Kennedy, Judiciary Republicans demand DOJ turn over audio recording of Biden interview with special counsel

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and all other Republican colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee in writing a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) provide a copy of the audio recording of President Joe Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"We, like our colleagues on the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Accountability Committees, believe the tapes are necessary to assist with the Committee's constitutional oversight of the Department of Justice. Further, we urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to comply with the valid subpoena by the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Accountability Committees as the law requires. It is unacceptable that you, the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, are continuing to defy a lawful command of Congress and that you have been held in contempt of Congress," the senators wrote.

"Earlier this year, Special Counsel Hur issued a shocking report concluding that criminal charges against President Biden for mishandling highly classified information for decades and 'willfully retain[ing] and disclos[ing] classified information after his vice presidency' were not warranted, in part, because a jury would perceive him as an 'elderly man with a poor memory.' Congress must be able to test the veracity of the Special Counsel's conclusion, as well as the accuracy of the transcript, against recordings capturing the President's performance in the two-day interview. The only way that this can be done is with the recording itself," they continued.

The senators explained that the information within the recordings of the president's conversation with Hur is critical to Congress's exercising legislative, oversight and impeachment powers, and, specifically, to the Senate Judiciary Committee's oversight of the DOJ.

"The need to produce this recording is also particularly acute considering President Biden's recent public performances, which have surely emboldened our enemies abroad as much as they have alarmed Americans at home. The American people deserve to be fully informed as to their President's faculties, and there is every reason to believe that the President and his Administration have not been forthcoming on this issue. The threats to the United States are at an all-time high, red lights are blinking everywhere, and America cannot afford weak leadership," said the lawmakers.

The full letter is available here.