Senior Biden adviser Mitch Landrieu pushed back on Kristen Welker during Sunday’s “Meet the Press” following the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s 15-month investigation into claims the president mishandled classified documents. Landrieu bristled at the suggestion that Biden “could have” compromised national security.
He told Welker, “The facts and the law suggested that the president was not engaged in criminal activity, to be distinguished between the former president, who right now has 91 felony counts pending against him in four different cases. So let’s just keep the facts right and let’s not make false comparisons between the two, which unfortunately people do a lot of, these days.”
Welker initiated a conversation about the report as the interview began and asked Landrieu, “Does the campaign accept this report as legitimate?”
He was quick to reply in the affirmative. Landrieu said, “Well, of course. First of all, this was a 15-month investigation. The president and his team fully cooperated. And based on the law and the facts, which is what lawyers and special counsels are supposed to look on, the conclusion was that the president has engaged in no wrongdoing, period, end of story.”
“But unfortunately, that’s not where the special prosecutor left it,” he added. “He decided to add ad hominem, gratuitous attacks about the death of the president’s son, which everybody knows is just an incredibly personal thing to him, as it is to any parent who’s lost somebody, and then extra attacks that even senators like Mitt Romney and White House counsel under Trump, [Ty] Cobb, felt was just ridiculous.”
“And you’re going to have a lot of other federal prosecutors that come out and say that. That’s the thing that really stung the most about it.”
On Thursday, Biden himself tore into Hur’s suggestion that he had forgotten the day his son Beau died of brain cancer. He told reporters at the White House, “How in the hell dare he raise that. Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought to myself, ‘Wasn’t any of their damn business.’ I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”
Landrieu redirected the conversation to Biden’s conduct versus that of Trump’s. He said, “The most important thing to remember, though, is the president was found to have been engaged in no wrongdoing, unlike President Trump, who has 91 felony counts pending against him.”
“And, by the way, in all the depositions that President Trump has taken in those cases, it says he doesn’t remember or doesn’t know over 1,000 times. So this swooning over whether or not the president remembered the year that his son died and therefore is not fit to be president is just really sad, and below the belt, and unnecessary,” Landrieu continued.
Welker took the opportunity to clarify what Hur’s report found. She said, “Well, and just to be very clear, the report didn’t say he wasn’t engaged in any wrongdoing. In fact, it was quite firm in the fact that he mishandled classified documents. He just wasn’t indicted and criminally charged.”
Clearly frustrated, Landrieu interjected, “Well, wait, no. Kristen, wait. No, no, no, no, no, no, you can’t. No, no, no, I’m not going to accept that premise. In an investigation, a special counsel determined, based on the facts and the law, about whether somebody engaged in criminal wrongdoing.”
But, Landrieu noted, “He’s the only special counsel that’s been engaged in this kind of activity that had to say that he could not indict somebody. And that is a fact. And so that’s the big takeaway from this report, from a legal perspective.”
Welker consented, “Then, from a legal perspective, that is absolutely right. He said he was not going to indict,” to which Landrieu said, “Thank you.” The host then added, “Let me, though, ask this question, which is that the documents—” before Landrieu interjected, “Because he didn’t have the law or the facts to do it.”
After Walker clarified that Hur’s report said that national security “could have” been compromised by any mishandling of official documents by Biden, Landrieu insisted, “Well yes, but Kristen, he didn’t say, ‘National security,’ no ma’am. I’m sorry. He didn’t say, ‘National security was compromised.’”
Watch the entire interview in the video above.
