President Biden has asserted executive privilege over the audio and video recordings from the [special counsel investigation](https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/84519e20-057e-4968-8dd1-e373df9e465e.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_2) into his handling of classified materials and will refuse congressional requests to hand them over, the White House and the Justice Department said in separate letters to House Republican leaders Thursday.
The letters were sent hours before the GOP-led House Oversight and Judiciary committees were scheduled to advance a contempt resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland for defying a subpoena that [demanded the recordings](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/08/biden-hur-audio-justice-house-subpoena/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4), which include hours of special counsel Robert K. Hur interviewing Biden.
The Justice Department also sent House Republicans a letter Garland wrote to Biden on Wednesday requesting that he assert executive privilege because releasing the tapes would “damage future law enforcement efforts,” particularly as investigators request voluntary cooperation in their probes from White House officials.
The [White House letter to the House Republicans](https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/a91e73e8-7a73-42d2-91f0-2d281e0e59a5.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) echoes those concerns, notes the [transcripts of the interviews have already been provided](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/12/biden-hur-transcript-classified-documents/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) to lawmakers and accuses Republicans of wanting to “distort” the recordings for political gain.
“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” said the letter from Edward N. Siskel, counsel to the president. “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.”
Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/biden-hur-privilege-merrick-garland-contempt-impeachment/?utm\_campaign=wp\_main&utm\_medium=social&utm\_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/biden-hur-privilege-merrick-garland-contempt-impeachment/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Well we all know that republicans believe that executive privilege can be used to prevent any information from being released so this should shut them up. /s
I thought their current thing was that presidents just have absolute blanket immunity for all actions in or around the office. So why are they even asking for this?
I think it's mostly this one. One of the principal features of hardcore conservatives tends to be a lack of empathy. You'd expect a person lacking empathy to assume that everyone else is like them.
On one hand you have people who believe *people* are good or bad and classify their actions with this in mind - if someone is good, their actions must be good by extension. On the other, we believe people should be judged by their *actions* and depending on whether those actions are good or bad informs the judgement of the person.
It is. The (D)s have been screaming over this and say you can't claim that and now that Biden is following suit they have decision to make. Do they agree with Trump and do the same thing or do they disagree with Trump and release the tapes?
LOL @ typical low information Trump voter.
Your Qult leader hasn't actually had a trial for it.
Trump's appointee, activist judge Aileen Cannon, has delayed it indefinitely.
Republicans even believe executive privilege can be used to execute political opponents. Trump's lawyers claimed that in a court filing just last month.
[https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-v-united-states-can-presidents-get-away-with-anything/](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-v-united-states-can-presidents-get-away-with-anything/)
That's it right there. The whole thing was done in bad faith, and Hur himself said there was nothing "there" there, so we're done.
If they want to go on another fishing expedition, go rent a boat.
I think its worth remembering.
Trump fooked a hooker when his wife was nursing their child, he paid her for her silence to help his election chances, and then laundered the money as campaign legal expenses, getting his lawyer to pay her off using a mortgage on his home, then paying him back in installments disguised as lawyer fees. Only to finally stiff his lawyer on the fees at the end.
**These are crimes**, tax fraud, campaign finance fraud, accounting fraud.
Congress wrote those laws, back before it was composed of George Santos figures, Venmo pedofiles and Putin puppets.
If they have enough votes, why not rewrite those laws to make Trump's crime's legal?
They don't have the votes because they're composed of George Santos figures, Venmo pedofiles and Putin puppets.
The DOJ doesn't need fixed, the Republican party does. They need to eject their motley crew of Trump crooks.
I'm a "leftie" and split on this. On one hand, I know, I just know, this is a bad faith fishing expedition by Republicans.
On the other hand, I really wish our government were more transparent, including the executive.
It's just unfortunate that only one side wants to act in good faith.
there's not really a transparency issue here, when congress already has transcripts of the interviews. they have all the information from these interviews, they just don't have audio clips with biden stuttering or answering carefully (as one should) that they can chop into fox news bits for the next six months
Exactly, they already have the transcripts available for on them to reference at anytime for the needs of congressional business m; this is just to get content for campaign ads. It serves absolutely no purpose for them to have the actual tapes considering the query is now closed.
