discredit the justice department and also how would you manage that? how are you resisting that? what can do about that as attorney general? attorney general garland: we have to go about our work following the federal principles of prosecution. we follow the facts and law. we screen out outside inappropriate influences. that's what we are doing here. we are protecting our ability to continue to do high profile and sensitive investigations. and we will continue to do that. reporter: mr. attorney general, it now seems vanishingly small that the two jack smith federal cases are going to begin trial let alone finish trial this year. what does that say about the pace of the justice system and confidence in this justice department? attorney general garland: the special counsel brought both cases last year. he appropriately requested speedy trials. the manner is now in the hands

of the judiciary. i can't comment any further. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy visit ncicap.org] >> the house judiciary committee is considering a resolution to hold the attorney general in contempt of congress for denying their request to get the audio reportings from the d.o.j. investigation into president biden and his handling of classified documents. we take you live now to the committee meeting under way. we are hearing from jeff van drew of new jersey. mr. van drew: this committee feels that it needs an audio transcript because the charges, the concerns are so serious. i want everybody to understand. we are either saying that our current president is in-- cognitively impaired, incompetent, unable to stand trial even though he broke the law so the department of justice decides that they won't go after

him for those reasons. if that's true, we need to hear the audiotape. you are going to be able to understand if he truly is that cognitively imparity. if -- impaired. if he truly has those problems. if he cannot deal with these issues. if he didn't know what he is doing. we are going to learn a lot more. by the way, if it's no big deal as the other side says because we have the transcripts, well, we do have the transcripts. why do you care so much about us getting the audio? what's the big deal? mr. nadler: gentleman yield for an answer? mr. van drew: i want to finish this first. we already have the transcripts. why don't we have the audio? we can find out whether he is in that much trouble. if the country is in that much trouble. this has nothing to do with what's going on in new york. this has to do with what's going on right here in the white house in washington, d.c., with this president. or if he is not cognitively

impaired, if he is with it, if he is capable then he broke the law as vice president and as a u.s. senator, not allowed to take these classified materials out, kept them in a garage by his home, next to a collapsed dog kennel. then used them. i want everybody to understand that. then used them, read them to his ghost writer to use in his multimillion dollar book deal. was he competent? did he know what he was doing when he made this deal and used these papers to make money on the presidency? that's what we need to know. that's why we are going through all this. it's got nothing to do with the other stuff. that's what we need to find out. mr. nadler: would the gentleman yield now? mr. van drew: i will in one moment. that's why we are having this discussion. because this committee has an oversight responsibility and needs to know that.

it's not only the committee. most importantly the american people need to know it. we need to know if we have an incompetent, incoherent president, or if we have a president that is being held to the two tier systems of justice again like they did for his son. justice for thee not for me. the american people who are watching and listening to this don't have those opportunities. but he keeps getting them over and over again. which is it? i know it's a bad spot for you folks. i get it. it's a really uncomfortable place to be. but we need to find out the truth. i yield -- actually, yeah. i yield to you. mr. nadler: thank you. i want to comment the following. special prosecutor decided that there was no reason to prosecute for his own good reasons. he stated them in his report. he made what i regard is a gratuitous smear of the president by his comment on cognitively impairment.

we will see, we don't need the transcript to see if the president's nothing -- cognitively imprepared. the people can decide if he is. whether his opponent s they are going to see plenty of evidence of that in the debates and in the campaign. we don't need the transcript to know whether the president is cognitively impaired or not. the evidence will be before the american people. i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. van drew: reclaiming my time. this doesn't have anything to do with the debates. i get t i know everybody will enjoy them. me included. this has to do with the actions that took place regarding classified materials. either as the special prosecutor said, he is cognitively impaired and unfit for trial, or he knowingly did this and made money off of it. i yield back to mr. nehls. i think he yielded to me. chair jordan: the chair

recognizes the gentleman from georgia. mr. john: thank you, mr. chairman. this hearing is a continuation of what this congress has been about under republican authority since january 3, 2023. we started out trying to elect a speaker. it took i think 19 ballots before this congress back in 2023, january, was able to elect a speaker. and then that speaker presided over what is agreed upon by most people who are observing this committee's functions as -- this congress' functions. this has been the least productive congress in the history of the country. many are arguing.

