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 another four years. Yeah, i think that hur did an extraordinary job, not just in laying out the reasons for his conclusions, but also to keep his cool, to be in the middle of a circus and retain some dignity. He did that very well. But he also showed how relevant this was. Indeed, you know, if he had not talked about that issue, his report would have looked incredibly biased because the evidence against the president was remarkably strong. He had 40 years of mishandling Classified Material. The Classified Material strangely followed him from office to office to residence to residence. Classified material he expressly told someone he found and expressly read from to a third party. It is hard not to see how you can charge on that basis. The only rationale that hur had was i just dont think that we could get this through a d. C. Jury because this is someone who claimed that he didnt remember things almost four dozen times that he didnt remember basic facts. And so that is clear as the reason why he did not go forward. He keeps on returning to it over and over again, saying im under an obligation not to bring charges that i dont think can be proven. As a Criminal Defense Attorney i must tell you, im not sure i agree with him. I mean, d. C. Jury pools are notoriously bad for prosecutors to go up against a democratic president. But if i was a democratic im sorry, if i was criminal counsel in this case, i would have been in a Fetal Position reading this report. It is so damning, its hard for a person to conclude that he didnt have knowledge. I mean, it was literally physically all around him. Every time he parked his corvette he had to virtually step over it. Its hard to justify that. And so this was the key justification that hur had, and whether you like it or not, he had to state why he reached that conclusion. Sandra jason, jump inner here. I thought it was wholly inappropriate for the hur report to even mention donald trump when theres an open pending prosecution thats underway, and i think for him to opine on an open case, its different in the case of joe biden, right, because the case was closed. We did hearings, i conducted them with james comey about a closed Hillary Clinton case. But when you have a pending case, how do they write about that and why in the world is he answering questions about Donald Trumps case whether its still pending. I thought that was wrong. John all right, so andy, why dont you pick up that question. Hur said in his Opening Statement regarding trump and the case against him, consider relevant precedence and why different facts justified different outcomes. That is what i did in my report. That was his reason for including information about former President Trump and the case against him, which of course democrats jumped on to like it was a Carnival Ride and rode that around the hearing today. Well, i also think hes right about that with due respect to jason, you know, all we have talked about for months is the comparison between the two cases. I think if he had tried to generate a report without confronting the elephant in the room, the fact that trump got charged, he would have lost credibility on that end. But i do think that, you know, between the point that jonathan just made and the Point Jason Just made, i want to try to join those together from the perspective of somebody who has been through a number of trials. What hur seems to have done here, and i think the two weaknesses of his report are he has an explanation for why a jury might acquit with respect to every little specific instance of biden and we have talked about this. Its a mountain of evidence of different classified documents. But why he might have had them here and might have retained them there. And the thing is, in a trial a good Defense Lawyer is going to try to parse it that way and take each individual instance and come up with an explanation. But at the end of the trial, the jury is going to be told by the trial judge that they should not check their common sense at the door and that pieces of evidence are supposed to be looked at in conjunction, not in isolation. And i dont think that this story holds up when you look at all the different pieces in conjunction, even if you think there is that hur has a good explanation dismissing this piece of it or that piece of it. And for that reason, for hur, in the end, it comes down to biden cooperated with the investigation and trump didnt cooperate with the investigation. And the fact of the matter is, whether you cooperate or not is not a guilt issue. Thats an issue that goes to sentencing. We expect people, especially when they are suspects and they know they are suspects, we expect them to cooperate with investigators. Its not at all unusual for example that a suspect allows the police to go in and search his residence when he knows that they could get a warrant easily to do just that. So all that stuff, if the guy cooperates, if you get sentenced in your criminal trial or get convicted in your criminal trial, at sentencing they tell the judge, gee, he cooperated with the investigation. But we dont forgive the underlying crime thats being investigated because you cooperated. Sandra to johns earlier point about the democrats trying to tie hur to trump, pointing out his political affiliation and everything, this was a moment eric swalwel i want to first see if you will pledge to not accept an appointment from donald trump if he is elected again as president. Congressman, im not here to testify seems like an easy answer. Im here to talk about the report and the work that went into it. You dont want to be associated with that guy again, do you . Congressman, im not here to offer opinions what may or may not happen in the future. Im here to talk about the work that went into the report which i stand by. Sandra they did seem to be on a mission with that. Yes, and the thing is, at points it got particularly uncomfortable for many of us that have a thought of historical reflection. At one point you had congressman hank johnson saying essentially are you or have you been a member of the Federalist Society and then said you are a member of the Federalist Society, arent you, and hur was trying to say no, im not, and when he finally got that out, he said but you are a republican. And you you really sort of sit back from that and you realize my god, is this what we have become as a country. I mean, no matter how you feel about prosecuting the president , this report is damning. What was done here is wrong, and you would think that from what the democrats were saying that they were going to give the president an approval for great housekeeping of Classified Material. Sure showed over and over again the president lied after his investigation was over. The president said it was hur that raised his sons death, it was the president. You know, he said that hur essentially exonerated him, hur said he didnt. He said that there was no evidence that he willfully did anything. Hur said exactly the opposite. And so all of this is for Average Americans is very, very disturbing. But you are left with this contrast. You know, they keep on bringing up the trump case, but they cite the wrong count. You know, we are talking about the retention, mishandling of Classified Material as the point of comparison. I dont see how you can read the hur report and support what smith has done. It seems to me that you have to indict them both or neither on those