FNC's Jesse Watters looks at Special Counsel Robert Hur's testimony Tuesday about why he declined to prosecute the president for mishandling classified documents:
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS: Now, the president's state of mind was the center of attention in Washington today. The Justice Department finally releasing the highly anticipated transcripts of Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who testified this morning, and we'll get to that in a minute.
But first, five hours of Biden unscripted. Our producers spent all day reading this and now we understand what Robert Hur meant when he called Biden "painfully slow." The transcripts confirmed that Biden didn't remember when his son died, when he was vice president, or when Trump was elected. Biden had to be reminded multiple times throughout his interview what a fax machine was. And whenever he was redirected to focus on the question at hand, he'd launch into wacky stories weirder than Cornpop.
For instance, when the special counsel asked why he moved classified documents from the Naval Observatory, Biden claimed that he'd won an international torts competition in law school and then shared a story of a 23-year-old who was wearing the wrong pants, wrong jeans when a spark caught fire and he lost one of his testicles. Biden called himself a frustrated architect who went to Mongolia, where he shot bow and arrows with sumo wrestlers. Biden said he had great aim and put everyone in Mongolia to shame.
At one point, Biden asked special counsel here if he saw, quote, "risqué pictures of my wife in a bathing suit, which you probably did. She's beautiful."
When asked about his classified documents in the garage, Biden bragged he went on Leno with his Corvette and started making car noises. Quote, "all you do is take your foot off the brake and vroom vroom."
Joe Biden complained that the Secret Service was driving him crazy because they wouldn't let him drive, so Biden would drive back and forth in his own driveway. Quote. "I'd get it to the bottom of the driveway, tack it up to about four grand and vroom vroom."
Yeah, the president making more car noises. Now, if you were a prosecutor conducting a deposition, you're asking about highly sensitive national security secrets, and the subject starts revving his engine and pretending to hit the clutch, you know, he's not fit to stand trial. This is why the White House won't release the audio tapes. The president's going "vroom room" and asking, "when was I vice president again?"
Robert Hur had to assess the president's mental state because his mental state would determine whether or not he willfully retained classified documents. What was going on through the president's mind or what wasn't going on through the president's mind was important, and Hur defended it.
ROBERT HUR: My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president's memory was necessary and accurate, and fair. Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation, nor did I disparage the president unfairly.
JESSE WATTERS: But Democrats didn't want to hear about the president's hazy memory. Jamie Raskin used his time to question your memory.
REP JAMIE RASKIN: My friends, this is a memory test. But it's not a memory test for President Biden. It's a memory test for all of America. Do we remember fascism? Do we remember Nazism? Do you remember communism in totalitarianism? They have one more reason to celebrate, Donald Trump and his cult followers, who have completely lost their way. They're looking for high crimes and misdemeanors, and now they appoint themselves amateur memory specialists, and that's what they pounce on the president of the United States about. America faces a choice between democracy and tyranny.
JESSE WATTERS: So for Democrats, today was about fascists pouncing on Corvette lovers. They tried to rewrite the whole report, but failed.
REP. JERRY NADLER: Do you have any reason to believe that President Biden lied to you?
ROBERT HUR: I do address in my report one response that the president gave to a question that we had posed to him that we deemed to be not credible.
NADLER: Was it clear he didn't lie?
HURl: I'm sorry, congressman.
NADLER: The report is clear that he didn't lie or that he caused his staff to lie to you and that he didn't cause his staff to lie to you. Your report is clear on that.
JESSE WATTERS: No. Democrats even claiming Hur exonerated Biden when he didn't.
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL: So this lengthy, expensive and independent investigation resulted in a complete exoneration of President Joe Biden.
...
HUR: I need to go back and make sure that I take note of a word that you used, "exoneration." That is not a word used in the report. That's not my task as a special counsel.
JAYAPAL: I'm going to continue with my question. I'm going to continue with my questions... You exonerated.
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HUR: We did not exonerate the president.
...
JESSE WATTERS: Today's testimony proved that Biden for 40 years spread classified documents across three states in six unsecured locations after being warned repeatedly.
...
