates and the sequence of events, while otherwise appearing clearheaded.”
- “Mr. Biden went into great detail about many matters, the transcript shows. He made jokes over the two days, teasing the prosecutors. And at certain points, he corrected his interrogators when they were the ones who misspoke.”
Associated Press: Biden says he never meant to keep classified documents. Hur stands by report on president’s memory.
- “The full transcript could raise questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having “significant limitations” on his memory. It paints a more textured picture of his discussions with prosecutors, filling out some of the gaps left by Hur’s accounting of the exchanges.
- “The transcript also offered a rare window into the mind of a sitting president, revealing his humor and his obsessions — including his beloved Corvette and his keen interest in construction work at his home in Wilmington — as well as the rigors of the presidency and international crises.”
CNN: ‘I have no idea’: Biden told investigators he didn’t know how his aides stored sensitive documents, transcript shows.
- “President Joe Biden told jokes and unfurled lengthy detailed stories from his decadeslong political career as he parried questions from special counsel Robert Hur and his investigators over two days last October, a transcript of the interview reviewed by CNN shows.
CBS News: What Biden told then-special counsel Robert Hur in their 5-hour interview, according to the transcript.
- “In the interview, Hur commended Mr. Biden’s “significant cooperation” with the investigation and asked the president for his “best recollection in response” to questions. “I acknowledge that some of the questions we are asking relate to events that happened years ago,” Hur said.
The Independent: Biden special counsel interview transcript casts new light on president’s memory about son Beau’s death.
- “Yet the transcript appears not to match up with how Mr Hur described Mr Biden, particularly with regard to his memory.”
- “His description of the president as being confused about dates appears less accurate when the full transcript of the interview is taken into account.”
The Washington Post: Full transcript of Biden’s special counsel interview paints nuanced portrait.
- “The president doesn’t seem as absent-minded as Hur has made him out to be”
Wall Street Journal: Inside Biden’s Special Counsel Interview: Riffs, Jokes and the Occasional Flub.
- “In a five-hour interview over two days, Biden tackled topics big and small”
- “President Biden was “not stumped on basic factual questions”
Business Insider: It looks like the special counsel may have overstated Biden’s memory issues.
- “The transcript of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur is in the hands of journalists — and it reportedly shows that Hur’s comments trashing Biden’s memory may have been overstated.”
NBC News: Transcript of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur shows memory lapses — but also detailed exchanges.
- “Hur’s characterization of Biden during the interview was not based in reality. If anything, they argue, Hur’s at-times meandering questioning may have contributed to the confusion.”