Im bret baier. Breaking tonight, the issue of President Bidens memory and Mental Fitness on full display in front of a House Committee today. The now former Special Counsel who wrote controversial remarks concerning the subject was grilled today in a hearing about his decision not to charge the president over his retention of classified documents. Correspondent david spunt has all the highlights tonight from a contentious hearing. Good evening, david. David good evening. Robert hur took questions for almost five hours and it became clear right out of the gate that this was a proxy fight over who could possibly win the white house in november. I did not sanitize my explanation, nor did i disparage the president unfairly. Former Special Counsel robert hur defending his report and his credibility. The report critical of President Bidens handling of classified documents found piled up in tattered boxes in his Delaware Garage and personal offices. We identified evidence that the president w
He was trying to stay above the fray. Brendan, i have not read as mike has, the full transcript. I read the New York Times analysis of it. Again, something for everybody. Times when joe biden, they point out, couldnt remember specific dates. Didnt have specific memory of how some of these documents were handled but they also said to mikes point about sense of humor, mr. Biden went into great detail about many manners, the transcript shows. He made jokes over the two days, teasing the prosecutors and at certain points, he corrected his interrogators when they were the ones who misspoke. Is it clear to you on either side, brendan, that one side or the other walks away with something politically advantageous . Well i think to answer that question, you have to think about where we started from. When this report came out, it was an absolute bombshell, really underscoring the president s difficulty politically with his age. It was a gift to republicans. Now, when you get to a congressional h
Its all political, and i think that in the end that that ends up hurting joe biden and helping donald trump. John jonathan turley, to the point that a lot of democrats are making here, this was a clearly partisan report, that hur was only out to get biden, trying to shred his credibility. He said in his Opening Statement that he had to, because of doj guidelines, present this report to the Attorney General on his decision not to charge. He said i knew from my decision to be credible, i could not simply announce i recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that, i needed to explain why, show my work as he said. Put that into context for us legally. Did he have to go into this level of detail . Because its the part of this that is real ticked off the white house and set democrats aflame is his idea that joe biden is a kindly old gentleman with a bad memory, and that of course brings up the entire conversation about whether or not he can continue to be president now let alone for ano
american citizens from the war zone. why are other nations right now successfully evacuating their own citizens by the hundreds. sandra: one of the major questions as the pentagon readies for a briefing. picture is up, podium is there, we are waiting for the briefing, and take the news off the top. navy seals pulling off an evacuation of the embassy workers and families but hundreds of americans are still there at this hour as the deadly fighting gets closer and closer. john: we will see if the pentagon has a message today for those folks. welcome back as america reports rolls into a second hour. i m john roberts in washington. starting off a new week, sandra. sandra: right on into it, john. a lot of people think of war the moment they hear sudan but bloody battles in the past have never been like this. all right, so you are looking live in sudan, thousands of americans have been left behind and this makes the pentagon briefing that we are waiting any moment now key,
happens. let s go to mcallen, texas, on-site hearing, a field trip, if you will, at the highest level at the southern border after what you saw broke off on sunday. a bum rush in el paso, texas. some of them had already booked travel, democrats are pulling out of this unique opportunity to get hands on after the border crisis. again, the white house with a familiar line today calling the hearing itself a stunt. any news and we ll bring it to you immediately. get to this. tensions escalating. united states and russia blaming each other after a warplane crashed into an american drone over the black sea. it is first known encounter between the two militaries since the start of the ukraine war a bit more than a year ago. i m harris faulkner, you are in the faulkner focus. flighter jet clipped propeller of the reaper drone as it flew over the black sea yesterday. the hit forced american operators to bring down the $32 million drone. national security council spokesman john kirby