WATCH: Reporter Asks If Biden Agrees With Durham Report on Thing Durham Report Didn’t Say
RCP White House Correspondent Philip Wegmann asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if President Joe Biden agrees with the Durham Report about something the Durham Report doesn’t actually say.
John Durham, the special counsel appointed by Trump Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the origins and conduct of the Trump/Russia investigation, released his report Monday to wildly disparate reactions in the conservative and non-conservative media. But most analysts agree there’s no “knockout punch” against the FBI, and most of the problems identified in it were remedied following an OIG report.
At Tuesday’s press briefing, Wegmann took a couple of cracks at getting a reaction to the report, including asking if Biden agrees “with Special Counsel Durham that there needs to be wholesale changes at the FBI?”
KJP had little to offer beyond reinforcing Biden’s belief in an independent DOJ:
PHILIP WEGMANN: Thank you, Karine. What is the White House reaction to Special Counsel Durham’s report on how the FBI handled the Trump-Russia probe?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I would leave it to the Department of Justice to speak to.
PHILIP WEGMANN: So the President talks often about how he wants the DOJ and FBI to remain independent and, you know, above the fray. That report seems to reflect the opposite. Is — does he agree with Special Counsel Durham that there needs to be wholesale changes at the FBI?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Again, that is with the Department of Justice. That’s not something that I’m going to speak from the podium.
As you just stated in your question, we believe in an independent Department of Justice. That’s what the President said when he was running. And that is what he — the President has said the last two years.
But not only does the Durhamm Report not recommend “wholesale changes,” it actually does the exact opposite of that:
This report does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies that the Department and the FBI now have in place to ensure proper conduct and accountability in how counterintelligence activities are carried out. Rather, it is intended to accurately describe the matters that fell under our review and to assist the Attorney General in determining how the Department and the FBI can do a better, more credible job in fulfilling its responsibilities, and in analyzing and responding to politically charged allegations in the future. Ultimately, of course, meeting those responsibilities comes down to the integrity of the people who take an oath to follow the guidelines and policies currently in place, guidelines that date from the time of Attorney General Levi and that are designed to ensure the rule of law is upheld. As such, the answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
