Two House committees led by Republicans have taken steps to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. The reason for this action is his failure to provide audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel who is investigating the handling of classified documents.
The resolution was advanced by the House Oversight Committee in a late Thursday vote of 24-20, following a chaotic hearing that occurred hours after the House Judiciary Committee also voted 18-15 to do the same.
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The resolution has been passed, and it will now proceed to a full House floor vote. However, it is important to note that this is largely a symbolic gesture. If the resolution is indeed passed, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Kentucky, would be directed to ask the Justice Department to pursue prosecution. However, the likelihood of this happening appears to be quite low.
Republicans are requesting the transcripts of Biden’s recorded October interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who conducted an investigation into the president’s handling of classified documents during his tenure as vice president.
In February, Hur released a report concluding his investigation, in which he declined to file charges against Biden. However, the report also contained controversial comments that raised doubts about the president’s memory.
The Republicans, who have the transcripts that were made public in March, have issued a subpoena demanding the recordings as part of their impeachment investigations into the president.
In his opening statement on Thursday night, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman, James Comer, R-Ky., criticized the Biden administration for not providing the recordings, suggesting that they may be attempting to conceal something.
“There is no substitute for an actual recording of a conversation,” emphasized the speaker, acknowledging the numerous lawyers present on the committee. “Summaries, reports, and transcripts simply cannot convey the true essence of the dialogue.”
What is the White House afraid of?
In his opening statement, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., strongly criticized the proceedings as mere political theater. He wittily titled it “Comer’s High Crimes and Misadventures: The Hilarious Quest to Impeach a President Who Has Done Nothing Wrong.”
Raskin initially accused them of altering the markup time from 11 a.m. EDT to 8 p.m. This was allegedly done to enable House members to travel to New York City and attend the trial involving former President Donald Trump, which focused on election interference and hush-money.
According to him, the Republicans have failed to pinpoint any specific high crime or misdemeanor committed by Biden, even though they have amassed a substantial amount of evidence, including 3.8 million pages of documents and 80 hours of testimony from 20 witnesses.
According to him, the format of the medium does not alter the content of the communications. He firmly believes that there is nothing significant or essential that our committee can gain from an audiotape that we cannot already learn from the 250 pages of the transcript.
In a rather absurd turn of events, our acquaintances are now attempting to attribute the failure of their impeachment inquiry to Attorney General Garland and his alleged covert attempts to impede the investigation by actually cooperating with it.
The hearing, which was already filled with tension, took a turn for the worse when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, made a derogatory comment about the appearance of Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
During the proceedings, the lawmaker raised a contentious question, inquiring whether any of the Democrats in attendance had hired the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan. Judge Merchan is presiding over Trump’s trial in New York.
Crockett was puzzled by the relevance of the question to Garland.
Crockett inquired, “Do you have any idea why we are here?”
Greene pointed out, “You don’t seem to know the purpose of your presence here. It appears that your artificial eyelashes are interfering with your comprehension of the material.”
Angry responses from Democrats were prompted by the comment, with Raskin expressing his disapproval by stating “that was beneath even you” and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., shouting, “That’s disgusting.”
She was furious and expressed her strong disapproval, saying, “Attacking someone’s physical appearance is completely unacceptable. How could you do such a thing?”
“Did my words sting a little?” Greene fired back, unapologetic. In a daring move, she even extended an invitation to Ocasio-Cortez, challenging her to a debate. However, when the New York Democrat declined, Greene dismissed her, claiming that Ocasio-Cortez lacked the necessary intellect for such a discussion.
The hearing quickly erupted into chaos and a cacophony of yelling. Eventually, an attempt was made to silence Greene for the remainder of the meeting, which was approved by a narrow vote of 22-20.
On Thursday morning, President Biden took the step of invoking executive privilege in order to prevent House Republicans from accessing the recordings. Attorney General Garland had requested the use of executive privilege, stating that the committees’ demands were not strong enough to outweigh the negative impact that releasing the recordings would have on future law enforcement investigations.
Despite the block, Comer stated that Republicans would persist with their markup resolution on holding Garland in contempt of Congress for defying the GOP subpoena.
In a statement, he emphasized that the recent Hail Mary from the White House has no impact on their committee.
Ever since Republicans regained control of the House in 2022, they have utilized their authority over the chamber to initiate impeachment hearings against Biden. Initially, their focus was on the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, despite no evidence of any wrongdoing being discovered. Subsequently, in 2023, Republicans launched a second impeachment inquiry, this time scrutinizing Biden’s handling of classified documents. Two batches of such documents were unearthed in late 2022 at an office he utilized and in early 2023 at his Delaware residence.
