Jen Psaki Rolls Out String of Trump Gaffes To Torch Special Counsel Who Slammed Biden

 

MSNBC host and ex-Biden press secretary Jen Psaki rolled out a string of former President Donald Trump’s gaffes to torch special counsel Robert Hur as a poor excuse for a self-styled neurologist over his slams of President Joe Biden’s age and memory.

Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of sensitive documents dropped Thursday. The good news for Biden is there will be no charges against the president — but the bad news is the report is chock full of damaging asides about him and his memory.

Biden responded to the report Thursday night in a fiery press scrum, and other officials and allies have followed suit.

On Sunday’s edition of MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki, Psaki delivered a lengthy commentary acknowledging the concerns about Biden, but contrasting him favorable with Trump.

She also ripped the special counsel by wondering why “Dr. Hur” seemed to ignore a strong of Trump gaffes, playing a montage that didn;t even include a new batch from this weekend:

So, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the report from Special Counsel Robert Hur was a barrel of good news for the president. It wasn’t. And no reasonable person will tell you the report showing the president had classified information sitting in a cardboard box in his garage is a good thing. Obviously, it’s not.

In short, what Biden has been found to have done is sloppy. But as a Trump-appointed district attorney concluded, it was not criminal. And in the same report, Special Counsel Hur also had this to say.

After being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite. According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it.

Now in contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents, consented to the search of multiple locations, including his homes, sat for voluntary interview, and in other ways, cooperated with the investigation.

But this pretty clear contrast hasn’t been the focus at all in the aftermath of the report, at all, really. And that’s in large part because Robert Hur gave a big old gift to the Trump political team in his report as well.

I wasn’t aware that he was also a doctor, but he included this line, basically questioning the cognitive abilities of Joe Biden. And that has been the major focus of coverage about the Hur report.

Now, I’m also not going to sit here and pretend that the president is a young sprite. He isn’t. He would tell you he’s not either. He’s 81 years old.

It’s not a narrative. It’s a fact. And the constant questioning about his age is one of the biggest challenges that his campaign faces. They know that.

But let’s not forget who 81-year-old Joe Biden is running against, 77-year-old, not a sprite, Donald Trump.

Whoever you may wish was running, it is time to settle into the fact that there will be two baby boomers competing for the White House in November. That is what’s happening.

Now, after the special counsel’s report came out, the president held a news conference on Thursday night. And while he had some good moments, no doubt, as a side note, I’ve missed, too, our backs and forths there, Peter Doocy.

Making up Mexico and E — mixing up Mexico and Egypt in what otherwise was an interesting newsworthy answer about Netanyahu, which by the way, didn’t get much coverage, isn’t great either.

Look, President Biden makes gaffes. He has — he has for years. But if we’re going to pay the gaffe game, let’s play the gaffe game for a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we have a man who is totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country who is cognitively impaired. We would be in World War II really quickly if we’re going to be relying on this man.

A very big hello to a place where we’ve done very well, Sioux Falls. Thank you very much, Sioux Falls.

STATE SEN. BRAD ZAUN (R-IA): We’re in Sioux City, not Sioux Falls.

TRUMP: Oh, is that right?

So Sioux City.

We built almost 500 miles of wall. Even the Obama administration says it in their stats.

They were interviewing him two weeks ago and they said, what would you advise President Obama?

Obama dropped missiles and they ended up hitting a kindergarten. If that’s the case, he’s going to end up being indicted when he leaves office.

They report to the crowd on January 6th. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.

A lot of people saw those documents. They didn’t see the once we had. We had them locked up and we had Secret Service all the time because I was president all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

PSAKI: I wonder what Dr. Hur would have to say about all of that. Curious.

Well, the last one about being president all the time was not from a long time ago, it was actually just from yesterday. And we could keep going, believe me. We could fill an entire show, hours of shows.

But honestly, it’s beside the larger point because Trump gaffing is not even close to what the biggest risks of electing him are. And if we continue to focus on questions like who is the bigger gaffe machine, or what is the mental acuity difference between a 77-year-old and an 81-year-old, then we are all doing something very wrong.

That is not what this election is about, because in this election, one of the two candidates fomented an insurrection, didn’t lift a finger to stop an angry mob from his supporters from storming the Capitol, or step up to do anything when they were openly threatening to hang his very own vice president.

One of the two candidates in this race has bragged about assaulting women, defamed her, and was found liable of doing just that.

One of the two candidates in this race is openly threatening to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies.

One of the two candidates in this race is channeling Adolf Hitler, in some speeches.

And one of the two candidates just yesterday said that he would encourage Russia to attack our NATO allies. None of that is hyperbole, it’s all on tape.

So are we really going to make this election about who confuses states more frequently? What are we doing here?

Yes, the age stuff is on people’s minds. It is in the political ether. We shouldn’t live in denial about that.

It’s also self perpetuating, for the most part, by people who have never spent one second with Joe Biden. But we cannot let this become the dominant focus of this campaign, because that is not what this election is actually about.

Watch above via MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki.

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