House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the audio recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur.
Hur investigated Biden regarding an accusation of mishandling classified documents after he left the White House as Vice President in 2017. Hur, who made a controversial comment disparaging Biden’s age and memory in his report, decided not bring charges against him.
Note: The transcript of the Biden-Hur interview is available to the public online but members of the House GOP — including House Speaker Mike Johnson — claim the recordings are crucial to their impeachment inquiry into Biden, which has been lagging for more than year and has not delivered evidence of any wrongdoing.
The House voted on Wednesday (216-207), the day before the presumptive GOP nominee, former president Donald Trump, visits the Capitol — his first return since the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York warned his Republican colleagues on the House floor: “I rise today with a warning to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. You are setting a very dangerous precedent by trying to hold an Attorney General who has provided all of the substance requested in a subpoena, in contempt.”
The GOP should be careful about the precedent set by holding the AG in contempt after receiving all information requested.
What goes around comes around for the party of Trump – who defied all subpoenas.
This is about politics not oversight, and it is beneath this institution. pic.twitter.com/DLJ27xyLVT
— Rep. Dan Goldman (@RepDanGoldman) June 12, 2024
Goldman added: “And let’s be very clear, this precedent that you’re setting is one that your own former president and cabinet secretaries repeatedly violated in the last administration.” He noted that in 2019, Trump “famously said that he would defy all Congressional subpoenas. And then he did just that during the impeachment inquiry.”
Goldman claimed “There is no legitimate legislative purpose” to require Attorney General Merrick Garland to turn over the audio recording of the interviews, and noted the irony of five of the 217 Republicans who voted for holding Garland in contempt and have “completely defied lawful Congressional subpoenas” including the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Goldman ended his time on the floor by saying, “And you, my friends, on the other side of the aisle, ought to think twice because what goes around comes around.”
Note: One Republican voted against holding Garland in contempt: Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio.