(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . House GOP files lawsuit in latest desperate attempt to embarrass Biden [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2024-07-01 Say this for House Republicans: They’re relentless in their pursuit of potential dirt. On Monday, they filed a lawsuit in their newest attempt to get their hands on what they are convinced would be a damaging audio recording of President Joe Biden. Never mind that they have the transcript of the conversation between Biden and special counsel Robert Hur, so there’s no justification for their claims that they need the audio too. What they want is a recording that makes Biden look—or, rather, sound—bad. They’re hoping a recording will capture the stuttering and verbal fumbling that they can use to say, for the thousandth time, that Biden is a senile old man whose disintegrating mental acuity makes him unfit for the presidency. Biden’s inarguably terrible performance at last Thursday’s debate already provided plenty of moments to doubt his mental acuity. Which is probably why House Republicans think now, more than ever, they should get that audio recording to spread embarrassing moments far and wide. The fact that they haven’t yet gotten what they clearly believe to be damning audio isn’t for lack of trying. They asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to hand it over; he said no. Then they decided to hold him in contempt of Congress. James Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, insisted it was necessary to their definitely-not-partisan investigation. “These audio recordings are important to our investigation of President Biden’s willful retention of classified documents and his fitness to be President of the United States,” he said in a May press release. As we all know, Republicans are extremely concerned with the willful retention of classified documents, which is why they’ve been outraged that Donald Trump willfully retained classified documents in various bathrooms and storage rooms in Mar-a-Lago, for which he was indicted. The Justice Department quickly responded to the contempt vote with a metaphorical eye roll, saying that no, it would not prosecute Garland because his refusal to turn over the recording “did not constitute a crime.” That should have been the end of it, of course. But no. Undeterred, House Republicans started talking about having Garland arrested to enforce their contempt charge—the same charge the DOJ had already said was a bunch of malarkey. Perhaps House Speaker Mike Johnson decided that trying to throw Garland in the pokey wasn’t the best optics at this moment. So instead, the new, new, new GOP strategy is Monday’s lawsuit. And Republicans aren’t even pretending anymore that it has anything to do with their concern about protecting classified documents. They just want to know if there’s audio that makes Biden sound as old and feeble as he looked at last week’s debate. You know, for America. “The audio recordings, not the cold transcripts, are the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview,” the lawsuit states. Well, sure. If the concern is not what Biden said but how he said it—like a feeble old grandpa, perhaps, who would make voters feel nervous about him remaining in power for another four years?—then yep, that audio recording is so much more useful to the Republican agenda than the transcript of what he said. And it very much is Biden’s mental state they’re hoping to exploit. “We need the audio recordings and the transcripts,” Jim Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, said before last week’s debate. “Put simply, they are the best evidence of the president’s mental state.” Talk about saying the quiet part out loud! But then, this particular Republican caucus is anything but subtle. They’ve been desperately seeking some dirt—really, even the tiniest little fleck of it will suffice—to embarrass Biden and show that he’s just as compromised of a candidate as the convicted-on-34-counts felon at the top of their ticket. They’ve come up short, despite their best efforts, but that won’t stop them from trying again. And again. And again … [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/1/2250355/-House-GOP-files-lawsuit-in-latest-desperate-attempt-to-embarrass-Biden?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_5&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/