Former President Donald Trump on Saturday ramped up his criticism of special counsel Robert Hur’s decision not to charge President Joe Biden over his handling of classified documents, while repeatedly questioning his successor’s mental acuity and peddling conspiratorial claims about former President Barack Obama.
Less than two days after the release of Hur’s report, Trump is trying to weaponize its language – which described Biden as forgetful and said he acted improperly, though not criminally – to cast doubt over the president’s mental fitness and accuse the Justice Department of bias. The long riffs also serve to deflect from Trump’s own, more serious legal concerns – which Hur, in his report, outlined in damning terms.
In a scattershot speech to supporters in South Carolina, Trump rolled out a wave of attacks on Biden. He claimed his rival was effectively incapacitated, operating under the influence of Obama – “I think Barack Obama has a lot to do with running the country right now,” Trump said. He also portrayed the president as the leader of a nefarious plot to derail Trump’s campaign with politically motivated criminal accusations, investigations and indictments.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to charge, they are not going to judge him with a crime, but it’s OK for him to become commander in chief?” Trump said. “Biden is bad for democracy because he’s grossly incompetent. … Plus, he uses DOJ and FBI and everything he can to go after an opponent and nothing has ever happened like that in this country.”
Biden has repeatedly said he would not instruct his Justice Department to investigate Trump nor push for any outcome if Attorney General Merrick Garland went forward – as he has – with probes into the former president. Garland and others in the DOJ have also said they…
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