Biden even told hUR his garage was such a mess, He moved boxes around himself so his Corvette had more room. The president admitted there was a kid who used to help me take care of my Corvette, but didn't work for me. So besides, Hunter and his Chinese assistant zipping in and out of Biden's garage, they were kids working on Biden's cars, and Primetime can conclusively report tonight that mysterious mechanics and spies did not, I repeat, did not have full access to Trump's documents in Mar-a-Lago for decades.
Special counsel Robert Hur testified that Biden admitted he knew he had classified documents and that he wanted to keep them for posterity's sake, to burnish his image as a world leader. Hur also testified Biden hoarded classified documents to write a book, a lucrative deal worth $8 million.
...
So pride and profit. You have a motive. The misconduct is plain as day, and there was an attempt to cover it up. The same month, Biden opened an investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents, he dispatched his team to gather all of the classified documents that he'd been stashing.
Then Biden's team waits a year and a half to announce they'd found classified documents at the Penn Biden Center, an 18-month mop-up job at your house while you raid your opponent's house. That's not cooperating with investigators.
In fact, the second they heard a special counsel had been appointed, Biden's ghostwriter deleted evidence.
MATT GAETZ: The ghostwriter has recordings of Biden making admissions of crimes. He then learns that you've been appointed. He then deletes the information that is the evidence, and you don't charge him.
HUR: That is reflected in the report... One of the things that Mr. Zwonitzer did not delete was transcripts of the recordings that he had created that included inculpatory evidence relating to Mr. Biden.
GAETZ: Oh, so if you if you destroy some evidence, but not other evidence, that somehow absolves you of the evidence you destroy, like, here's what I see. Zwanziger should have been charged, wasn't. Biden and Trump should have been treated equally. They weren't. And that is the double standard that I think a lot of Americans are concerned about.
JESSE WATTERS: In the last three elections, three candidates have been accused of mishandling documents -- Hillary, Biden and Trump. And only one has been charged. The only one who was president with declassification authority. The other two risked national security for pride and profit, got caught, destroyed evidence, and then lost their memories.
But is Biden playing dumb or just dumb?
ROBERT HUR: I would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that that intent element had been right.
REP. MATT GAETZ: But the reason you have that doubt is the is the "senile cooperator" theory, the fact that Joe Biden is so inept at responding that you can't prove the intent. Which again, I don't quibble with that conclusion, but it's frustrating to be like, oh, well, this guy is not getting treated the same way as Trump because the elevator is not going to the top floor so we can't prove intent, while at the same time, Biden goes out there at the White House and says, well, you know, he just he just he just blatantly lies. And what I'm trying to figure out is whether or not Biden's lying because he's still so senile. He hasn't read your report, or whether it's a little craftier and a little more devious and perhaps a little more intentional than we might otherwise think.
JESSE WATTERS: So prosecutors are claiming Biden's too forgetful to be prosecuted, but Trump's sharp enough to stand trial. That's not how the law works.
GOP REP: We have a former vice president who will not suffer any consequence for all of these actions, all because we say, well, he's a well-meaning, forgetful old man. You know, if you were kind of a well-meaning, forgetful old man that was driving a car and you forgot what you were doing a little bit, and you hit somebody and killed them, I believe you'd be responsible. The law must apply.
JESSE WATTERS: Now, the real reason Hur didn't charge Biden is because he didn't think he'd get a conviction. But it's not why, it's where. Hur didn't think he could get Biden convicted in DC, and that's where the jury would be. Outside of DC, fair jury, sure. But Biden's poor mental state let him escape justice, which is forcing the media to argue that Biden's competent enough to be president but not competent enough to stand trial.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN: You have this image of this poor guy sitting on a park bench, you know, feeding the birds. That's that's not who Joe Biden is.
DAVID URBAN, CNN: He really wasn't carrying their water. I think he's shown the work on the old man sitting on the bench feeding the pigeons.
KAREN FINNEY, CNN: It comes after Joe Biden just had a very successful, effective State of the Union address. So nobody who saw him on that night is going to think of him as Gloria said, a kindly old man sitting on a park bench feeding the, you know, the pigeons.
JESSE WATTERSl: The president sitting on a park bench feeding the pigeons is what saved Democrats from nominating Kamala.
The White House, releasing a statement after this hearing today, saying "vroom vroom."
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