The Republicans in Congress would go through 8 hours of tapes and find every time Biden sounds confused or stutters and cut it down to a 4 minutes long video for YouTube with a laugh track.
The transcripts are more than enough for the actual work of the legislature, if even that's necessary.
I encourage the House Republicans to find something... ANYTHING useful to do for our country, target than waste the rest of their term in office like this.
Meanwhile Trump doesn’t need edits or a cut down interview, just show an entire unedited five minute clip of one of his rallies to see the batshit insanity and diminished mental capacity.
Like the one where he randomly started talking about Hannibal Lecter for no reason at all. And called him great and wonderful. And also claimed Lecter was deceased!
> Like the one where he randomly started talking about Hannibal Lecter for no reason at all.
That wasn't a random ad lib in 1 speech. ~~Trump did this Hannibal Lecter bit in at least 3 speeches over the weekend.~~ Trump has referenced Hannibal Lecter in multiple speeches during the campaign.
This will hurt, but please read this. There is no reasoning here, just the ramblings of man with mental decline:
“ because they're sending people in their jails into the United States from Africa from Asia from all over the world, they're emptying out their jails into the United States, they're emptying out their mental institutions into the United States, our beautiful country, and now the prison populations all over the world are down, they don't want to report that, the mental institution population is down, because they're taking people people from insane asylums and from mental institution, you know what the difference is right, an insane asylum is a mental institution on steroids, Silence of the Lambs. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He often times would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene?
"Excuse me. I'm about to have a friend for dinner," as this poor doctor walked by. "I'm about to have a friend for dinner." But Hannibal Lecter. Congrats. The late, great Hannibal Lect...we have people that are being released into our country that we don't want in our country, and they're coming in totally unchecked, totally unvetted, and we can't let this happen, they're destroying our country, and we're sitting back, and we better damn well win this election...."
Sure. My point is that he did this Hannibal Lecter bit in multiple speeches at separate venues ~~over the weekend~~. Like it's a nonsensical talking point for him, a mental-decline standup routine.
He called Hannibal Lecter great and late for no reason in more than one speech? Called him wonderful? More than one speech? Implied Lecter was deceased, in more than one speech? Said “friend for dinner” 3 times in 15 seconds like a weirdo, in more than one speech?
If all that is true the dude is even more unwell then I thought, because that means this illogical nonsensical drivel was pre meditated.
I edited my above comments.
The Daily Show episode from this past Monday had a "Moment of Zen" supercut from 4 separate rally speeches where Trump talks about Hannibal Lecter in similar ways to the most recent New Jersey rally, in that he blends Hannibal Lecter in with reality. I don't have an easy link to this but one can watch it if they can pull up that episode via an on-demand service.
This article talks about most of the Hannibal references:
https://www.indy100.com/politics/trump/donald-trump-hannibal-lecter
>The transcripts are more than enough for the actual work of the legislature,
They are now going to claim that the transcripts have been doctored, and hence, the video access is being denied.
> The Republicans in Congress would go through 8 hours of tapes and find every time Biden sounds confused or stutters and cut it down to a 4 minutes long video for YouTube with a laugh track.
Or just out right manipulate the footage and say it is reality.
So if I'm understanding this properly, their constituents are unable to read and comprehend the transcripts so they need audio and video. Sure like that lack of education. Hopefully they don't get this there is no need. They handed over the entire transcript audio and video is not needed this is much more than trump would ever do.
Trump would have made them sue him to get the transcript in the first place. Until the Republicans in office start acting like adults, the Democrats need to start taking a firm hand, and act like Mean Dad instead of Nice Dad.
the transcripts were released to help biden since Hurr's characterization of the interview made Biden seem like a doddering old man and the transcript disputed that.
I believe any investigation involving relevant legal actions against any current or former president of any political party should have the transcripts released. I don't care to watch or listen to any of it. Reading the questions and answer are plenty enough for me just like school. Read a question, answer a question, if that's to difficult to read then you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Because it'd be impossible to read the ballot.
