DOJ putting its thumb on the scales AGAIN

[Belsnickel]

(02-11-2024, 11:45 AM)Matt_Crimson Wrote: Is this really a "conservative" media thing though?

Multiple left leaning news outlets have been calling the special counsel report a disaster for Biden. They even double down on this negative reporting by calling his speech in response to the report a disaster.

This isn't a conservative media vs liberal media story when both parties are saying the same thing. Rather than come out and say something like "Conservative media howls about special scounsel report, but it's really nothing to worry about", which the media is known to do when fighting it's opposition, the liberal media has been instead calling this a "political nightmare" or "disaster" while also calling out the memory and mental problems he has exhiiited while being Preseident. In other wiords, the liberal media hasn't been making things better for BIden in response to the report. Instead they are sounding the alarm.

If anything, iit alsmost looks like the liberal media is looking for someone else to beat Trump.

I'll be honest, I don't listen to much in the media these days and was going primarily off of what I had seen from some of the conservative punditry. What I have seen in recent days from across the media spectrum has caused me to reassess my take on all of this. You are definitely correct in your assessment here, though.

So, I wrote this off as SOP as far as how this all goes. After talking with some former federal prosecutors I know and listening to a few others that have podcasts talking about these sorts of issues, I have been forced to reevaluate. What I have learned is that a declination report, as this would often be referred to as in the DoJ, is a common practice and is something that exists for every single investigation wherein there is a choice not to file charges. However, those reports don't see the light of day. They are passed up the chain in the DoJ and get stored in a file somewhere for reference. They are an entirely internal document. A lot of what Hur wrote in his report is reminiscent of such a declination report. However, according to all of those I have heard from, there are very opinionated and political statements in the report, even starting on the first page of the executive summary. There was a difference among these folks as to the relevance of some of the information re: Biden's memory. Some felt it was relevant, others not so much. All of them agreed, though, that bringing things like Biden's memory of his son's death into the discussion was not relevant.

There was also agreement among all of them that given the typical view of DoJ on these sorts of things, Hur should have tempered his report on these things, anyway. That because Garland had already made it known that the report would be made public well in advance, Hur should not have engaged in as much politicization of the process as he did. There was a lot of comparison to Comey's moves in 2016 as JWB remarked on in the first post of the thread.

Now, knowing what I do about the context of the situation (the ~5 hour interview occurred in the aftermath of the October 7th Hamas attack, which would take a lot of Biden's attention) as well as hearing from folks who know or meet with Biden regularly (I think back to McCarthy talking about how with it Biden was in negotiations), I don't see any real concern with Biden's mental acuity. Media is going to be hyperbolic about everything. I don't want Biden on the ticket for a long list of reasons, but his mental capacity is not among them. Washington is a giant rumor mill and we would be hearing a lot more concerns from Democratic officials about him if it were really that bad.

Is this a giant game of lowering expectations for the general election? Is it an attempt to get someone else on the ticket? Maybe remove him for a President Harris? Who knows. I know how little secrets can be kept inside the beltway, so I keep little stake in those theories.