July 1, 2024
For Immediate Release
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
Wall Street Journal Editorial Board:
WASHINGTON — Read “A House Lawsuit for the Biden-Hur Tapes” in this morning’s Wall Street Journal editorial page:
A House Lawsuit for the Biden-Hur Tapes
Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans will go to court for vindication
Wall Street Journal
Editorial Board
July 1, 2024
Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that House Republicans will file a lawsuit this week asking the courts to force Attorney General Merrick Garland to hand over the audio of President Biden’s five-hour interview with special counsel Robert Hur. After Mr. Biden’s debate performance last week, who isn’t curious about these tapes?
“Merrick Garland has refused to turn over something that we are entitled to receive,” Mr. Johnson said, and he’s correct. Mr. Garland released a transcript of the interview, but Mr. Biden claims executive privilege over the audio. “After last night’s debate, I think we all understand very clearly why that is,” Mr. Johnson said. “He will very likely sound exactly on that tape as he did on the stage last night, and that’s embarrassing to the President.”
Mr. Johnson continued: “We’re sorry about that. We’re not trying to embarrass the President. We’re trying to get down to the facts.” He said the House’s oversight function includes ensuring that the official transcription is a close match to the underlying audio.
In a late May court filing, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer said the transcript is accurate “except for minor instances such as the use of filler words (such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’)” or “when words may have been repeated when spoken (such as ‘I, I’ or ‘and, and.’)” In more than 40 places, the transcript says the audio is “indiscernible,” and Mr. Weinsheimer agreed that was true.
But the House doesn’t have to take his word for it. And given Mr. Hur’s assessment that Mr. Biden presented himself in the interview as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man,” his demeanor on the tape is also a public concern.
Appeared in the July 1, 2024, print edition as ‘A House Lawsuit for the Biden-Hur Tapes’.
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