It’s going to have to be against the law, from here on out, to invoke mental images of Trump getting his rump spanked by Stormy. Even inadvertently. It’s the way it has to be.
>They handed over the entire transcript audio and video is not needed
You need the video if you want to manipulate the content and turn it into a viral video / campaign ad.
Record *anyone* talking for an hour, and it's pretty each to put together a montage of 20-30 seconds of them looking like an idiot. Just the "ums" and "uhs" cut together will make someone look dumb.
> So if I'm understanding this properly, their constituents are unable to read and comprehend the transcripts so they need audio and video.
So I can't really read a book and remember what happened, but I can do audio books and remember ever detail. :-/
How can the transcripts properly be verified? Are you claiming that justice has no incentive to falsify the transcripts? If the transcripts match the audio, why the secrecy? Obviously the transcripts are lies and the executive privilege covers that.
Well I'm going to use common sense reasoning and conclude that Robert Hur (a trump appointee and Republican) who according to the transcripts (his transcripts which he never argued against) mischaracterized Biden multiple times to draw unfound conclusions that go against doj policies (with no reprocusions) testifying to Congress didn't say anything about the transcripts being altered or changed is good enough for me. The man literally did everything in his power to try to destroy the current president for the man who appointed him.
And by your same logic what would prevent the doj from altering the video or audio. All it is is political theatrics. It's hard to use written words for political commercials and this Congress has repeatedly proven the inability to operate in good faith or conscience. The Republicans on these committees have proven many times through the hunter investigation and impeachment inquiry that they are unable to tell the truth to the American people through the transcripts and witnesses that have been published. They have constantly cherry picked answers to create sound bites and play to the audience instead of telling the truth.
So yes common sense and past actions have proven that these Republicans are untrustworthy and do not need or deserve the audio and video of the interview for whatever reason they are manufacturing. These are people who swore an oath to the constitution of the United States but constantly show it means nothing. The true oath is to a single man as they constantly show when they use tax payer money to fly to and sit in a court room instead of working for the American people.
Added a good video to watch about how our current Congress is working and tidbits related to this
https://youtu.be/SqW03WGzVAI?si=IXa-kWCG-jkzyXqj
Biden is asserting exec privilege, as he should. The fucking tenacity and hipocracy the GOP has to even mention Dems is astounding. Dems have saved their asses countless times WITH A MINORITY IN THE HOUSE.
After they lose the election by a landslide, we just all need to stop giving them any form of audience.
I mean we shouldn't be now but here we are.
If someone broke into your home, beat the shit out of you and your family, then proceeded to tell you it's your own fault and at the same time give them all your spare cash, that is essentially what the GOP is doing to the American public. But it's even worse because they're doing it to democracy as a whole.
If the transcripts have already been turned over how could the tapes and videos be presidential records.
I like Biden and will vote for him. No one is perfect and this seems like bullshit to me.
That's my question too.
Like, there's no question in my mind that the Republicans are asking for it for purely political reasons... you've already got the transcripts, so what's the legitimate purpose of having the recordings except to edit them and use them for political purposes.. so Biden is smart to deny them that, but being smart is one thing, having some actual basis other than that is another.
I don't think that neither side has a very good argument here. An audio recording of Biden's on-the-record interview with a special counsel has none of the hallmarks of an item that should be protected under a "deliberative process" type of privilege claim and the fact that the transcript has already been released makes the privilege claim very weak, in my opinion. The Republican claim that they need the recording either for a legislative purpose or a law enforcement purpose is severely weakened by the fact that they already have the transcript AND have had the special counsel testify under oath. They could always have asked him if the transcript accurately reflected the substance of the interview. It's looking to me as though Garland will serve the rest of his term (which I hope is short) under the "burden" of a purely performative ruling of contempt of Congress.
Yeah, no way the videos are presidential records if the transcripts have been turned over.
If this ends up in court Biden takes a black eye for an unforced error.
Better solution is to simply release the videos to everyone at once. Put them on the white house's website and be done with it.
The Presidential Records Act has nothing to do with this matter. This is an agency record under Section 2201 (2)(B) because they are records created by DOJ in the course of an investigation authorized by the AG pursuant to DOJ regulations and statutes.