my friends on the other side of the aisle on this committee are a part of that. they have spent $20 million investigating president trump. this committee. this committee alone has spent $20 million during this 118 session of congress, which began in january of 2023. investigating president biden. they suffered the indignity of their leader, former president trump, being indicted for withholding classified documents. that indictment was in july of 2023. during the height of this do-nothing congress. not long before this congress expelled the speaker, it took so

long to elect in january, they put him out in october. and then we went for three weeks while even people on this committee were vying for the speakership, it took three weeks and ran through a number of candidates before this congress elected mike johnson as its speaker, formerly of this committee. he has not faired much better. neither has the house under his reign. still nothing accomplished. we get to this point now where after spending $20 million this committee has absolutely nothing to show for it. they tried to pin a classified documents case on president biden. they had a special counsel.

special counsel herr -- hur, who spent a lot of money investigating, couldn't find a thing, had to write a report that cleared the president from illegally withholding classified documents. and then he was summoned to this committee to deliver the findings of his report, which included a derogatory reference to president biden being -- having a loss of memory, disparaging him. that was the only thing that republicans could get out of hur's report. and so they made hey -- hay of that for a while. that went away. and now it has come back. we are seeking to hold the

attorney general in contempt of this committee for refusing to produce an audio file when you already have the voluminous document, the entire unredacted hur report. the transcript of the interview with the president. even talking to the president's ghost writer it was an exhaustive investigation. the only thing we can do now is come up with additional information to show that biden is cognitively impaired. that's what this committee is trying to do today, according to my friend from new jersey, get the evidence that biden is cognitively impaired. so this is political. it's a do-nothing congress. it's the product of a do-nothing committee. the american people deserve more. and they are seeing what's

happening. i think they are going to sweep this committee out of its perch and the democrats will be back in control so that we can do the work that the american people need us to do to keep them safe and to make sure that costs are down, make sure that our economy is humming along, jobs. rebuilding america. that's what this committee needs to be about. not a fishing expedition trying to show this president is cognitively impaired. with that i yield back. chair jordan: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chair. i mean a lot of us say it here what we listened to the special counsel i think respond to many questions that day sitting right there in front of us. mr. fitzgerald: i began to wonder kind of what were the

conversations behind closed doors. what were the discussions amongst the attorneys on how are we ever going to dismiss the idea that the president of the united states holding substantial positions within our government and absolutely secured on his own person sensitive documents. then was able to take them back to his residence, move boxes of them to offices in multiple locations. obviously willingly and knowingly mishandling secret sensitive u.s. government documents and just dismiss this? there had to be a conversation

with special counsel behind closed doors about, well, let's see, they just did a raid on the former president's home in florida. lights going. securing specific areas of that residence. and really kind of ransacking the place. and now we find out, you know, probably, you know, a little bit of orchestration on what they wanted those documents to look like when the photos were taken. but i can't imagine what the special counsel and his assistants were trying to dismiss by simply saying that the president, he's not all there. you know. we have seen it on tv. we see it every day now. he's completely incompetent. from handling a simple press

conference. so that became their way out. that became what they thought could justify letting him off the hook. and i'm not sure where that would have gone as a criminal prosecution. none of us are ever going to know that. my own personal opinion is that hur blew it. because he's the one who set up this juxtaposition of the president of the united states, who by the way, disagreed to two president -- just agreed to two presidential debates. at the same time we are supposed to believe that, you know, you had a few boxes in the garage, and he lost track of them. he's just not up to standing trial for this. he's just not up to actually having an attorney ask him poignant questions about what he was doing with the documents. and was he aware what was in

those boxes that he had all over the place. now today we get a letter from mr. siscal, again i wonder what was going on behind closed doors at the white house yesterday, in the discussions on how are we now going to make sure that we protect the president again from having to disclose anything of substance. and the paragraph that strikes me is, the absence of legitimate need for an audio recording lays bear your likely goal. now they are telling congress what our goals are in trying to secure evidence. that is to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes. ok, that's not part of our process, either, right? that you have to run for re-election.

