Special Counsel testifies on Biden classified docs probe (03-12-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:27] so much for your support. Pete Kaliner here, it's the Pete Kaliner Show, it is what Tuesday,

[00:00:31] it's the day Tuesday, it is March 12th and we go now live to the House Judiciary Committee,

[00:00:37] this is Congressman Dan Bishop who is talking to the special prosecutor Robert Herr.

[00:00:44] But not necessarily that it is classified, and footnote 866 is a reference and it refers

[00:00:50] to the Biden 10923 transcript at 24 and 25. Now we have that now, but we haven't until

[00:00:58] this morning, I just want to read from that exchange, this is on page 24 at line 15, Mr.

[00:01:07] Crickbong. So this is a type written document, it's got a confidential what appears to be

[00:01:12] a stamp at the top, and the top of the document indicates it's from the American AM Embassy

[00:01:19] Kabul, it's dated what appears to me to be November 09. The only question I have for you

[00:01:25] about this Mr. President is the confidential marking. Do you recognize that to be a classification

[00:01:30] marking? President Biden, no, I mean confidential doesn't want to get around, it's not in a category

[00:01:39] I don't think of code word top secret that kind of thing but I don't even know where it came

[00:01:44] from. Mr. Crickbong, are you familiar with confidential as a level of classified information

[00:01:51] President Biden? Well if I got a document that said confidential it means it would mean

[00:01:56] that no one else could see it but me and you give it or the people working on this issue.

[00:02:02] Mr. Crickbong, and are you aware that among certain categories of classified information

[00:02:09] there is top secret, secret and there's also a category of classified information called

[00:02:15] confidential. Is that something that you are aware of or not? President Biden, I yes,

[00:02:22] I was aware of it. I don't ever remember when I got any document that was confidential

[00:02:28] that was meant for me to read and or discuss with the people who sent me the memo so and

[00:02:35] that's the and then it trails off. So as I read that those answers they're equivocal, he

[00:02:42] at first says he doesn't know, do you recognize that to be a classification marking? He said no

[00:02:48] and then goes on to explain but then Mr. Crickbong came back and he said are you aware that among

[00:02:53] certain categories of classified information there's also a category of classified information called

[00:02:58] confidential and he says yes I was aware of it. So Mr. Herd just in that one instance there seems

[00:03:04] to be a discrepancy between the conclusion and the report or the summary of the evidence in

[00:03:08] the report and what the transcript says. Can you offer any guidance to this committee why you would

[00:03:14] put that summary in your report as opposed to saying that he gave inconsistent answers or in

[00:03:22] fact why didn't you nail down in the transcript which was the right answer? He's given answers

[00:03:28] that says no and then he says yes why didn't you pursue it until you knew? Congressmen, the

[00:03:33] report reflects our best efforts to summarize and characterize the evidence and the investigation

[00:03:38] including the investigation received from the president himself during our interview of him.

[00:03:43] But as you point out the transcripts of the president's interview over two days are now

[00:03:48] available to the committee for their inspection and the members are able to draw their own conclusions

[00:03:54] based on the transcripts that are now available to them. Well with all and I appreciate your answer

[00:03:59] and I certainly think the things you know you can come up with some details that someone can

[00:04:03] disagree on and it has the quality I know of some of some cherry picking because I've just found

[00:04:08] something but we've only had a little bit of time to look. I don't think it serves this process

[00:04:13] well for the Justice Department to dump these transcripts into the public right now if they're

[00:04:17] going to be released they should have been released at a proper time and I think I'll leave it

[00:04:22] at that Mr. Chairman I'll yield back. The gentleman yield? The gentleman yield?

[00:04:28] I will yield the gentleman. Just real quick Mr. Hurrett someone earlier said you know

[00:04:31] said something about changing the facts you said I'm not going to change the facts but let's keep

[00:04:34] the facts the same but change the subject. If you had the same facts and the individual that you

[00:04:39] were investigating was 65 and had a good memory do you reach the same conclusion?

[00:04:43] Congressman as I responded earlier to a question along these lines I am not here to entertain

[00:04:48] hypotheticals about facts or circumstances that may be different what I did was assess the evidence

[00:04:53] and the facts that I obtained in this investigation and make a judgment based on this set of evidence.

[00:04:57] Fair enough the chair now I recognize the gentleman from Washington for five minutes.

