“The View” co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin got visibly frustrated with co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin on Wednesday as she defended special counsel Robert Hur.
Griffin said congressional Democrats sounded like “MAGA Republicans” on Tuesday during Hur’s testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee. Congressional Democrats, particularly California Rep. Adam Schiff, complained that the remarks about the 81-year-old Biden’s memory included in Hur’s Feb. 8 report were “deeply prejudicial.”
Hur wrote in his report that the president willfully kept classified material in his private possession but that would not criminally charge Biden because a jury would likely perceive him as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
“Robert Hur is a career DOJ professional,” Griffin said. “He stood by his report. He resisted efforts [by] Republicans to make him overreach and diagnose things about Biden’s mental acuity time and time again. He also made very clear this is totally different than Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, which was far more egregious. And finally, he implored elected officials to actually care about protecting classified documents.”
“I think it is a mistake,” she continued, referring to Democrats’ attempts to portray Hur as politically motivated. “Democrats are running on democracy and upholding our institutions. They were sounding like MAGA Republicans. I’m sorry, you can be a Republican working at DOJ and still follow the letter of the law. It’s not a witch hunt. It’s not a partisan attack. It was a credible case.”
“Why did he leave out the words ‘photographic recall’ in his report?” co-host Joy Behar responded, referring to Hur telling Biden during their interview that he “appeared to have a photographic understanding and recall.”
“It was probably a mistake,” Griffin replied.
“Oh, it was a mistake?” Behar asked sarcastically.
Griffin went on to argue that the interview between Hur and the president had been misreported. The transcript, released early Tuesday, found that it was Biden who brought up his son Beau, not the special counsel, as Biden alleged during a press conference responding to the report. (RELATED: ‘I Don’t Understand The Outrage’: Jake Tapper Presses Adam Schiff On His Anger Toward Robert Hur)
“[Hur] was getting castigated for, ‘How dare you bring up his dead son?’ But Biden brought that up. So I just think we gotta be careful if we care about our institutions, if anytime we don’t like the ruling, it’s partisan and we only like DOJ when they go after Trump,” Griffin said.
Co-host Sunny Hostin then drew a round of applause form the audience by insisting that Hur must be partisan because former President Donald Trump appointed him.
“So you think only Democrats can try cases against Democrats and only Republican against Republicans?” Griffin interjected.
“No, back in the day when I was a prosecutor, I didn’t know which of my colleagues were Republican, which were independents, which were Democrats,” Hostin replied.
“But it’s public record who appointed them,” Griffin shot back.
Hostin then argued that Hur’s description of Biden’s alleged “poor memory” was a “partisan” statement and that the report should have only covered whether Hur could prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Biden committed a crime.
“And that was one of the reasons he felt that he couldn’t win the case,” Griffin argued.
“Nope, that is a legal standard,” Hostin replied.
Democrats pressed Hur, a registered Republican, on his political affiliation and characterized his report as an attempt to hurt Biden in the upcoming election. Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal repeatedly claimed that Hur “exonerated” Biden, which the special counsel denied.