so if something like this was actually utilized in that way, which that is not the committee's intent, but clearly one of the attorneys over at the white house dropped the ball when they wrote that paragraph. because it just went from us not being able to do oversight to now we have come up with a way that we are actually going to execute a little bit of a cover-up. we are going to move towards cover-up to make sure that the special counsel's conclusions are not questioned beyond what was done in this room when he was here a month ago. mr. chairman, this entire day is not only warranted, but the american people see what's going on here. we are not going to let donald trump, the other side of the aisle and the white house will

elect donald trump. i yield back. chair jordan: the chair recognizes the gentleman from california , mr. swalwell. mr. swalwell: nice to see some of my colleagues on the other side could make it today. don't know if that means there weren't enough courtroom in new york, but i know that the oversight committee canceled the hearing that was supposed to happen right now on this matter so they could be at the president's trial. if some members will miss this vote because they want to be at the president's trial. i don't think that anything could animate the phrase do-nothing congress more than missing votes and canceling hearings to go up and be spectator at your cult leader's trial. that is the definition of do-nothing congress. but i'm here for a celebration because raise a class, it's been about two years, two years this week, may 12 is when jim jordan, our chairman, was subpoenaed and asked to comply with his subpoena for his role, his interaction with the former

president, on the january 6 attack of the capitol. so we are now 735 days in. it's two years. and this committee has the nerve, this committee has the tell merit to speak -- tell merit -- temerity to seek khraoeupbs from the attorney general. i think you should not be able to bring any subpoena of another person if you are out of compliance with your own subpoena. that seems to make a lot of sense to me. we'll have an amendment to address that a little later. i want to talk about this particular effort to hold the attorney general in contempt because what is this really about? after all, it was donald trump's appointed prosecutor who, the attorney general deputized to be the special counsel here to look at president biden's handling of classified documents. it was donald trump's prosecutor who cleared president biden. he said, there is nothing to see

here. in fact, although he did not put it in the lead memo for his report, there was an exchange that he acknowledged in the interview with president biden where the special counsel told the president, your recall is photo graphic. he didn't say your recall is good. he didn't say your recall is decent. the special counsel said your recall is photo graphic. so what is this really about? this is about you all not accepting the outcome of the 2020 election. you rooted on the rioters as they sought to attack the capitol on january 6. if that wasn't enough, you all went back to the floor and relitigated the issues that brought the rioters to the capitol just eight hours later. many of you go and visit the convicted criminals who asoughted the police off -- assault the the police officer,

at the jail cells, during the police week, as a bunch of officers yesterday testified in the homeland security hearing those officers are hearos, and those -- heroes, those rioters are criminals, you call them hostages. the former president calls them hostages. this is entirely about not accepting the outcome of the january 6 vote here, rooting on the rioters, and doing everything you can to try and affect the outcome of the upcoming election. so then i thought to myself, is there a parallel? is there another investigation where your side was completely incurious about what that investigation yielded? turns out there was. turns out it happened recently. turns out somebody on your side was investigated for sex trafficking. you are going to say he was cleared. weighs cleared. they dropped the charges. yes. the biden attorney general dropped the charges. didn't pursue. didn't bring charges.