classified retention counts. What they were referring to is different charges, dealing with Obstruction Of Justice and thats fine. Go at it. If you think President Trump obstructed justice, you can prosecute him. Thats not the comparison to judge these two cases. They did not want to talk about, i think the detail of comparison between these, the handling of Classified Material. In bidens case, there were aspects that were more aggravating, more alarming, including the period of time. This is a court of conduct going back 40 years. When they are talking about documents that hur confirmed he removed as senator, he likely removed those from the senate scif. Ive been in that scif. Ive testified in that scif. P you know, the fact is that it would really require biden himself to remove that material. You dont do it was not a staffer who walked up to him and shoved papers unknowingly in his briefcase. So you are talking about a pattern of conduct that is quite shocking. John there was no reason for him to have in his possession classified documents during his time as senator at all. You can understand, it happened to mike pence, boxing things up as Vice President when 1 or 2 things end up in the boxes but the fact that he had them from his senate time, thats extraordinary. We have to jump to chad pergram, live on capitol hill. Breaking news about ken buck. Chad. Thats right, john. Ken buck, the republican congressman from colorado has announced he will resign from the House Of Representatives at the end of next week. We knew he was going to step down at the end of this congress here. This is going to squeeze this margin for House Republicans more and more here. These will be the numbers when ken buck steps down at the end of next week. Down to 431 members, 218 republicans to 213 democrats. As i always say, its about the math. Right now republicans can only lose two votes on their side and still pass a bill because a tie vote that goes down automatically by rule. Still a twovote margin for ken buck and the republicans, he is going to step aside at the end of next week, increase the headaches for House Speaker mike johnson. Keep in mind they have to fund the government again at the end of next week, more Spending Bills to move through the house and the senate to keep the government open, twothirds of all federal spending and have to do it with a tighter margin yet with ken buck gone. Sandra just a reminder, Jason Chaffetz here, he used to be the head of the Republican Party in colorado. Did he say why hes leaving and the timing of the decision . I just looked at his statement a second ago here, just coming in as we get it here. He had indicated he was going to step down. He had expressed a lot of concern here about how things were going. He actually put forth a resolution not long ago, he was still engaged in legislation to try to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president because of what was said in the Robert Hur Report about whether or not the president was fully with it. That has not gotten any consideration here but that demonstrates ken buck was working on this right up to the end. He was also at odds with his party. You might remember that he was 1 of 3 republicans who voted against the impeachment of alejandro mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary here, hes a conservative, he does not like what mayorkas had done but thought it was a bridge too far to impeach mayorkas, only the second Cabinet Secretary ever impeached. So he was at odds with parts of his party for quite a long time, sandra. John he was very vocal about it, did not know why they were going down that road. What are the implications for november when you take a look at the ratings for the house and the number of seats that they think they might be able to either gain or worry about losing . Senate republicans are thinking that they could probably do pretty well, democrats are defending in 23, republicans in 11, a number are open seats and competitive. What are the implications overall for november . Well, its certainly a lot tougher for democrats to hold on to the senate because of the way the map has been drawn. It favors the republicans right now. We are trying to parcel out the maps in the House Of Representatives. But won or lost probably in california and probably in new york state because they have new maps there. You might remember that republicans surprised a lot of people, flipping five house seats in new york. Three there that they thought they might be able to hold on to. But thats going to be where the house is won. In the senate here that, is an Uphill Battle because they have to defend sherrod brown, he won in 2006, 2012 with barack obama on the ballot, won in 2018, a democratic year in the midterm election. John tester is the democrat from montana, and keep in mind that he always sometimes figures out a way to win. Hes a moderate. But look at other places where the president ial election is going to be in play. Wisconsin and michigan. John and of course in new york as you mentioned, you know, there is some seats that flipped toward the republicans but that third Congressional District just flipped back when they booted George Santos from the body. All right, chad. Thanks very much. Thank you very much for the update. Appreciate it. Sandra so thats the Breaking News. We are waiting on more Breaking News as this hearing is about to resume on capitol hill on the biden classified documents and the former Special Counsel hur. They are expected back in that room shortly. Well take a quick break and be right back. Hing. Left over . Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Inner Monologue my kids dont know what they want. You know who knows what she wants . Me with empower, we get all of our financial questions answered. So you dont have to worry. Empower. Whats next. vo if you have graves disease. And blurry vision, you need clear answers. People with graves could also get thyroid eye disease, or ted, which may need a different doctor. Find a ted Eye Specialist at isitted. Com. I hear it all the time. People tell me theyd love to buy gold. But because its gold they think it must be complicated. It isnt. Not with Rosland Capital. With rosland. The entire process from start to finish is built on one concept. One. Keep. It. Simple. Rosland capital a trusted leader in helping people acquire precious metals. Gold bullion, lady liberty gold and silver proofs, and our premium coins, can help you preserve your wealth. 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I do provide certain examples in my report of significant personally painful experiences about which the president was unable to recall certain information. I also took into account the president s overall demeanor in interacting with me during the fiveplus hour voluntary interview. So a wealth of details, including his inability to recall certain things and the fact that he was prompted on numerous occasions by the members of the white House Counsel sandra congressman, if i can, get you to respond to that and what we have heard so far. First, thank you for having me. Look, i think so far we are just seeing a recitation of the report that he filed. I dont think theres any nothing new that has come out, obviously. The Special Counsel wrote a report, there were no charges filed against President Biden in this Document Case. He did opine on the president s mental state, although i do think a lot of that was disproven in the state of the union.