By Carol Lucas
Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Ah, Mr. Shakespeare, the cauldron does, indeed, bubble once again. Much to the delight of the Republicans and the dismay of the Democrats.
It would seem that the one crucial detriment the Republicans believe they can effectively tout is Joe Biden’s age. Heaven knows they can’t point to a recession they thought would surely come to pass. Nor can they dispute the increase in jobs or the uptick in the economy or the record-breaking Dow Jones, although many will lie outright and proclaim otherwise.
But the age, the bumbling of words, Biden’s walk, the mental acuity! Oh dear, they even go so far as to claim dementia. It’s truly amazing the number of physicians in our government so capable of rendering a diagnosis.
What ever happened to the idea of the wisdom of elders? Do I need to point out those much younger in our government who display no wisdom whatsoever, and, in fact, consistently display abject ignorance? Must I mention George Santos, or Lauren Boebert, or MTG?
But what I really want to address is the way in which the heat was turned up under our imaginary kettle. There are so many avenues by which to parse the 388-page report that was issued by the Department of Justice last week, that I hardly know where to begin.
President Biden was interviewed regarding the documents found in his garage. You can readily access a great deal of information on this process, how it was conducted, and what the final determination was. Keep in mind, however, that the objective of this was to determine whether or not the President had committed a criminal offense. What was set forth in answer to this question follows:
After reviewing the draft report, the relevant intelligence agencies have identified no content that is classified or otherwise unfit for public disclosure. The White House Counsel has not conveyed the President’s decisions as to assertions of executive privilege; it is understood that the White House Counsel will convey such decisions directly.
Read this again, and focus, if you will, on the President’s decision not to assert executive privilege. Let that sink in. If this man had anything to hide regarding his position, he could have done so, contrary to those actions of Trump who did assert such, and did so when he was no longer president.
So who is Robert Hur, the special counsel who has managed to skillfully bring the cauldron to a boil once more? He is a 51-year-old American lawyer who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. He is a graduate of both Harvard and Stanford Universities, and is a Republican appointed to his present position by Merrick Garland.
At this point, I will digress to what I consider an equivalent problem. Between Garland’s inaction early on with the Trump cases, up to this current failure to act upon Hur’s verbiage in the report (which he could have done, assuming he even read it), Garland is the poster boy for ineptitude.
His failure to act promptly and judiciously when it became apparent what had transpired after Trump left the White House, finds us where we are today – in a time crunch and a looming election. Jack Smith is dealing with a young Floridian judge who has been roundly chastised by fellow conservative judges who are her peers, as well as a string of appeals, albeit legal. Meanwhile the clock is ticking, thanks to Garland’s inability or unwillingness to move forward.
Biden was interviewed by special counsel Hur for five hours. Of those five hours, Hur wrote that the President “did not remember when he was Vice President” or “when his son, Beau, died.” My first question is, “What does his son’s death have to do with the case at hand, that of classified government documents?” Can you even imagine how taken aback the President must have been to have that thrown at him? If you are a parent who has lost a child (or in this case, two) you know the answer.
Hur goes on to portray Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” To say these comments are inappropriate for this report, as well as gratuitous, is an understatement. One White House spokesperson stated that “it is a commonplace occurrence among witnesses to experience a lack of recall of years-old events.”
For some this is painfully reminiscent of former FBI Director James Comey’s criticisms of Hillary Clinton when he decided not to charge her in a classified documents case during the 2016 presidential campaign. Others have reverted to the time of Ronald Reagan, his age, and what eventually was said to be dementia.
Biden has experience and surrounds himself with a team of people he will listen to. Trump, on the other hand, is a renegade who openly aligns himself with Putin and Kim Jong Un. Furthermore, he fires anyone that disagrees with him. As for age, he is only three years younger than Biden.
And so, I will heed Mr. Shakespeare’s warning, when the second witch declares, “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”
I don’t abide wicked!
Carol Lucas is a retired high school teacher and a Lady’s Island resident. She is the author of the recently published “A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey Through Widowhood.”
