{"id":2264585,"date":"2024-06-11T05:03:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T09:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/raskin-accuses-house-gop-of-political-opportunism-ahead-of-contempt-vote\/"},"modified":"2024-06-11T05:06:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T09:06:11","slug":"raskin-accuses-house-gop-of-political-opportunism-ahead-of-contempt-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/raskin-accuses-house-gop-of-political-opportunism-ahead-of-contempt-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Raskin slams House GOP for &#8216;political opportunism&#8217; before contempt vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fraskin-accuses-house-gop-of-political-opportunism-ahead-of-contempt-vote%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2264585&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) \u200dcriticized House Republicans for their move to pass a\u2062 resolution holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, claiming it was motivated by &#8220;political opportunism.&#8221; A vote on the contempt charges is scheduled as early as Wednesday, which arises from accusations that Garland hindered the Republicans&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-lawmakers-inching-toward-a-bipartisan-impeachment-probe-against-andrew-cuomo\/\" title=\"New York Lawmakers \u2018Inching\u2019 Toward A Bipartisan Impeachment Probe Against Andrew Cuomo\">impeachment inquiry<\/a> \u2063by not providing access to audio recordings\u2064 of President Joe Biden&#8217;s interview with\u200c former special counsel Robert Hur.\u200d Despite the Department of Justice releasing the full transcripts of these interviews, Republicans argue that listening to the audio is \u200dcrucial to assess Biden\u2019s memory and the extent of Hur&#8217;s impartiality in his investigation concerning Biden&#8217;s handling of classified \u200cdocuments.<\/p>\n<p>Raskin, in an \u206418-page memo, emphasized that the \u2064audio would not provide any new \u2063evidence not already covered \u2063in the transcripts, \u2063and accused Republicans of looking for someone to blame due to the failure of their impeachment inquiry. House Republicans contend that the audio might contain &#8220;verbal nuances&#8221; that could suggest whether Biden abused his\u2062 office for \u2063personal gain. Raskin refuted this by calling the idea &#8220;ludicrous&#8221; and challenged the contradiction in Republican arguments regarding\u2063 the equivalence of the transcript and \u200bthe necessity of the audio.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) accused House Republicans of moving forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3008247\/contempt-congress-garland-hur-audio-house-gop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>with a resolution<\/a> to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress out of \u201cpolitical opportunism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The House is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3034239\/house-gop-jump-starts-push-garland-contempt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>set to vote<\/a> as soon as Wednesday on the contempt charges, which would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3007998\/speaker-johnson-chaotic-garland-contempt-hearing-regrettable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>refer Garland<\/a> for criminal prosecution to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia over allegations he impeded Republicans\u2019 impeachment inquiry by refusing access to audio recordings of President Joe Biden\u2019s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur. The Department of Justice has already published the full transcripts of those interviews, with Raskin arguing in an 18-page <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/741084356\/Democrat-Oversight-Memo-Re-Garland-Contempt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>memo<\/a> to Democratic committee members on Tuesday that listening to the recordings \u201cwill not change the content of these interviews.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDesperate to blame someone \u2014 anyone \u2014 for the utter failure of this impeachment inquiry, Republicans have contrived an allegation that Attorney General Merrick Garland has impeded their impeachment inquiry by preventing them from hearing President Biden\u2019s interview with Special Counsel Hur by withholding the audio recording,\u201d Raskin wrote. \u201cHearing the President\u2019s words rather than reading them \u2026 certainly will not reveal any new evidence of an impeachable offense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans on both the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, which advanced the contempt resolutions against Garland last month, insist the audio is necessary to assess Biden\u2019s state of memory and whether Hur, who was investigating the president\u2019s handling of classified documents, \u201cappropriately carried out justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hur decided not to charge Biden in February in part because he judged that a jury would find him to be an \u201celderly man with a poor memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raskin\u2019s memo echoes the White House in arguing the documents and materials subpoenaed by House Republicans in February, including the audio tapes, are unnecessary because they \u201calready know everything the President said in the interview.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Republicans argue the recordings could reveal \u201cverbal nuances\u201d in Biden\u2019s answers that may help determine whether he intentionally \u201cabused his office of public trust for his family\u2019s financial gain.\u201d Raskin called that idea \u201csimply ludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommittee Republicans appear to be claiming both (1) that the transcripts and audio recording contain the same information, such that by producing one, the White House has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-gop-prepares-alternative-paths-to-gain-hur-audio-if-garland-contempt-effort-fails\/\" title=\"House GOP plans backup routes for obtaining Hur audio if Garland contempt push falls through\">waived privilege<\/a> as to both,\u201d Raskin wrote in the memo, \u201cand (2) that they are different information, such that despite already having the transcript, the audio recordings contain \u2018evidence important to the Committee\u2019s inquiry\u2019 that somehow is not captured by the transcript.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contempt push comes after the White House cited executive privilege in deciding to block the audio release of Hur\u2019s interview with Biden at Garland\u2019s request, calling the decision \u201ca longstanding commitment to protecting the integrity, effectiveness, and independence of the Department of Justice\u201d and its investigations.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have accused the White House of blocking their release because it could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-rudy-giulianis-home-and-office-searched-by-federal-investigators-executing-search-warrant-lawyer-slams-legal-thuggery\/\" title=\"BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani\u2019s Home And Office Searched By Federal Investigators, Executing Search Warrant. Lawyer Slams \u2018Legal Thuggery\u2019\">prove politically damaging<\/a> in an election year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe American people will not be able to hear why prosecutors felt the president of the United States was, in special counsel Robert Hur\u2019s own words, an \u2018elderly man with a poor memory,\u2019 and thus shouldn\u2019t be charged,\u201d House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Raskin accused Republicans of pushing the contempt resolution forward as a way to distract from an impeachment inquiry into the Biden family that has stalled in recent months, with some centrist GOP lawmakers reluctant to impeach the president. <\/p>\n<p>Now, the ranking member argued, they are looking to use Garland as the scapegoat in case no articles of impeachment materialize. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRepublicans are desperate both to insinuate that some evidence against the President still remains to be uncovered and to claim that their 17-month impeachment effort failed to find any evidence of an impeachable offense because someone has withheld that evidence,\u201d Raskin wrote. \u201cAs such, Republicans have manufactured the allegation that Attorney General Garland has obstructed their impeachment inquiry by withholding the tape of President Biden\u2019s interview with Special Counsel Hur.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider the contempt resolutions on Tuesday, nearly a month after it advanced to the House floor. A vote by the full House would then be held as soon as Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Oversight Committee&#8217;s Jamie Raskin (D-MD) criticized House Republicans for advancing a resolution to charge Attorney General Merrick Garland with contempt of Congress, labeling it &#8220;political opportunism.&#8221; A House vote on the charges, potentially leading to Garland&#8217;s criminal prosecution, is scheduled for as early as Wednesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2640,"featured_media":2264586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24080640295292.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2264585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24080640295292.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2264585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2264585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2264585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2264586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2264585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2264585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2264585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}