Biden "Looking Into" Releasing Transcripts to Rebut Hur

WASHINGTON - Feb. 13, 2024 - PRLog -- White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has just confirmed that the President is "looking into" making transcripts of his interviews public to show that the derogatory report by special counsel Robert Hur of his memory and mental competence are not correct.

Also, House Republicans leading his impeachment inquiry are demanding the Justice Department turn over the transcripts, and any recordings of Biden's interview, with Hur.

If the demand is formalized into a subpoena relating to the House's impeachment investigation, a court would probably enforce it, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

Many of Biden's defenders, and the president himself, have seemingly denied any such memory lapses, and argue that the examples provided in the report of Biden's alleged problems of remembering specific facts are not only gratuitous but false and politically motivated.

Fortunately there is a way to help resolve these conflicting claims, noted Banzhaf.

All that is required to prove or disprove the specific allegations that, during the interviews, Biden did not remember when he was vice president, when his term began, when his son Beau died, etc., would be for the recordings of the interviews to be made public.

Such recordings would also show the context in which the questions were asked, whether Biden hesitated in responding, etc.

Transcripts are better than nothing, but no match for recordings, says Banzhaf.

He notes that appellate courts frequently point out the limitations of relying upon "cold hard transcripts" to justify their own reliance upon the conclusions of trial court judges who was able to see and hear how a witness actually testified.

It seems clear that Biden's Department of Justice interviews were recorded.  It also has been reported that most of the additional recordings Biden made with his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, have been recovered, and therefore could also be made available to the public.

Thus a major step in helping to make sense of the conflicting claims regarding Biden's memory of specific facts, and of possibly "diminished faculties" would be for the recordings to be made public.

Voters may also gain an insight into this controversy by observing which side pushes for the public release of the recordings to help resolve it, and if any side resists and tries to throw up roadblocks to the release, suggests Banzhaf.

Since Biden's mental competency has emerged as the major issue in his bid to be re-elected president, it seems that the recordings (or at least transcripts) themselves - and not the claims made in the report, and/or the conflicting arguments now being made by others - should be the primary source upon which voters should rely in deciding this key issue.

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