Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) was among those speaking out this week about the investigative push from House Republicans that culminated Tuesday in a Judiciary Committee hearing with Robert Hur, who as Special Counsel led an investigation into the discovery of classified documents at locations associated with President Joe Biden. Hur declined to pursue any charges, though he produced a final report that many characterized as politically slanted.
Garcia, who serves on the prominent House Oversight Committee, deemed the hearing a waste of time.
“So the bottom line is that Biden is congenial, funny, and actually did remember his son’s date of passing. The transcript and this hearing are real life proof that the Republicans in Congress are broken and have no morals. This is a disaster for them,” the Democrat said Tuesday on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.
Besides questioning the handling of the documents themselves, elected Republicans and allies of theirs have used circumstances of the investigation to complain about Biden’s mental state, characterizing the president as of dubious cognitive capacity… though the specific evidence for this just isn’t there. And the stutter sometimes seen from the president — and mocked by Republicans’ presumed presidential pick Donald Trump — isn’t evidence of such a thing! In transcripts of Biden’s discussions with Hur when the investigation was active, the president demonstrated generally incisive, detailed memory on events in his personal life and time in public office.
In opening remarks, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat — Rep. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.) — instead questioned Trump’s mental state, playing a montage of dubious moments from the ex-president’s recent public commentary. The list included Trump referencing Barack Obama in place of Joe Biden when trying to discuss the current president and strangely suggesting that Pennsylvania would be renamed if Democrats see success in upcoming elections. Trump tries to explain some of this away as intentional, though his challengers point to a growing list of examples. And he’s the one still claiming he won a presidential election that credible authorities all characterize otherwise.
