Merrick Garland announces special counsel to investigate Joe Biden classified docs.
President Biden and the White House blame Merrick Garland for not reining in Special Counsel Hur, and Garland will be gone if Biden wins a second term.
Biden and his closest advisers believe Hur went well beyond his purview and was gratuitous and misleading in his descriptions, according to those two people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. And they put part of the blame on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to Hur’s report, including around the descriptions of Biden’s faltering memory.
In White House meetings, aides have questioned why Garland felt the need to appoint a special counsel in the first place, though Biden has publicly said he supported the decision.
While Biden himself has not weighed in on Garland’s future, most of the president’s senior advisers do not believe that the attorney general would remain in his post for a possible second term, according to the two people.
The report also said that frustration has been steadily building with Garland, and no one in the White House is happy with the job that he is doing.
In terms of governance and politics, there are good reasons for not firing Garland now. In governance terms, firing the Attorney General and destabilizing the Department of Justice months before an election where Trump is threatening violence and the nation is facing potential interference from foreign actors would be a terrible idea. As bad as Garland has been handling anything Biden-related, destabilizing DOJ right now might leave the country vulnerable to attack before the 2024 election,
Politically, Biden has built his brand on stability, so firing Garland would run counter to his message and generate damaging headlines and drama before an election. It will definitely not help the President if he fires his AG months before voters go to the polls.
As Sarah Jones said in a recent edition of the Politicus Pod, “We are fighting encroaching authoritarianism, and this requires a certain temperament and spine. Garland is a brilliant person with high integrity, but we can see how easily exploited is his excessive tendency toward congeniality and constitutionalism. Not every person with integrity can be a warrior, though, and Garland is showing himself to be incapable of rising to this moment in history.”
Listen to the Politicus Pod:
Merrick Garland as attorney general is a choice that didn’t work, and if Biden wins in November, he will go in a different direction.
A Special Message From PoliticusUSA
If you are in a position to donate purely to help us keep the doors open on PoliticusUSA during what is a critical election year, please do so here.
We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.
[wpedon id=”344887″ align=”center”]
Republicans showed what the undercutting of democracy looks like in Florida after a measure to…
Young people are coming out to vote in Nevada to such a large degree that…
Gwinett County elections director Zach Manifold said that there have been threats to polling places…
Trump had to curtain off seats at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh due to small…
A sign that Pennsylvania might be lost for Trump as the 6,000-7,000 seat venue in…
Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner has an election message for the MAGA plotting to play militia…
This website uses cookies.