that's exactly what happened with president biden. you all have shown no interest to go to the attorney general and say, well, we want to learn more. we want to see the notes and the audio recordings and the evidence of our own colleague's sex trafficking investigation. not a peep from any one of you. so if you wanted to do that, if you wanted to show just a little bit of consistency, i would be willing to entertain that you have a genuine interest in understanding what happened in that hearing. but that's not what this is about. this is about doing everything to help donald trump who you see as your client, who a new york criminal trial sees as a defendant, to help him win an election. i have no interest in playing this game. the american people have no interest in playing this game. all this does for those of you who have graced us with your presence, an mates -- anna mates it's a complete shall -- annie

mates it's a completely do nothing congress. i yield back. chair jordan: the gentleman from texas is recognized >> i yield to the gentleman from california > i'll be brief before my colleague from california leaves. mr. issa: i have been on this committee long enough to know why we mark up contempt this committee and the committee that he referred oversight, we have held people in contempt for not doing things. this committee successfully held in contempt the chief counsel to the president under george w. bush for not showing up. we next door held in contempt eric holder for withholding information that he said he had 200-some pages ultimately over 10,000 pages turned out to be delivered. what's interesting and very similar is the president's old boss, president obama, claimed executive privilege on exactly the day we were about to do this. and ultimately none of those 10,000 pages stood the test under a judge appointed by

president obama for executive privilege. so the false claim of executive privilege today is just as much a ruse as it was under president obama. that's the piece of history that i hope my colleagues will observe as we hold this attorney general in contempt. i thank the gentleman for yielding. >> i thank the gentleman. i would note that my colleagues are decrying the fact that some of our colleagues are in new york. remember what's happening in new york. we have a clear sham trial being perpetrated by a judge with clear bias. mr. roy: we have a situation where the entire thing relies on michael cohen, who -- to say the least is a convicted felon, has been disbarred. pled guilty to perjury and various financial crimes. the judge, his own daughter, is a known democrat political operative. has clients, including some of our democratic colleagues, i

think even on this committee, including some democratic colleagues who are advising michael cohen at this particular moment, all of that is occurring at a time when calling michael cohen when they could bring forward allen -- alan but for some reason they are not bringing him forward. which one could guess because it wouldn't help. the fact is this is all playing out while bootstrapping a federal law into a state crime to navigate statutes of limitations. it's ridiculous. it's absurd what we are seeing unfold with our system of justice. politicization of it. now here we sit. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't like that we simply want to see the best evidence available, when in fact, it is not, as one of my colleagues talked about, try to effectively get a second stab at criminal proceedings. this is an impeachment inquiry. that is inherently not a criminal proceeding.

it is a unique function of congress under the constitution of the united states. and we are investigating very legitimate questions. conflicts of interest of the biden family. the significant amount of money that has flowed to the biden family. the extent to which the president has had material he's not supposed to have in his possession, which special counsel firmly pointed out. in fact in this committee testified to. and in fact the president and his lawyers have contested special counsel hur's assessment, but the truth is, special counsel hur in this committee stood behind his sworn testimony. we've got evidence that we can see in transcripts, all we are pointing out is it is both an impeachment function and legislative function of this body to be able to use the power to be able to go to the department of justice, which is supposed to be overseen by us in the first place, by the way, and to say, we simply want to see

the best evidence because if you look in terms of the criminal proceeding, which is not an impeachment inquiry and not the legislative function, it is an independent, unique function, clearly what you saw from special counsel hur was a great deal of dependence on the demeanor of the president. an extraordinary amount of dependence in terms of his determination on whether to pursue charges depended on how he assessed the demeanor of the president of the united states. that's all this is about. it's not political. it's not about something that might show up later for political purposes. it is very much to the heart of whether or not what the president knew about the materials that he had which special counsel firmly acknowledges and wrote were illegal for him to possess. and the question is, what was his intent, and it is critically important for the purposes of