[00:05:00] All right so what are we listening to? Glad you asked this is the Special Counsel Report on the

[00:05:04] Biden Classified Documents that is now former Special Counsel Robert Hurr he's the one that

[00:05:11] did the interviews with Joe Biden and he led the investigation into all of the Classified Documents

[00:05:17] that were found at Joe Biden's gosh what his house I think is other house and then his office

[00:05:26] the Penn Center so just in various places Robert Hurr's report so now he's here to answer

[00:05:33] questions and I've been watching this throughout the morning before I got on the air here.

[00:05:39] It started at 10 a.m. Go wait hang on a second I think it was actually like 1009 I got to be very

[00:05:45] clear about this because Democrats will pounce dare I say seize upon any misstatement of the time of

[00:05:52] day as proof that it's not just Joe Biden that doesn't remember dates and times and such.

[00:06:00] Okay that's what they were doing today so the whole thrust of swall I'm sorry

[00:06:06] not not just swallwell but all of the Democrats sorry I just went to a different place there

[00:06:10] anyway the thrust of the Democrats argument has been that Biden cooperated and have you heard

[00:06:21] about all of the transgressions of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is worse Donald Trump is worse

[00:06:32] oh my god have you seen Donald Trump what about that case what about that stuff

[00:06:37] that's all they've done Eric swallwell listed all of the problems that Donald Trump has

[00:06:45] all of the accusations the porn star payoffs like all of the stuff right went through just this

[00:06:50] huge litany this laundry list of things that Donald Trump is accused of doing or has done

[00:06:56] has been proven to do whatever it just like this whole list and then he says to this to the

[00:07:01] former special counsel Robert her do you pledge not to accept an appointment if Donald Trump

[00:07:10] becomes president because her was originally appointed what eight years ago by Donald Trump as

[00:07:18] a US attorney I forget which district and then after his term was over and he was out and so

[00:07:27] he's been in private practice and so when Merrick Garland needed a special counsel to come and

[00:07:31] investigate Joe Biden over the classified documents right he turned to Robert her so her came

[00:07:37] out of retirement which you know unlike the David why appointment a special counsel her actually

[00:07:43] doesn't work for the federal government which is how it's supposed to be done David why he's does

[00:07:48] which I don't know why he's still permitted to pursue it anyway done a different case point is that

[00:07:54] democrats entire line of argument here was that Joe Biden uh was not a feeble minded senile old man

[00:08:02] that forgot stuff in fact he cooperated at every turn and Donald Trump is so much worse and that's

[00:08:08] what everybody should be looking at Republicans have been focused on the two tier justice system you

[00:08:15] know why is this guy not being prosecuted they're trying to get at the rationale behind not prosecuting

[00:08:22] not prosecuting his ghostwriter not prosecuting any of the people that are around Biden that

[00:08:28] that took the documents over the course of all these years and moved them all around nobody

[00:08:33] is to blame right nobody is going to be penalized for it and the Republicans keep focusing on

[00:08:39] why is that the case and Jordan just asked you just heard him uh after Dan Bishop you he asked

[00:08:47] Joe Biden was not this senile old man sympathetic senile old guy that you know memory issues

[00:08:53] would you have prosecuted him would you have recommended charges and her as he has done throughout the

[00:08:58] morning says I'm not engaging in hypotheticals which is what he said to swallwell also so

[00:09:05] that's been the way it has gone I also have two other audio clips here I'll be monitoring as well

[00:09:10] but two other audio clips these were the opening statements from Jim Jordan as well as

[00:09:15] or no sorry these were the uh the questions from Jordan and from the ranking Democrat Jamie

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[00:10:34] i do not have time to play the audio clip uh... the two audio clips are either one of them actually

[00:10:40] individually um before the bottom of the hour newscast i don't think so because i think they get five

[00:10:46] minutes here to ask their questions let me just double check on the time

[00:10:51] mm-hmm yes five minutes okay that's what i thought so well wait till after the news play gym jordan

[00:10:56] um

[00:10:58] so the uh... this is from the special counsel uh... testimony in front of the house judiciary

[00:11:04] and uh... this just started up at ten a.m i've been monitoring it there is um a couple of odd

[00:11:12] odd things about this hearing today for example uh molly hemmingway who is a writer at the federalist

[00:11:19] she points out how it's weird how mean some of the democrats on the house judiciary committee are

[00:11:25] being towards robert her the special counsel considering that he let their leader get away with

[00:11:31] mishandling classified information for financial gain even as his department is breaking all

[00:11:36] precedent and norms to go after the top their top political rival that that is kind of weird and

