The special counsel’s report on President Biden‘s handling of classified information raised unwarranted, and frankly disgusting, references to his age and memory. It was a sneak attack that may have lethal effect on Biden’s campaign.
And it reminds me of another sneak attack that may have caused lethal damage: FBI Director James Comey’s last-minute reopening of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private emails.
To jostle our memory: On July 5, 2016, Comey held a news conference at which he said:
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information . . . we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account. . . . Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Unfortunately, that did not put the matter to rest. Seven days before the election, Comey announced reopening of the investigation. He would later say he thought that move wouldn’t matter because Hillary would surely win the election.
I doubt that is Special Counsel Robert Hur’s excuse for deciding to write that Biden is a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Devastating – and a gift to Donald Trump, who is not only an “elderly man with a poor memory,” but is a criminal with evil intent.
Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University and blogs at In the Human Interest.
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