this body to determine where we are going to go with an impeachment inquiry or legislative inquiry to determine what the president's demeanor was during that interview. i yield back. chair jordan: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from virginia is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm disappointed -- move to strike the last word. i'm disappointed but not surprised that we are getting a letter from the white house citing executive privilege the day before the hearing. mr. cline: the day before the markup. as my colleague from california knows, who is the ranking member on the subcommittee that i chair, responsiveness and accountability to oversight, this is common behavior for this white house. wait until the last minute. and then throw either an excuse

or a few pages of documents that have been subpoenaed, much of which is publicly available, to us, to try and fend off exactly this. a contempt citation for failure to comply. it would be one thing if it were the subcommittee that i chaired, if would be one thing if it were documents subpoenaed at the department of health and human services or education or the f.t.c. about collusion with big tech. about the covid information that they tried to limit availability on the internet. there are so many different ways in which this administration has failed to be accountable, failed to be held accountable, and failed to provide the information that we have

requested that we are not surprised. but this is under an impeachment inquiry. last year we approved an impeachment inquiry in this body which heightens that standard. and actually increases the burden on the administration to show that there is some reason why they should not be providing this information. and executive privilege does no. we have a request for a recording. as was stated earlier. the white house doesn't get to decide how that information is provided, which transcript is better, which transcript is appropriate f we want one transcript, they give us that one. if we want the other one, they have to give us that one. this investigation is about whether the president willfully

retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice-presidency when he was a private citizen. that was a conclusion. then hur's investigation also concluded that vice president biden had, quote, strong motivations, unquote, to ignore the rules for properly handling classified materials. those strong motivations included, an advance of $8 million that biden had planned to receive for writing his memoir, a book he decided to write, quote, months before leaving office. why has the d.o.j. not sought to bring charges against the president for his actions both as vice president and private citizen? for one reason, special counsel hur noted in his report, although there wascy of evidence that biden had willfully object retained information. he wouldn't take it to a trial because president biden would appear seupl pa think thetic, elderly man with a poor memory.

hur knew that to make the $8 million book advance you would need reminders. many of those are classified. yet he shared them with his ghost writer. who holds no security clearance. as part of the impeachment inquiry in the judiciary committee's legislative oversight, the committee has sought information about among other things president biden's mishanding of classified information. --mishandling of classified information. the d.o.j. refuses to provide the committee with these recordings. and attorney general garland not only confirmed that this material has been turned over to the white house. he said this during the appropriations testimony. but failing to see democracy and allowing access to the recordings but not the judiciary and oversight committeeet. he rejected the notion the d.o.j. should release the

recordings and needed to remain confidential. at the time had no response as to how to provide the recordings to the white house as to how he provided the recordings to the white house. these recordings are important to our investigations because of the superior evidence that the transcripts -- the recordings provide because transcripts do not capture demeanor evidence. there is evidence that the white house has doctored official transcripts to hide a verbal slip-up from president biden already. if they are already doctoring official transcripts, we need the tapes. we need the tapes, and they have an obligation to provide them to us. i yield back. chair jordan: the gentleman yields back. the question occurs on the amendment offered by the gentleman from new york. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the noes have it. the amendment is not agreed to. roll call being requested. the clerk will call the roll.

>> mr. jordan. >> no. mr. jordan votes no. mr. issa. mr. gaetz. mr. biggs. mr. mcclintock. mr. mche chloroquine tock votes no. mr. tiffany, votes no. mr. massie. mr. massie votes no. mr. roy, mr. roy votes no. mr. bishop. mrs. spartz. mr. fitzgerald. mr. bentz. mr. bentz votes no. mr. cline. mr. cline votes no. mr. armstrong, mr. armstrong votes no. mr. gooden, mr. van drew. mr. van drew votes no. mr. nehls. mr. moore. mr. moore votes no. mr. kiley. mr. kiley votes no. ms. hageman. mrs. hageman votes no. mr. moran, mr. moran votes no. ms. lee. mr. hunt. mr. fry.