[00:11:43] and by the way um was it dead lu he just got his round uh... of five minutes and all his questions were

[00:11:51] about uh... you know how awesome joe biden was and how cooperative he was and how terrible

[00:11:58] and uncooperative president trump was that's all that they keep hammering away at

[00:12:04] which indicates to me that they really don't have anything

[00:12:09] to go after this special council report on they can't attack the merits of the thing

[00:12:15] they just keep pointing out that joe biden wasn't charged and donald trump was and donald trump is bad

[00:12:27] um which by the way if you are going to reject the idea that joe biden

[00:12:34] would be uh uh can't be charged because if he were charged it would be difficult to win a conviction

[00:12:40] because he would come across as a sympathetic elderly man with uh poor memory and

[00:12:48] they've been pushing back on this narrative because it hurts joe biden politically

[00:12:53] okay if you don't want us to believe that then therefore he must be okay

[00:13:00] so i guess he should be charged right logic would dictate that let me jump over here to

[00:13:08] uh... national review dammit lawful and uh he says uh her has made himself an enemy of the national

[00:13:14] political press for the offense of telling the truth about joe biden's failing memory her cited

[00:13:19] biden's age and poor memory as a chief basis for not prosecuting biden mishandling national security

[00:13:25] documents while out of office and while the tape recordings of hers interview with biden have

[00:13:31] not been released we now have two transcripts which by the way got dumped by the doj this morning

[00:13:38] right don't tell me the doj is not political when they dumped this stuff this morning

[00:13:44] the spin machine is an overdrive matt visor with the washington post says the full transcript

[00:13:49] of biden's special counsel interview paints a nuanced portrait the president doesn't seem as

[00:13:54] absent minded as her made him out to be and her doesn't appear as crass as biden has portrayed him

[00:14:01] the times how the special counsel support trail of biden's memory compares with the transcript

[00:14:08] it her accused the president last month of significant memory problems the interview transcript

[00:14:13] offers context to this report see keep saying that there's context there's context here there's context

[00:14:18] and when you actually read it not really not really he uh he did not remember the the year his

[00:14:26] sunday did not even remember what year

[00:14:30] donald trump one could not remember what year the presidential election was 2016 he called a

[00:14:36] 2017 um did not remember he started talking i thought this was interesting also there was a portion

[00:14:41] of it we mentioned why uh Obama didn't want him to run for re-election and it wasn't anything personal

[00:14:47] no no no it was just that hillary had a better shot all right do the current world events have you

[00:14:54] wondering whether we are teetering on the edge of catastrophe are you concerned it's going to

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[00:15:33] com veteran owned carolina readiness supply will you be ready when the lights go out special counsel

[00:15:39] robert her testifying in front of the house judiciary committee this morning and did this afternoon

[00:15:44] he began about two hours two and a half hours ago gotta make sure the timing is correct um

[00:15:49] this was earlier the chairman of the house judiciary committee

[00:15:53] Jim Jordan questioning the special counsel robert her we'll take a listen here

[00:15:59] oh my goodness why why oh why is it not playing through the audio now

[00:16:09] just so annoying it really is

[00:16:11] this is not playing it won't play through there i don't know why not sure what happened not sure

[00:16:21] why it's just stopped playing out of the laptop this is i'm running it all through the laptop and so

[00:16:25] it's not uh... headset speaker how about that let's try yeah we'll try that yeah this is fantastic

[00:16:35] all just to make it play

[00:16:38] no sorry so it's not gonna work so we're not going to get any of the audio because

[00:16:45] whenever whenever i guess i pulled the plug on the um

[00:16:49] i guess i pulled the plug on the c-span

[00:16:53] deal that it oh you know what i could do hang on a second let me i'll save it over here into

[00:16:59] the desktop and we'll see so i saved it out of my audio editing program as it's this is what

[00:17:05] you do when you're doing it on the fly um and so in pulling it out let's see mr.

