Defending criticism: White House response to Special Counsel’s Biden report

The White House defended its pushback of President Joe Biden’s own Justice Department — vis-à-vis the special counsel’s report — by saying the administration was merely agreeing with other criticism lobbed at Robert Hur as being “gratuitous” and “inappropriate.”

White House spokesman Ian Sams was asked during Friday’s press briefing if Biden’s camp was hypocritical for tearing down Hur’s report given its past proclamations to “trust the institutions,” when, say, Donald Trump is criticizing the Department of Justice of being politicized.

To wit, Vice President Kamala Harris earlier Friday called Hur’s report “politically motivated.” Sams, meanwhile, said during the briefing “you’re left to wonder why this report spends time making gratuitous and inappropriate criticisms of the president.”

Sams said he was just parroting what others are saying.

“When you have the former attorney general, when you have the former acting FBI director, when you have the former general counsel of the FBI, you know, these are experienced people at the Justice Department who spent decades working at the Justice Department, and they’re saying it’s gratuitous,” Sams said. “They’re saying that this is inappropriate, but this is inconsistent with DOJ policy and practice. That’s them saying it.

“We agree. You know, you heard the president speak forcefully about this last night. You heard the vice president speak forcefully about this today. We certainly agree that it’s gratuitous.”

Sams was likely referring to former Attorney General Eric Holder, who called Hur’s report “flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions.” Also, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, currently an MSNBC legal contributor, called the report “entirely inappropriate.” Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said Hur’s critique of Biden was “totally gratuitous.” Katyal also is an MSNBC contributor.

Hur’s report found that Biden “willfully” retained and disclosed those documents, but special counsel opted against charging Biden, in part, because he’d come across in front of a jury as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”

Hur went on to describe Biden’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It noted that Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life.

All fair game to criticize, Sams said, while instructing the other side to respect the institutions.

“We’re in a very pressurized political environment. And when you are the first special counsel in history not to indict anybody, there is pressure to criticize and to make statements that maybe otherwise you wouldn’t make,” Sams said. “And, I think that it leaves you wondering why some of these critiques are in there. …

“And I think it’s important to understand that the criticisms that you’re hearing of the gratuitous comments in the report, which are wrong, frankly.”

Trump appointed Hur in 2018 as the chief federal law enforcement officer in Maryland, a position he held until 2021. Attorney General Merrick Garland hired Hur as special counsel to investigate Biden in January 2023.