mr. nadler. mr. nadler votes aye. ms. lofgren. ms. jackson lee. mr. cohen. mr. johnson. mr. johnson votes aye. mr. schiff. mr. schiff votes aye. mr. swalwell. mr. swalwell clothes aye. mr. lieu. ms. jayapal. mr. correa. ms. scanlon. ms. scanlon votes aye. mr. neguse. mrs. mcbath. ms. dean. ms. dean votes aye. ms. escobar. ms. escobar votes aye. ms. ross. ms. bush. miss ivey. mr. ivey votes aye. ms. balint. mr. issa, you are not recorded. mr. issa votes no. mr. fitzgerald votes no.

mr. gooden votes no. mr. fry votes no. mr. chairman, there are eight ayes and 17 noes. chair jordan: the noes have t the amendment is not agreed to. the gentleman from georgia. mr. johnson: mr. chairman. i have an amendment at the desk. chair jordan: clerk will report. point of order reserved by the gentleman from california. >> amendment to the amendment gnat nature of -- chair jordan: objection to -- mr. johnson: i object, mr. chairman. >> amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to the committee report for the resolution recommending the house of representatives find

make b. garland in contempt of congress for a subpoena duly issued on buy the committee on the judiciary. offered by mr. johnson of georgia. on page 13, at the end of the second full paragraph insert. committee notes serious concerns about the competency of donald trump the weekend before the committee took up this contempt report in wildwood, new jersey. mr. trump praised fixial killer from silence of lands, the great great hani balance hrebgtor. congratulations to the late great hapb balance hrebgter. we have people being release food our country that we don't want. in quote, mr. trump also confused the chinese city of beijing with the governing body of taiwan. and confused jimmy connors with jimmy carter a last january mr. trump all i want about magnets is this. give me a glass of water let me drop it on the magnet. during a series of march campaign rallies, trump messed

up the country of argentina for a person telling the crowd, you know, argentina, great guy. he's a big trupl guy. i love him because he loves trump, anybody that loves me i like them. he claimed a poll called country the united stage and made a series of unintel hreupblible. binge, boom, unintelligiblement binge. this is not clear if mr. trump knows which of his political opponents he is running against. mr. trump has mixed up president joe biden and former president obama on at lease eight different occasions. he confused presidential candidate nikki haley with nancy pelosi. mr. trump also been confused with respect to foreign leaders. in october 2023, mr. trump referred to hungarian prime minister victor or ban as a great leader of turkey. and ability to serve another

term as president. chair jordan: the gentleman is recognized. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. chairman. this contempt report that is being considered today is chock-full of misleading references to president biden's age and his mental competency and throughout this hearing today i have heard the false allegations made that special counsel hurr found that biden was incompetent to stand trial. that is not what hur found. he simply questioned the president's memory. so let's not get it twisted. speaking of cognitive impairment, report that we are considering today conveniently omits serious evidence that the

standard-bearer for my friends on the other side of the aisle, donald trump, is the only candidate who shows any evidence of competency problems. just this past weekend in a speech in wildwood, new jersey, mr. trump bizarrely praised a fictional serial killer from cleanse of the lambs. the great great -- late great hapb balance hrebgter. he's a wonderful man. congratulations the late great hani balance hrebgter. we have great people here being release food our country. we don't want our country. we don't want in our country. hear it for yourself. play the tape. tape played. >> the late great hannibal is waoerpbdful man. president xi of china talking about beijing. they have ships circling. planes.

