During a White House press conference this week, Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki defended the White House’s decision to approve of the release to Congress of certain records from the Trump administration, despite claims from former President Trump of executive privilege. Specifically, the records at issue have been sought by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, and Psaki laid out how there’s not really a direct precedent for that committee’s work, which helps make clear how there’s a place for extraordinary steps in this investigation.
Trump is an insurrectionist, and the Biden administration is not concerned about being the subject of similar records releases in the future that could be approved by Republican officials, since Biden is not an insurrectionist! It’s that simple, as Psaki explained. She spelled out the contrast between the Biden and Trump administrations, putting Trump on implicit blast in the process.
A reporter asked as follows:
‘Has there been any concern or conversation about what might happen one day when the shoe is on the other foot and if another administration of the other party comes in and says it’s an extraordinary circumstance and they want to hand over documents that were deemed privileged by the Biden administration?’
Psaki replied with the following:
‘I can assure you that this President has no intention to lead an insurrection on our nation’s Capitol… I think it is ultimately important for people to understand and remember that January 6th was an incredibly dark day — one of the darkest days in our democracy. There was an insurrection on our nation’s Capitol. What we’re talking about here is getting to the bottom of that. Shouldn’t everybody want to get to the bottom of that? Democrats, Republicans, people who have no political affiliation whatsoever.’
Check out Psaki’s remarks below:
Question: Has there been any concern about what might happen one day when the shoe is on the other foot
Psaki: I can assure you that this President has no intention to lead an insurrection on this nation’s Capitol pic.twitter.com/SmgEgVhIQT— Acyn (@Acyn) October 14, 2021
On Thursday, the chair of the riot investigation committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), announced that the panel would be launching criminal contempt proceedings against former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who’s refused to comply with a subpoena from the panel. Once the riot investigation committee formally approves a criminal contempt finding against Bannon, it moves to the full House for a vote. Assuming that it’s approved by the House, the matter is than referred to the U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. As Thompson put it, the riot investigation committee “will not tolerate defiance of our subpoenas, so we must move forward with proceedings to refer Mr. Bannon for criminal contempt.”
