President Biden faces pressure to release the transcript and audio of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding the FBI’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Hur’s report characterized Biden as having a poor memory, and the White House claims this was politically motivated.
Some Democrats think releasing the transcript could rebut claims about Biden’s mental acuity and memory issues, proving Hur played politics.
A former White House aide reportedly said the transcript would “provide a powerful tool to refute the narrative about his age and prove Hur was playing politics with the report.”
The Hill reported that a Democrat insider said, “Given the fact that the age issue is not going away and it’s already out there, the risk of another news cycle is pretty low unless there is something pretty damaging in that transcript.”
“It feels to me that it’s probably better to get [it] out there because the sense I’m getting is Hur really stepped over the line, based on this, and you may want to use the transcript to rebut that pretty hard,” they continued.
However, others warn it could fuel questions about Biden’s fitness.
Democrat strategist Michael Starr Hopkins suggested, “In a world where ‘I don’t recall’ is twisted into a political weapon, releasing the transcript only feeds the frenzy.”
While Biden could declassify the material, the White House says the process takes over two weeks.
White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre said, “It is not a no, and it is not a yes. It is: We are looking at this.”
“There’s processes, there’s protocols, and they’re looking through that,” she explained.
About a third of Democrats and four-fifths of Americans overall express concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health.
The White House has not decided whether to make the interview public.
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