JONATHAN TURLEY: Biden not the only loser revealed by shocking Hur audio

For posterity's sake Those words from President Joe Biden sum up the crushing impact of the leaked audiotapes from the interview between him and Special Counsel Robert Hur Not only did they remove any doubt over Biden committing federal crimes but they also constituted what is akin to a political racketeering indictment against much of the Washington establishment from the White House staff to Democratic politicians to the media The interview conducted from Oct - has long been sought by Congress but was kept under wraps by Biden's Justice Department even as Biden campaigned for a second term BIDEN REPEATEDLY SAYS I DON T REMEMBER' REGARDING CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS IN NEWLY DISTRIBUTED HUR INTERVIEW AUDIOMany of us balked at the conclusion of Hur that no charges were appropriate despite the fact that the president had removed classified documents for decades stored them in grossly negligent avenues and moved them around to unsecure locations including his garage in Delaware Given President Donald Trump's indictment for the same offenses it was hard to imagine how the special counsel could not recommend the same criminal charges presumably after he left office Instead Hur declared it would have been hard to get a jury to convict Biden because he was a sympathetic well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory It appears that Trump on the other hand was presumptively not sympathetic or well-meaning and possessed a good enough memory to face prosecution The contrast was glaring and only reinforced the view of a great number of citizens that there are two tracks for justice in Washington Soon after the report's release Biden gave an irate press conference at which he lied about the findings of his culpability and lashed out at any suggestion that he had gapped or stumbled in the interview For example when reporters raised Hur's assertion that Biden had forgotten when his son Beau died Biden angrily responded How in the hell dare he raise that Frankly when I was required the question I thought to myself it wasn t any of their damn business However it was not Hur but Biden himself who raised the death of his son and he forgot a wide array of dates including when he served in office The interview shows that in it was clear that Biden was mentally diminished despite alleges from a large number of allies and former aides that there was a sudden loss of limit just before the disastrous debate in It is now undeniable that the White House staff actively hid the president's incompetence from the American society That includes the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki who left her post in May and her successor Karine Jean-Pierre who insisted that Biden was sharp and running circles around the staff Of curriculum the media is now covering the story after the residents saw the truth in the debate Figures like CNN's Jake Tapper have even written books that belatedly pursue the question despite previously insisting that there was no evidence of a diminishment in Biden's mental state Tapper repeatedly dismissed the claim and even excoriated Lara Trump for raising it In one interview he pushed a White House talking point that such suggestions were mocking Biden for a childhood stutter It's so amazing to me- a cognitive decline he advised the president's daughter-in-law I think you were mocking his stutter Yeah I think you were mocking his stutter and I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline I would think somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have physiological licenses diagnosing politicians from afar When Lara Trump insisted that this was clearly evidence of a very concerning cognitive decline Tapper dismissed her comment by saying Thank you Lara I'm sure it's from a place of concern We all believe that Keep in mind that others beyond Lara Trump were raising this issue and there were tapes showing obvious physical and mental decline The media absolutely refused to seriously pursue the story until the cover-up no longer mattered after the debate Over on MSNBC Joe Scarborough was equally apoplectic at those raising the issue and stated Start your tape right now because I m about to tell you the truth And eff you if you can t handle the truth This version of Biden intellectually analytically is the best Biden ever Not a close second And I have known him for years If it weren t the truth I wouldn t say itThis media effort continued all the way up the debate itself On CNN com Oliver Darcy wrote Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate Once the community ascertained out the media was ready to tell the story when it became impossible and no longer politically beneficial to deny it Articles began to appear with the same realization of Oh you meant THAT mental decline Well sure It was the same belated acknowledgment that came after the polling with Hunter Biden's laptop The media just moved on with a shrug and a collective our bad concession As for the then-president himself the one moment of clarity in the interview may have been his the majority incriminating line When questioned why he removed classified material on Afghanistan Biden admitted I guess I wished to hang on to it for posterity's sake CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThat is precisely what critics on CNN and MSNBC accused Trump of doing removing material as types of keepsakes or trophies One president was indicted for that and one was sent along his way to pursue a second term in office The real indictment that comes out of these tapes is a type of political racketeering enterprise by the Washington establishment It took a total unit effort from Democratic politicians to the White House staff to the media to hide the fact that the president of the United States was mentally diminished It there were a political RICO crime half of Washington would be frog marched to the nearest federal courthouse Of subject none of this complicity in the cover-up is an actual crime It is part of the Washington racket After all this is Washington where such duplicity results not in plea deals but book deals CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM JONATHAN TURLEY