During debate on the House floor, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) ripped into AG Merrick Garland for not turning over recordings of President Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
00:03On page one of his report, special counsel Herr said President Biden, quote, willfully
00:09retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private
00:15citizen.
00:16Joe Biden not only kept information he wasn't allowed to keep, he shared it with people
00:20who weren't allowed to get it.
00:23And on page 231, the special counsel told us why President Biden did this.
00:29He said, quote, President Biden had strong motivations to ignore proper procedures for
00:34safeguarding the classified information in his notebooks.
00:38He had decided months before leaving office to write a book, a book for which he got paid
00:44$8 million.
00:47So we have motive, an $8 million motive.
00:51We have the elements of the crime knowingly keeping classified information, knowingly
00:55disclosing classified information.
00:59But despite all this, special counsel Herr declined to prosecute, recommend prosecution
01:03for President Biden because Joe Biden is, quote, a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly
01:08man with a poor memory.
01:10On page 207 of his report, special counsel Herr said Mr. Biden's memory also appeared
01:14to have significant limitations, both at the time he spoke to the ghost writer, Mr. Zwanitzer
01:20in 2017, as evidenced by their recorded conversations, and today as evidenced by his recorded interview
01:28with our office.
01:30The committees need the audio recordings to determine whether the Justice Department appropriately
01:35carried out justice by not prosecuting the president.
01:39Because remember what they told us.
01:41Justice Department said we're going to operate independent of the White House.
01:43They said we'll be impartial, independent arbiters of the facts.
01:47Okay.
01:48Maybe so.
01:49But what we do know is this.
01:51One former president's being charged, Joe Biden's not being.
01:55We think we're entitled, actually, we know we're entitled to all the evidence and the
01:58best evidence.
01:59And the transcripts alone are not sufficient evidence of the state of the president's memory,
02:04especially since the executive branch has a history of changing transcripts.
02:09We saw this in late April.
02:11The transcript the White House put out didn't match the video and audio recording of President
02:16Biden's speech.
02:18And only after the White House was caught did they change the transcript.
02:23And in that case, and in this case, the audio recording is the best evidence of the words
02:28that President Biden actually spoke.
02:31Following the release of Special Counsel Herr's report, both the Judiciary Committee and the
02:35Oversight Committees issued subpoenas requiring Attorney General Garland to turn over the
02:40transcripts of the audio recordings of Special Counsel Herr's interviews with President Biden
02:45and his ghostwriter.
02:47To date, the Attorney General has failed to produce those recordings.
02:51In fact, he told us last week he wasn't going to do it.
02:54And that is why we're here.
02:55Despite the committee's best efforts, the department has continued to withhold the audio
02:59recordings of those interviews without providing any constitutional or legal basis to do so.
03:05Just hours before the committee was set to meet and consider the contempt resolution,
03:09the department notified the committee that President Biden had asserted, at the Attorney
03:14General's urging, executive privilege over the audio recordings.
03:18It's simple.
03:19Attorney General Garland holds information vital to the committee's legislative oversight
03:23and the House impeachment's inquiry.
03:26Remember, this body voted, this body voted December 13th of last year to enter that phase
03:33of our oversight duty and impeachment inquiry.
03:36The department has a legal obligation to turn over the requested material.
03:40Attorney General Garland's willful refusal constitutes contempt of Congress.
03:46This resolution upholds the institutional power of the House by recommending that the
03:50House find Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to comply
03:55with the committee's subpoena.
03:58Our oversight and impeachment responsibilities are too important to allow the Attorney General
04:03to willfully disregard this.
04:05I urge my colleagues to support this resolution, and we reserve the balance of our time.