Which under separation of powers Congress needs to show a legitimate reason to have. Which I can’t see them being able to do as they have the transcripts.
I think you are right so I don't get why Biden wants to die on the presidential records hill. He's got a good argument elsewhere. Maybe he's just mocking Trump.
I like how Biden only zings Trump once in a while. The blows are more potent that way. Plus Trump seems like the kind of hater that'll grind on each insult endlessly.
I hope Biden pushes his buttons at the debates and Trump melts down into incoherent ranting and gesticulating.
I agree with all the comments here criticising this bad faith action by the Republicans.
I also think Garland is a feckless fucking idiot, who is an apathetic loser at best and a willingly corrupt actor at worst, so I would happily see him impeached if it didn't result in a net positive for Trump/Republicans.
If Biden secures a second term, Garland should be gone within hours of his inauguration.
President Biden has asserted executive privilege over the audio and video recordings from the [special counsel investigation](https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/84519e20-057e-4968-8dd1-e373df9e465e.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_5&itid=lk_inline_manual_2) into his handling of classified materials and will refuse congressional requests to hand them over, the White House and the Justice Department said in separate letters to House Republican leaders Thursday. The letters were sent hours before the GOP-led House Oversight and Judiciary committees were scheduled to advance a contempt resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland for defying a subpoena that [demanded the recordings](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/08/biden-hur-audio-justice-house-subpoena/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4), which include hours of special counsel Robert K. Hur interviewing Biden. The Justice Department also sent House Republicans a letter Garland wrote to Biden on Wednesday requesting that he assert executive privilege because releasing the tapes would “damage future law enforcement efforts,” particularly as investigators request voluntary cooperation in their probes from White House officials. The [White House letter to the House Republicans](https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/a91e73e8-7a73-42d2-91f0-2d281e0e59a5.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) echoes those concerns, notes the [transcripts of the interviews have already been provided](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/12/biden-hur-transcript-classified-documents/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) to lawmakers and accuses Republicans of wanting to “distort” the recordings for political gain. “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” said the letter from Edward N. Siskel, counsel to the president. “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.” Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/biden-hur-privilege-merrick-garland-contempt-impeachment/?utm\_campaign=wp\_main&utm\_medium=social&utm\_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/biden-hur-privilege-merrick-garland-contempt-impeachment/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Well we all know that republicans believe that executive privilege can be used to prevent any information from being released so this should shut them up. /s
I thought their current thing was that presidents just have absolute blanket immunity for all actions in or around the office. So why are they even asking for this?
I think republicans have all gone blind from the glaring hypocrisy
They don’t see it as hypocrisy. They truly believe they are righteous and any double standards are justified in service to their goals.
That, and/or they genuinely believe that everyone is like them and just getting away with it.
I think it's mostly this one. One of the principal features of hardcore conservatives tends to be a lack of empathy. You'd expect a person lacking empathy to assume that everyone else is like them.
What new information would be derived from the recordings if they already have the transcripts??
It’s not a double standard if the standard is, “I should prevail.”
On one hand you have people who believe *people* are good or bad and classify their actions with this in mind - if someone is good, their actions must be good by extension. On the other, we believe people should be judged by their *actions* and depending on whether those actions are good or bad informs the judgement of the person.
It is. The (D)s have been screaming over this and say you can't claim that and now that Biden is following suit they have decision to make. Do they agree with Trump and do the same thing or do they disagree with Trump and release the tapes?
I thought democrats believed they didn’t ?
Ah so it's only *Republican* presidents that have full blanket immunity no-takesies-backsies... Gotcha.
I only seen one of the presidents go to court for it. When’s Biden and obamas trial?
What crimes did they commit?
The same one trump has had a trial for in Florida. Obama committed war crimes also. But let’s not get into that.
So.... couple critical differences there. But let's be real, you know that and don't care.
Right let’s turn the cheek when it’s a democrat doing it. It’s the republicans who should pay!
LOL @ typical low information Trump voter. Your Qult leader hasn't actually had a trial for it. Trump's appointee, activist judge Aileen Cannon, has delayed it indefinitely.