they remember doing anything. coy have pressed hillary harder. she broke up her phone. she broke them up. she acid washed it. all done by biden. jimmy connors -- jimmy connors he's also happy. congratulations. the great great hannibal, we have people being release food our country we don't want. come up here screaming like a hraoupb lunatic. mr. johnson: that sad display took place just this past weekend with the former president. he appeared to confuse the chinese city of beijing with the self-governing island of taiwan. a confused jimmy connors, a famous tennis player with jimmy carter, the 39th president -- >> would the gentleman yield? mr. johnson: i won't. this rant is not a singular event. last january at a rally in iowa,

mr. trump incoherently stated, quote, think of it, magnets. end quote. and now all i know about magnets is this, give me a class of water, let me drop it on the magnets, and that's the end of the magnets, end quote. during a series of march campaign rallies, trump mistook the country of argentina for a person. telling the crowd, quote, you know, argentina, great guy. he's a big trump guy. he loves trump. i love him because he loves trump. anybody that loves me i like them. end quote. he also claimed that a poll was a legislative bill and called our country the united stage. he made a sears of unintel lidgeable noises when describing himself. ding, boom, this is me. binge. it's not even clear if trump

knows which of his political opponents eagles running againss running against. mr. trump has mixed up joe biden and former president president obama on at least eight different occasions. he bizarrely mixed up presidential candidate nikki haley with former speaker pelosi inferring that ambassador haley was responsible for capitol security. he can't keep straight the names of world leaders. in october of 2023, mr. trump referred to hungarian prime minister victor orban as the quote, great leader of turkey. end quote. republicans are intellectually and morally dishonest to criticize president biden when their dear chosen leader donald trump presents with symptoms which are quite frankly scary. the american people can see through this republican charade.

this is just an ugly exercise to hurt president joe bidden -- biden. let's move on. i yield back. chair jordan: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized >> i wonder if the gentleman from the other side of the aisle is concerned that the additional aid that was voted on to go to taiwan would cause that island to tip over at any point in the future? mr. johnson: you know what i hope that the island of guam is floating on water and not on diesel fuel. that's the point i was making. i think that the gentleman might question my mental acuity, but we -- let's look at your leader. >> i would not. reclaiming my time. reclaiming my time. chair johnson: the time belongs to the gentleman from connecticut. mr. massie: i have the utmost respect for my colleague on the

other side of the aisle of the the point i want to make is sometimes we make statements tongue in cheek that we are metaphorically speaking. and that the president most certainly, in most of those cases, was doing that. as we all have. republican and democrat made statements that if they are taken out of context, seem indefensible or ungrounded, if you will. let me give an example. so the comment on the magnets. if you give me a glass of water let me drop it on the magnets. end of the magnets. i have heard the president, former president, talk about that. what he's talking about are electromagnets. there was a discussion about whether the katja puts on -- cat at that puts on aircraft carriers should be steam driven or electromagnetically driven. it is true that steam is more reliable. that water would not affect the

hoses. for instance, but they could -- saltwater could affect wires driving electromagnets. so i think it's disingenuous here to offer this and take many things out of context. to take things that were said tongue in cheek. to take things that were said on the campaign trail. and act as if they were meant to be taken literally. because we all, both sides of the aisle, have said things before that we are not meant -- that were not meant to be taken literally. chair jordan: would the gentleman yield? i thank the gentleman for kwraoeg. i think the point is well made. no human being has ever said everything exactly right. we all make mistakes, whatever. the fundamental question in front of us was the decision, was the decision not to prosecute consistent with the department of justice's commitment to impartial justice. that's the fundamental question. trump is -- president trump is getting prosecuted for a classified documents concern.

joe biden isn't. biden isn't because, this is what the special counsel said, he said, mr. biden's memory appeared to have significant limitations, both at the time he spoke in 2017 and as evidenced by their recorded conversations and today as evidenced by the recorded interview with our office. that's why we want the audiotape. president trump is the department being impartial? president trump is getting prosecuted. we know it's going on in miami. president biden isn't. he isn't because of that statement from the special counsel. that statement from the special counsel in light of the facts of the case. the elements of the crime have been met. mr. hur sat at that table and told us, joe biden knowingly kept classified information and knowingly disclosed classified information. special counsel told us in his report why joe biden did it. he said he had strong