I’m With Hur

The former special counsel did not, as some from both parties claim, lie in his testimony.

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Robert Hur testifies at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images)

Hey, 

So last night we did a special Dispatch Live on last week’s editorial, which had elicited a lot of conversation, comments, compliments, and criticism (and if you give me a minute or two I can probably keep the alliteration going). 

I don’t want to wade too deeply into all of that or repeat myself here—not when I can repeat myself elsewhere! But one point I made last night seems worth expanding upon. 

I think Robert Hur is kind of a spirit animal for The Dispatch. I don’t know the guy (Sarah does, and she says he’s a good dude). I only vaguely knew who he was until Attorney General Merrick Garland named him as the special counsel in the Biden classified documents case. 

As you probably know, he submitted a report to Garland explaining why he declined to recommend indicting Biden over his—obvious—mishandling of classified material. This report is required by law, by the way. Hur even took pains to note that the charges against Trump for his—even more obvious—mishandling of classified material were substantially different and more serious than the charges against Biden.

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Comments (370)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Just wanted to add my comment to say I wholeheartedly agree and I’m glad the Dispatch is doing what it’s doing.

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    Tjsbmurphy

    Good point about living in a philodoxical era. As a former prosecutor and former defense attorney, I found Hur’s testimony to make perfect sense and reasonable. Sense and reasonableness are out of fashion and that’s evident in the Congressional hearing. I mean, the world is blowing up and the US is in economic and political distress but hey! Let’s have hearings on this issue and attack a principled prosecutor who did his duty.

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    Marybethdexter

    I read the transcript of the interview, and Biden repeatedly says he doesn’t remember. The Beau outrage after the fact is (as you said) a lie, or that’s what he remembers from the interview. Either way, the poor memory part looks true. Biden comes across as a person recalling random facts….like a stream of consciousness from his past. I don’t know what to make of that, but when I see him say on the news “I’ll take questions” and the staff reverses his decision……it makes me wonder on how many other issues does this happen?

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  4. J.R.Shaw

    "Everyone has opinions. But a lot of those opinions are fairly free-floating, untethered from serious thinking and unconstrained by the ballast of facts." Apt metaphor; so well put.

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  5. Dfhmph25

    When both sides are mad, Hur is doing something right.

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      Gorillazilla00

      Sometimes the tired cliche of "If you're taking flak, it means you're over the target" is accurate.

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  6. Donald Riedel

    It so refreshing to hear someone take both sides to task for their partisan nonsense. We need another option

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  7. Mattfrommo

    The President's willingness to use the deaths of his family members as both political sword and shield whenever he thinks it will benefit him is positively disgusting. It should be reason enough not to vote for him.

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  8. M L

    Kudos to you and the editors. I thought it was quite clear, and the blowback very revealing of the respondents. So thank you for that. It’s why I keep coming back. More than happy to help keep this thing going.

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  9. Jackgoldberg

    And this is why I subscribe. To get the truth. I’ll provide the opinion.

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  10. Russell J

    Just read a dreadful Atlantic article by Adam Serwer on Hur’s dishonesty before this. He doesn’t post the report text but cherry-picks the recall of the May 30 date and then pretends Biden naturally remembered the year when it was actually a staffer that reminded him. What seems missing from a lot of the discussion of dates is that Biden seems to not remember the order of significant events as is clear in the above transcript. I’m interpreting that he couldn’t remember if Beau passed while VP or after which should be easier to remember than a date. The statement is such a muddle with like 10+ years of significant events mixed together it just seems like he has no timeline of one of the most important periods of his life.

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