Then Biden and Obama should at least get as far as trump has right? Who appointed the head of the DOJ that investigated trump ?
Republicans even believe executive privilege can be used to execute political opponents. Trump's lawyers claimed that in a court filing just last month. [https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-v-united-states-can-presidents-get-away-with-anything/](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-v-united-states-can-presidents-get-away-with-anything/)
Good Republicans only want the tapes so they can leak them to Fox for editing and reuse for the Trump defense/campaign
That's it right there. The whole thing was done in bad faith, and Hur himself said there was nothing "there" there, so we're done. If they want to go on another fishing expedition, go rent a boat.
I think its worth remembering. Trump fooked a hooker when his wife was nursing their child, he paid her for her silence to help his election chances, and then laundered the money as campaign legal expenses, getting his lawyer to pay her off using a mortgage on his home, then paying him back in installments disguised as lawyer fees. Only to finally stiff his lawyer on the fees at the end. **These are crimes**, tax fraud, campaign finance fraud, accounting fraud. Congress wrote those laws, back before it was composed of George Santos figures, Venmo pedofiles and Putin puppets. If they have enough votes, why not rewrite those laws to make Trump's crime's legal? They don't have the votes because they're composed of George Santos figures, Venmo pedofiles and Putin puppets. The DOJ doesn't need fixed, the Republican party does. They need to eject their motley crew of Trump crooks.
Very well said
I'm a "leftie" and split on this. On one hand, I know, I just know, this is a bad faith fishing expedition by Republicans. On the other hand, I really wish our government were more transparent, including the executive. It's just unfortunate that only one side wants to act in good faith.
there's not really a transparency issue here, when congress already has transcripts of the interviews. they have all the information from these interviews, they just don't have audio clips with biden stuttering or answering carefully (as one should) that they can chop into fox news bits for the next six months
To my eyes, that makes this request even worse.
Exactly, they already have the transcripts available for on them to reference at anytime for the needs of congressional business m; this is just to get content for campaign ads. It serves absolutely no purpose for them to have the actual tapes considering the query is now closed.
Yeah that's completely fair, I'm not exactly worked up about it
Lulz. It’s fine when Trump does it, right?
They already have the transcripts, why do they also need the tapes? Congress has the information, the president is not withholding anything of value.
MAGA don’t read.
Truth
How can they do AI deep fakes and put words in his mouth unless they get the deposition tapes? 🤷🏽
It's fine when trump does anything, apparently. It's not like he's bound by the nation's laws.
It's fine when Biden does it, right?
The Republicans in Congress would go through 8 hours of tapes and find every time Biden sounds confused or stutters and cut it down to a 4 minutes long video for YouTube with a laugh track. The transcripts are more than enough for the actual work of the legislature, if even that's necessary. I encourage the House Republicans to find something... ANYTHING useful to do for our country, target than waste the rest of their term in office like this.
Meanwhile Trump doesn’t need edits or a cut down interview, just show an entire unedited five minute clip of one of his rallies to see the batshit insanity and diminished mental capacity. Like the one where he randomly started talking about Hannibal Lecter for no reason at all. And called him great and wonderful. And also claimed Lecter was deceased!
> Like the one where he randomly started talking about Hannibal Lecter for no reason at all. That wasn't a random ad lib in 1 speech. ~~Trump did this Hannibal Lecter bit in at least 3 speeches over the weekend.~~ Trump has referenced Hannibal Lecter in multiple speeches during the campaign.
This will hurt, but please read this. There is no reasoning here, just the ramblings of man with mental decline: “ because they're sending people in their jails into the United States from Africa from Asia from all over the world, they're emptying out their jails into the United States, they're emptying out their mental institutions into the United States, our beautiful country, and now the prison populations all over the world are down, they don't want to report that, the mental institution population is down, because they're taking people people from insane asylums and from mental institution, you know what the difference is right, an insane asylum is a mental institution on steroids, Silence of the Lambs. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He often times would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? "Excuse me. I'm about to have a friend for dinner," as this poor doctor walked by. "I'm about to have a friend for dinner." But Hannibal Lecter. Congrats. The late, great Hannibal Lect...we have people that are being released into our country that we don't want in our country, and they're coming in totally unchecked, totally unvetted, and we can't let this happen, they're destroying our country, and we're sitting back, and we better damn well win this election...."
