In a shocking turn of events, it appears that Donald Trump invoked executive privilege to stop the release of law enforcement recordings that could prove damning in the upcoming election.
Oh, wait, never mind. It was Joe Biden.
Biden, who ran in 2020 on bringing "transparency and truth back to the government," has now asserted executive privilege over audio recordings taken during an investigation into his handling of classified documents, sparking House Republicans to threaten to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt.
Of course, the hypocrisy here didn't go unnoticed.
During Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation, Biden's White House bragged that the president didn't assert executive privilege, noting that Biden has "nothing to hide."
What changed? Well, why do these tapes matter?
First off, they could provide more insight into the primary investigation into Biden's notorious handling of classified documents (i.e. his garage).
But let's be honest: The Biden White House isn't worried about allegations of good-ol'-fashioned law breaking.
Given that the transcript has already been made available, why would Joe Biden fight to keep the corresponding audio recording concealed? Well, because the transcript alone raised significant questions (to say the least) about Biden's memory and mental state.
Biden repeatedly demonstrated a fuzzy recollection of some dates in his interviews with Hur, including the year of his son's death and the years of his service as vice president.
(To be fair, the cause and timing of Biden's son's death usually depends on Biden's audience at the time ... )
So of course they don't want these audio recordings released. On a transcript, you can hide tone, pauses, and bathroom accidents. On audio, there's nowhere to hide.
There is one positive here, though. At least there's no video footage.
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