[00:17:14] her way there is look at that why did Joe Biden in your words willfully retain and disclose

[00:17:19] classified materials i mean he knew the law then an office like 50 years five decades in the

[00:17:26] United States senate chairman of the senate foreign relations committee eight years as vice president

[00:17:33] he got briefed every day as vice president he's been in the situation room in fact

[00:17:39] you know he knew the rules because you said so on page 226

[00:17:44] president Biden was deeply familiar with the measures taken to safeguard classified documents

[00:17:51] and Joe Biden told us he knew the rules mr. Armstrong said this earlier

[00:17:55] Joe Biden was deeply familiar with it you're exactly right because he told us when jack smith

[00:18:00] goes after president trump Joe Biden says how could this happen what data was in those documents that

[00:18:04] can compromise sources and methods it's irresponsible so Joe Biden knew the rules you know he knew the

[00:18:12] rules and Joe Biden told us he knew the rules so mr. her why did he break him break question

[00:18:19] congressman the conclusion as to exactly why the president did what he did is not one that we

[00:18:25] explicitly address in the report the report explains my decision to the attorney general that

[00:18:32] no criminal charges were warranted in this matter i think you did tell us i think you told us mr.

[00:18:37] uh oh page 231 you said this president Biden had strong motivations that's a key word we're getting

[00:18:45] to motive now president Biden had strong motivations to ignore the proper procedures for safeguarding

[00:18:52] the classified information in his notebooks why did he have strong motivations because you

[00:18:58] next word because he decided months before leaving office to write a book to write a book that was

[00:19:06] his motive he knew the rules he broke him cuz he was writing a book and you further say and he began

[00:19:11] meeting with the ghost writer while he was still vice president there's the motive mr. her how much

[00:19:18] to president Biden get paid for his book off the top my head i'm not sure if that information appears

[00:19:24] in the report so it does there's a dollar amount in there over two you remember i don't it it may be

[00:19:31] eight million if eight million dollars Joe Biden had eight million reasons to break the rules

[00:19:38] took classified information and shared it with the guy who was writing the book

[00:19:42] that's why he did he knew the rules but he broke him for eight million dollars in a book advance

[00:19:48] but you know what wasn't just the money Joe Biden here's just this page 231 very next page

[00:19:55] Joe Biden in your report Joe Biden viewed his notebooks as an irreplaceable contemporaneous record

[00:20:01] of the most important moments of his vice presidency he'd written it all down for the book

[00:20:08] for the eight million dollars and the next thing you say in your report is quote such a record would

[00:20:13] buttress his legacy as a world leader you know what this is it wasn't just the money it wasn't just

[00:20:20] eight million dollars it was also his ego pride and money is why he knowingly violated the rules

[00:20:30] the oldest motives in the book pride and money you agree with that mr. her you wrote it in your

[00:20:36] report that language and it does appear in the report and we did identify evidence supporting those

[00:20:42] those assessments you also had another interesting statement in your report you said Joe Biden

[00:20:47] want to make sure i get this right viewed himself as a man of presidential timber remember that

[00:20:51] statement mr. her how do i believe that does appear in the report at least in the executive summer

[00:20:58] i think this is interesting because here's a scary part page 200 i said this earlier in my opening

[00:21:04] statement page 200 Joe Biden this is a quote Joe Biden wrist serious damage to america's national

[00:21:11] security when he shared information with his ghost rider shared it with his ghost rider the guy

[00:21:18] who was helping Joe Biden get eight million dollars and all by the way mr. her what did that ghost

[00:21:25] rider do with the information Joe Biden shared with him on his laptop what did he do after you

[00:21:31] were named special counsel chairman if you're referring to the audio recordings that mr.

[00:21:36] wanted are created of his conversations exactly what i'm referring to he he slid if i remember

[00:21:43] correctly he slid those files into his recycle bin on his computer tried to try to destroy the evidence

[00:21:50] didn't he deleted correct the very guy who was helping Joe Biden get the eight million dollars eight

[00:21:55] million dollars Joe Biden used what the motive for Joe Biden to to disclose classified information

[00:22:01] to retain classified information which he definitely knew was against the law when you get named

[00:22:07] special counsel what's that guy do you destroy the evidence that's the key takeaway in my mind

[00:22:13] that's the key takeaway i would agree seems seems pretty important eight million dollar book deal

[00:22:21] presidential timber ego right well because what was it all about it was about the afghanistan

[00:22:25] issue that we had to get out of afghanistan and this is you know his advice to to baroque obama and this

[00:22:32] this tiktok back and forth with the president at the time and look at how Joe Biden belongs in this moment

[00:22:39] all that Dan welcome to the show hello Dan hey hey i just have a question uh i think that um

[00:22:48] a president can't be charged while he's president with anything except through the process of

[00:22:55] impeachment am i right there is question about whether or not a president can be charged yes uh

[00:23:01] criminally but this this this hearing today is part of the impeachment uh it's under the impeachment

[00:23:08] umbrella news talk eleven ten ninety nine three wb t now what happens is when i record something on