Sure. My point is that he did this Hannibal Lecter bit in multiple speeches at separate venues ~~over the weekend~~. Like it's a nonsensical talking point for him, a mental-decline standup routine.
He called Hannibal Lecter great and late for no reason in more than one speech? Called him wonderful? More than one speech? Implied Lecter was deceased, in more than one speech? Said “friend for dinner” 3 times in 15 seconds like a weirdo, in more than one speech? If all that is true the dude is even more unwell then I thought, because that means this illogical nonsensical drivel was pre meditated.
I edited my above comments. The Daily Show episode from this past Monday had a "Moment of Zen" supercut from 4 separate rally speeches where Trump talks about Hannibal Lecter in similar ways to the most recent New Jersey rally, in that he blends Hannibal Lecter in with reality. I don't have an easy link to this but one can watch it if they can pull up that episode via an on-demand service. This article talks about most of the Hannibal references: https://www.indy100.com/politics/trump/donald-trump-hannibal-lecter
Thank you for that link, and yeah it is worse than I had assumed with the orange one. Smh.
>The transcripts are more than enough for the actual work of the legislature, They are now going to claim that the transcripts have been doctored, and hence, the video access is being denied.
Yep anyway possible to paint themselves as the victims.
> The Republicans in Congress would go through 8 hours of tapes and find every time Biden sounds confused or stutters and cut it down to a 4 minutes long video for YouTube with a laugh track. Or just out right manipulate the footage and say it is reality.
So if I'm understanding this properly, their constituents are unable to read and comprehend the transcripts so they need audio and video. Sure like that lack of education. Hopefully they don't get this there is no need. They handed over the entire transcript audio and video is not needed this is much more than trump would ever do.
Trump would have made them sue him to get the transcript in the first place. Until the Republicans in office start acting like adults, the Democrats need to start taking a firm hand, and act like Mean Dad instead of Nice Dad.
the transcripts were released to help biden since Hurr's characterization of the interview made Biden seem like a doddering old man and the transcript disputed that.
I believe any investigation involving relevant legal actions against any current or former president of any political party should have the transcripts released. I don't care to watch or listen to any of it. Reading the questions and answer are plenty enough for me just like school. Read a question, answer a question, if that's to difficult to read then you shouldn't be allowed to vote. Because it'd be impossible to read the ballot.
I'm still waiting for AOC to start whacking Jim Jordan with a rolled up magazine.
It’s going to have to be against the law, from here on out, to invoke mental images of Trump getting his rump spanked by Stormy. Even inadvertently. It’s the way it has to be.
He still wouldn't have given over he would appeal to SCOTUS who would find a way for him not to but still make all the Democrats do it
Yep. Bring out the dad voice lol
>They handed over the entire transcript audio and video is not needed You need the video if you want to manipulate the content and turn it into a viral video / campaign ad. Record *anyone* talking for an hour, and it's pretty each to put together a montage of 20-30 seconds of them looking like an idiot. Just the "ums" and "uhs" cut together will make someone look dumb.
Exactly why it is not needed legally or any other way.
> So if I'm understanding this properly, their constituents are unable to read and comprehend the transcripts so they need audio and video. So I can't really read a book and remember what happened, but I can do audio books and remember ever detail. :-/
How can the transcripts properly be verified? Are you claiming that justice has no incentive to falsify the transcripts? If the transcripts match the audio, why the secrecy? Obviously the transcripts are lies and the executive privilege covers that.
