When the Biden administration loses the White House press corps, well, things are not good at the White House. As if the Hur report was not bad enough for President Biden and his re-election campaign, the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) is calling out the White House legal adviser for sending a letter to reporters telling them that they are “misreporting” the Hur report.
By “misreporting”, White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams means that the White House press corps are (finally) doing its job. The truth is that the Hur report exposed how advanced Biden’s dementia has become. The press corps covered up what they knew of his condition before the Hur report was released. Now they have been embarrassed to admit their error.
One egregious example of Joe Biden’s gaslighting of the Hur report was when he accused Special Counsel Robert Hur of dragging Beau Biden’s death into the questions he asked of Biden during a five-hour two-day interview. That was a lie. Joe Biden brought it up as he tried to remember dates of importance in his life. Most of the media immediately jumped on that false narrative to try to paint Biden as a victim of an out-of-control special counsel. Anything to cover for The Big Guy. Now they have egg on their faces.
As it turns out, the White House sent letters to Robert Hur before the report was written. It went on the offense to try to convince Mr. Hur that the report should not include his personal opinions. The Washington Post reported that Biden’s lawyers sent “confrontational” letters to top DOJ officials before and after the report was released. Biden’s lawyers reviewed the Hur report before it was released to the public.
The Hur report described Biden as “an elderly man with a poor memory” and it criticized Biden’s practice of keeping notebooks containing sensitive information as “totally irresponsible.” Biden’s lawyers took the position that Hur had no reason to write a report.
Among other things, Biden’s lawyers argued that Hur had no reason to assemble a 388-page report in the first place. Justice Department regulations dictate that if no charges are filed, the special counsel should send a confidential report to the attorney general explaining that decision.
Garland did not respond directly to Biden’s legal team. Instead, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer, the Justice Department’s senior career official, wrote back supporting the document’s wording.
“The identified language is neither gratuitous nor unduly prejudicial because it is not offered to criticize or demean the President,” Weinsheimer wrote to Biden’s legal team. “Rather, it is offered to explain Special Counsel Hur’s conclusions about the President’s state of mind in possessing and retaining classified information.”
The White House was particularly triggered by Hur’s references to Biden’s mental acuity.
“We object to the multiple denigrating statements about President Biden’s memory which violate longstanding DOJ practice and policy,” the lawyers wrote to the attorney general. While the special counsel is entitled to note that Biden could not remember specific facts, they added, “a global and pejorative judgment on the President’s powers of recollection in general is uncalled for and unfounded.”
Cry me a river. The American people have a right to know about the health of the president. The press wasn’t leveling with the people on what they were seeing and hearing as they covered the White House. Jill Biden and others continue to claim that Joe Biden is sharp, and shows no signs of slowing down or memory loss. Sams addressed the press corps at the White House to do a victory lap. He claimed that Biden was exonerated by the Hur report. These people make Baghdad Bob look like a lightweight.
The truth is that the Hur report concluded that Biden “willfully retained” classified documents, going back to the time he was a senator and continuing when he was vice president. They were not stored properly. He was not entitled to have possession of the documents. His actions were worthy of criminal charges but Hur decided not to charge Biden. He justified his refusal to do so by saying Biden isn’t up to standing trial.
What does the White House want? Do they want Biden’s lack of mental acuity to be reported or do they want Biden to be charged with espionage? That’s the choice. The White House should thank Robert Hur and move on.
Enter the WHCA. Today it is being reported that the White House counsel’s office sent a letter to the WHCA and its member organizations on Tuesday accusing them of “misrepresenting” the Hur report. The letter was addressed to WHCA President Kelly O’Donnell and other members. He accused reporters of asking questions that included “false content or are based on false premises.”
“When significant errors occur in coverage, such as essentially misstating the findings and conclusions of a federal investigation of the sitting President, it is critical that they be addressed,” he wrote.
In the letter, which he shared on X, he also listed examples of headlines and stories he argued “wrongly asserted that the report found that the President willfully retained and disclosed classified material.”
The WHCA’s response was blistering.
O’Donnell responded with a letter of her own, calling Sams’ letter “misdirected” and wrote, “It is inappropriate for the White House to utilize internal pool distribution channels, primarily for logistics and the rapid sharing of need-to-know information, to disseminate generalized critiques of news coverage. We will not distribute them going forward.”
“As a non-profit organization that advocates for its members in their efforts to cover the presidency, the WHCA does not, cannot and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news,” O’Donnell wrote. “The White House has far reach to make its positions known on the Hur report or any other matter.”
Whew. That’s a strong response from reporters who often act as Biden surrogates instead of just reporting the news.
O’Donnell is the senior White House correspondent for NBC News. She argued that the White House can directly contact reporters if it has issues with their reporting. The WHCA, she pointed out, does not control or police its members’ journalism.
So, there we are. Joe Biden declared that his administration would be the most transparent one ever when he came into office. Like everything else that comes out of his mouth, that was a lie. The playbook for the Biden administration is to shut down its opponents, as Biden’s DOJ proves by trying to keep Trump out of the White House again by using lawfare and keeping him tied up with court cases. The DNC rigged the Democrat primary to ensure that Biden did not have any serious challengers as he seeks re-election. Now it is clear that Team Biden wishes to pressure the White House press corps on how it covers Biden. Where does all that saving democracy come in?