[00:23:14] the laptop i put it into this system but then i i i pull out the chord so i can listen to it without

[00:23:20] it going over the air when i pop the chord back in apparently it doesn't recognize it anymore and so

[00:23:25] i just save it onto the desktop anyway it doesn't matter try a catastrophe a virgin averted so uh here

[00:23:31] is now jamey raskin um and his questioning of the special counsel robert her well i think actually

[00:23:37] didn't even need to be there for much of raskin's line of questioning uh mr. her you

[00:23:44] report starts with the line we conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter uh have

[00:23:50] you had any reason to change your opinion about that no no raking member you highlight the independence

[00:23:56] and support you got from the attorney general and d o j have you changed in mind about that i have not

[00:24:03] the report the report describes president biden's um cooperation in your requests he allowed his

[00:24:08] homes to be searched he answered questions for hours in the midst of a global crisis have you had any

[00:24:13] reason to change your mind about that no raking member all right you also repeatedly contrast

[00:24:19] biden's cooperation with the conduct of donald trump you say quote most notably after being given

[00:24:23] multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution mr. trump allegedly did

[00:24:28] the opposite according the indictment he not only refused to return the documents for many months

[00:24:33] but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence in the lie about it

[00:24:39] have you any reason to change your judgment about the differences between president biden's

[00:24:43] cooperation and the former president's non-cooperation no i continue to stand by those words in my

[00:24:49] report with such a striking contrast our colleagues have switched over from being impeachment investigators

[00:24:55] for constitutional high crimes and misdemeanors which is how this whole thing started still being

[00:25:00] amateur memory specialists giving us their drive by diagnoses of the president of the United States

[00:25:07] who's soaring oratory powerful historical analysis and devastating extemporaneous repartee with even the

[00:25:15] most skilled ninja hecklers of the freedom caucus while in full display at the state of the union

[00:25:21] dressed last week for the whole country to see the desperate quest to invent an issue is a distraction

[00:25:27] from the 91 federal and state federal charges the donald trump faces now his staggering civil court

[00:25:34] losses in new york now totally more than a half a billion dollars and his full

[00:25:41] blown embrace and romance with authoritarian dictators and communist tyrants all over the world

[00:25:47] from victor orban in hungry to Vladimir Putin in russia the former head of the kgb to the communist

[00:25:54] dictator of north korea it's not that this my friends this is a memory test wait what that's not

[00:26:03] a memory test for president biden it's a memory test for all of america hey do we remember fascism what

[00:26:11] do you remember nazism remember communism and totalitarianism have we completely forgotten the

[00:26:18] sacrifices of our parents and grandparents in prior generations what we play pin the tail on the

[00:26:24] donkey in this wild goose chase all of these silly games donald trump entertains authoritarian

[00:26:33] hustler victor orban at maralago for the weekend and orban comes out to declare that if we indeed

[00:26:39] sleepwalk into another trump presidency trump will quote not give a simple pen a single penny

[00:26:47] to Ukraine that's what all of this is about why it's about trying to pull the wool over the eyes

[00:26:53] of america because the tyrants and dictators of the world are on the march today so who wins with

[00:27:00] this ludicrous embarrassing spectacle or ban wins Putin wins she wins the tyrants of the world win

[00:27:08] they have one more reason to celebrate donald trump and his cult followers who've completely lost

[00:27:14] their way they're looking for high crimes and misdemeanors now they appoint themselves amateur

[00:27:20] memory specialists and that's what they pounce on the president of the united states now

[00:27:24] america faces a choice between democracy and tyranny and the president laid it out at valley

[00:27:30] forge and he laid it out in the state of the union will america stand on the side of people struggling

[00:27:37] against fascist aggression will we stand with the people of Ukraine against Vladimir Putin

[00:27:43] whose filthy war has meant the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children the murder the slaughter

[00:27:50] of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and the attack on an independent sovereign democracy but we're

[00:27:57] not working on that today we're not standing up for democracy in human rights and international

[00:28:02] law around the world no we're trying to play a memory detectives to parse the language of a

[00:28:10] president who the whole world got to see at the state of the union address directly address

[00:28:17] the real questions of our time all right so charge him i agree he's in complete control of his

[00:28:23] mental faculties so charge him

[00:28:28] all right that'll do it for this episode thank you so much for listening i could not do the show

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[00:28:41] patreon page or go to the peak calender show dot com again thank you so much for listening and

[00:28:47] don't break anything while i'm gone