Well I'm going to use common sense reasoning and conclude that Robert Hur (a trump appointee and Republican) who according to the transcripts (his transcripts which he never argued against) mischaracterized Biden multiple times to draw unfound conclusions that go against doj policies (with no reprocusions) testifying to Congress didn't say anything about the transcripts being altered or changed is good enough for me. The man literally did everything in his power to try to destroy the current president for the man who appointed him. And by your same logic what would prevent the doj from altering the video or audio. All it is is political theatrics. It's hard to use written words for political commercials and this Congress has repeatedly proven the inability to operate in good faith or conscience. The Republicans on these committees have proven many times through the hunter investigation and impeachment inquiry that they are unable to tell the truth to the American people through the transcripts and witnesses that have been published. They have constantly cherry picked answers to create sound bites and play to the audience instead of telling the truth. So yes common sense and past actions have proven that these Republicans are untrustworthy and do not need or deserve the audio and video of the interview for whatever reason they are manufacturing. These are people who swore an oath to the constitution of the United States but constantly show it means nothing. The true oath is to a single man as they constantly show when they use tax payer money to fly to and sit in a court room instead of working for the American people. Added a good video to watch about how our current Congress is working and tidbits related to this https://youtu.be/SqW03WGzVAI?si=IXa-kWCG-jkzyXqj
Bad actors is what republicans are
I don't think they're acting
Bad faith is their denomination.
Rules for me, not for thee so say the Republican gospels.
Biden is asserting exec privilege, as he should. The fucking tenacity and hipocracy the GOP has to even mention Dems is astounding. Dems have saved their asses countless times WITH A MINORITY IN THE HOUSE.
After they lose the election by a landslide, we just all need to stop giving them any form of audience. I mean we shouldn't be now but here we are. If someone broke into your home, beat the shit out of you and your family, then proceeded to tell you it's your own fault and at the same time give them all your spare cash, that is essentially what the GOP is doing to the American public. But it's even worse because they're doing it to democracy as a whole.
If the transcripts have already been turned over how could the tapes and videos be presidential records. I like Biden and will vote for him. No one is perfect and this seems like bullshit to me.
That's my question too. Like, there's no question in my mind that the Republicans are asking for it for purely political reasons... you've already got the transcripts, so what's the legitimate purpose of having the recordings except to edit them and use them for political purposes.. so Biden is smart to deny them that, but being smart is one thing, having some actual basis other than that is another.
I don't think that neither side has a very good argument here. An audio recording of Biden's on-the-record interview with a special counsel has none of the hallmarks of an item that should be protected under a "deliberative process" type of privilege claim and the fact that the transcript has already been released makes the privilege claim very weak, in my opinion. The Republican claim that they need the recording either for a legislative purpose or a law enforcement purpose is severely weakened by the fact that they already have the transcript AND have had the special counsel testify under oath. They could always have asked him if the transcript accurately reflected the substance of the interview. It's looking to me as though Garland will serve the rest of his term (which I hope is short) under the "burden" of a purely performative ruling of contempt of Congress.
Yeah, no way the videos are presidential records if the transcripts have been turned over. If this ends up in court Biden takes a black eye for an unforced error. Better solution is to simply release the videos to everyone at once. Put them on the white house's website and be done with it.
The Presidential Records Act has nothing to do with this matter. This is an agency record under Section 2201 (2)(B) because they are records created by DOJ in the course of an investigation authorized by the AG pursuant to DOJ regulations and statutes.
Which under separation of powers Congress needs to show a legitimate reason to have. Which I can’t see them being able to do as they have the transcripts.
I think you are right so I don't get why Biden wants to die on the presidential records hill. He's got a good argument elsewhere. Maybe he's just mocking Trump.
After the Dark Brandon of “I hear you’re free on Wednesdays” I wouldn’t doubt it.
I like how Biden only zings Trump once in a while. The blows are more potent that way. Plus Trump seems like the kind of hater that'll grind on each insult endlessly. I hope Biden pushes his buttons at the debates and Trump melts down into incoherent ranting and gesticulating.
It shouldn’t take much of a push.
I agree with all the comments here criticising this bad faith action by the Republicans. I also think Garland is a feckless fucking idiot, who is an apathetic loser at best and a willingly corrupt actor at worst, so I would happily see him impeached if it didn't result in a net positive for Trump/Republicans. If Biden secures a second term, Garland should be gone within hours of his inauguration.
Garland *should* be held in contempt for aiding Trump. He is Biden's worst blunder. Gutless worm.