The president believes the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents went beyond his remit. And part of the blame is being placed on the AG.
The president believes the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents went beyond his remit. And part of the blame is being placed on the AG.
Joe Biden has told aides and outside advisers that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not do enough to rein in a special counsel report stating that the president had diminished mental faculties, according to two people close to the president, as White House frustration with the head of the Justice Department grows.
The report from special counsel Robert Hur ultimately cleared Biden of any charges stemming from his handling of classified documents that were found at Biden’s think tank and his home. But Hur’s explanation for not bringing charges — that Biden would have persuaded the jury that he was a forgetful old man — upended the presidential campaign and infuriated the White House.
Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to Hur’s report, including around the descriptions of Biden’s faltering memory.
Biden has always been a gaffe machine. His age has made the problem worse, but it’s always been true. I wish my vote mattered, and that I had a choice to vote for a candidate I actually like.
That said, if you live in a swing state, show up and vote for Biden. Your vote is one of the few in the country that actually counts on a national level, and staying home is a vote for Trump.
I remember this being a talking point when he was running against Obama in 2007. It's not diminished mental faculties to misspeak sometimes. The guy has been a better president than Trump could ever hope to be. It's bullshit that it's going to be these two old fucks facing each other again, but it's the hand we've been dealt.
Vote for Biden and then start laying the groundwork for 2028. Democracy doesn't happen once every four years.
Because of the way the Electoral College works, voters in swing states decide who wins the presidential election. Votes in states where a candidate is going to win by 30 points are meaningless to the presidential race, though they do matter in local and state-level elections.
For example, in the 2000 election about a thousand votes in Florida decided the entire election, while 88,000 Floridians voted for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore as a protest vote. Swing state votes are the only ones that really matter.
So three years late and only when it personally affected him. Merrick Garland was a meme proposal by Obama to make the Republicans look bad, a man so inoffensive to Republicans their hypocrisy would be laid bare. He should never have been made AG, he did his best to delay and avoid Trump cases, which now put them under a time crunch to actually affect his attempt to retake the presidency, and fetishizes bipartisanship, which is why Biden is in this current mess. Sadly, the urge for clapbacks was just too strong.
Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society are such a dire threat to Americans. They'd happily burn the entire country to the ground as long as they're left to baptize the ashes.
I had this discussion back on Reddit. Seeing this upvoted, maybe it's time to do a misinformation check.
The guy has a Federalist society profile page because he moderated or appeared on some panels, if I recall. The Federalist society, not him, set up that page, and it was pretty normal for unbiased/unaffiliated lawyers to participate in Federalist panels.
The existence of that page has morphed into some conspiracy or evidence of secret right-wing intentions.
I don't think he's a right wing plant. He seems like just a typical "don't blame me" milquetoast career centrist. Do you have some other evidence or is this it?
Mitch McConnell filibusters his own bills. Garland was a suggestion from Orin Hatch. That Obama nominated him says nothing more about him other than Obama was trying to naively extend an olive branch to Republicans. That a republican would think he would be appropriate to nominate. Is a rather scathing indictment.
He's mad that Hur blamed his inability to recall things on his age, but blamed others' inability to recall things on the fact this happened six years ago.
Which sounds like a totally fair criticism.
(edit: and yes, Garland should absolutely have called out Hur for editorializing instead of remaining factual.)
I'm curious what a better Attorney general would have accomplish in comparison. Not because I liked Merrick Garlands work, but because I'm not too familiar with would it would look like.
Unpopular opinion here but I think Garland is doing a fantastic job. That Biden felt Garland could or should rein in the Special Council suggests ignorance to the entire point of appointing a special council.
Biden is off the hook and Garland set Smith up for success on Trump. People expecting justice of this magnitude to happen overnight do not understand the legal system and the complexity of these cases.
Some of you may not be aware that Merrick Garland was a Supreme Court nominee of Obama's that Republicans (McConnell) blocked. He's not some plant lol.
Sorry I don't agree. I think Garland was the perfect pick given the zeigeist. People act as though the entire country is just itching for a progressive when the unfortunate reality is that a large swath of this country is (a) ignorant, (b) apathetic, and (c) conservative. Within the purview of a massive right-wing and corporate propaganda machine that controls the national narrative with soundbite talking-points and BoThEriSm still running strong, it was wise to find someone who both caters to the traditional notion of conservatism and yet who actually has a strong conviction for true Justice.
I promise that anyone criticizing Garland for not moving fast enough knows not the first thing about law or the ramifications of doing this half-assed. In other words, Dunning-Kruger Effect is on full display for such critics. To that, I say Garland's careful investigation and subsequent deferral to Jack Smith to ensure no arguments of political bias hold weight has been masterful. Dot your i's, cross your t's; take as long as you need to ensure a tight case in what will be the most important trials perhaps in our entire history. After all, we know there is likely going to be a lot of money and intimidation on the right funneling into Trump's defens.e
Center-right? Yeah. Far-right? I can't agree with that. That would suggest Obama and Biden are in the AfD camp of Germany, which would be absurd.