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Texas legislative committee to investigate cause of Panhandle wildfires

The panel of three lawmakers and two residents will also look at disaster preparedness.

Senate Republicans demand docs, info on illegal immigrant charged with Laken Riley’s murder

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee are pushing for documents, communications and other information about the illegal immigrant suspect accused in the murder of Georgia student Laken Riley. Lawmakers led by ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., are requesting additional information on Jose Antonio Ibarra – who is charged with the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed last month that Ibarra had been encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Sept. 8, 2022, after entering the country near El Paso and was “paroled and released for further processing.” WHITE HOUSE SAYS BIDEN ‘ABSOLUTELY DID NOT APOLOGIZE’ FOR CALLING LAKEN RILEY’S ALLEGED KILLER AN ‘ILLEGAL’  ICE also said Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year later, on Aug 31, 2023, and “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.” He was released before ICE could issue a detainer, the agency said. In its statement, ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Atlanta “encountered Ibarra pursuant to his arrest by the University of Georgia Police Department and being charged with murder and other crimes. ERO Atlanta lodged a detainer.”  Police have charged Ibarra with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another. The lawmakers say the death “raises serious questions about the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ability to effectively secure our homeland.”  “The failure to remove an individual who consistently demonstrated a clear disregard for U.S. laws, despite numerous opportunities to do so, highlights a risk to public safety and poses a threat to American lives,” they say. HOUSE HOMELAND GOP DEMANDS INFO FROM BIDEN ADMIN ON GEORGIA MURDER SUSPECT They are requesting documents including Ibarra’s A-File, communications between DHS agencies, documents related to detention space, his addresses, and communications with federal, state and local law enforcement. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an official told Fox News Digital last month that it cannot comment further than ICE’s statement on an ongoing criminal investigation, and that it responds to congressional correspondence via official channels. “This was a horrific and senseless crime, and the individual responsible must be prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law. Our hearts go out to Laken Riley’s family,” they say. President Biden also offered his condolences to Riley’s family at the State of the Union, but caused controversy among some Democrats by referring to her alleged murderer as an “illegal” – something he has since expressed regret for. “Lincoln Riley [sic],” he said during his State of the Union address, holding up a badge with her name on it. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal, that’s right.” “To her parents, I say: My heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand,” he said. 

Haiti crisis explained, as prime minister steps down

NewsFeed Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has announced he is stepping down, after gangs threatened a civil war if he returned to the country. Here’s a quick explainer on the crisis in Haiti. Published On 12 Mar 202412 Mar 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

UK Conservatives’ top donor Frank Hester spoke of hating ‘all Black women’

Opposition Labour Party blasts Frank Hester over remarks about Diane Abbott, who calls the comments ‘frightening’. The biggest donor to Britain’s governing Conservative Party has come under fire after he reportedly said looking at the country’s longest serving Black lawmaker made him “want to hate all Black women” and she “should be shot”. Frank Hester has given 10 million pounds ($12.8m) to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party in the past year, and the publication of his comments from 2019 prompted the opposition Labour Party to urge the Conservatives to return the donation. The Guardian newspaper quoted Hester as referring to Diane Abbott, who became the first Black woman to be elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom when she won a seat in 1987. “It’s like trying not to be racist, but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like, I hate, you just want to hate all Black women because she’s there, and I don’t hate all Black women at all, but I think she should be shot,” he was quoted as saying. Hester said in a statement that he “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. He said he abhors racism and had tried to apologise to Abbott. “Mr Hester has made clear that while he was rude, his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor the colour of her skin. He has since apologised,” a Conservative Party spokesperson said. Then-Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott addresses anti-Brexit voters in London on October 19, 2019 [File: Alberto Pezzali/AP Photo] “The comments about Diane Abbott are just abhorrent,” Labour leader Keir Starmer told ITV on Tuesday. “This apology this morning that is pretending that what was said wasn’t racist or anything to do with the fact she’s a woman, I don’t buy that I’m afraid, and I think that it’s time the Tory Party called it out and returned the money.” Abbott, 70, sits as an independent after being kicked out of the Labour Party caucus for comments that suggested Jewish and Irish people do not experience racism “all their lives”. Abbott issued a statement Tuesday saying Hester’s remarks were alarming for a public figure who is a visible presence in the community because she doesn’t have a car and regularly walks or takes the bus. “It is frightening,” Abbott said. “I am a single woman, and that makes me vulnerable anyway. But to hear someone talking like this is worrying.” Hester’s comments are likely to revive scrutiny of the Conservative Party and how it handles allegations of racism. Former party chairperson Lee Anderson was suspended after he refused to apologise for saying London’s first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, was under the control of “Islamists”. Senior Conservative lawmakers said Anderson’s comments were wrong but declined to say why or whether they were Islamophobic. Graham Stuart, a minister in Sunak’s government, was asked by reporters about Hester’s comments on Tuesday morning. He said they were unacceptable but refused to call them racist, telling Times Radio he did not like to “sit in judgement”. He said the party noted that Hester had said the comments made “half a decade ago” were not racist, and he told Sky News the party could not “cancel” people based on previous remarks. Anneliese Dodds, chairperson of the Labour Party, said it was vital that the party returns the donation. “Rishi Sunak has claimed that ‘words matter’ and he must know that holding on to that money would suggest the Conservatives condone these disturbing comments,” she said in a statement. “Sunak must return every penny.” Adblock test (Why?)

Jim Crow 2.0: As US elections near, new efforts to suppress Black votes.

In the days and months leading up to today’s presidential primary in Georgia, activists have been on the ground in African American neighborhoods across the state working to prevent a rollback of voter rights that they say harkens back to the Jim Crow era. After record voter turnout flipped the state from deep red to barely blue in the 2020 presidential elections, Georgia has become the epicentre of a GOP campaign to effectively deny African Americans’ access to the ballot box in the American South. Georgia’s Republican legislators passed a melange of laws in 2021 intended to restrict voting in the state, strengthening voter identification requirements for absentee balloting, reducing the availability of drop boxes, and expanding the legislature’s authority in elections. Mirroring arguments made by GOP operatives nationwide, Republicans in Georgia contend that the measures are necessary to combat voter fraud. But Democrats and voting rights experts have countered that there is no statistical evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the country, and that the reforms target African Americans who overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates and can therefore determine the outcome of elections when they turn out in large numbers, as was the case in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, said that Republican lawmakers across a wide swath of the former Confederacy have been redrawing the borders of election districts to favour their own party (often called “gerrymandering”), purging voters from the rolls and rewriting laws to effectively disenfranchise African Americans. Alabama’s House of Representatives last week approved legislation that would make it a felony for anyone in the state to receive help in filling out an absentee ballot from anyone who has not been designated by elections officials or is not a relative, or co-inhabitant. Under the proposal, anyone convicted of the crime could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison, on par with sentencing guidelines for manslaughter and statutory rape. And the Republican-controlled Mississippi legislature has repeatedly refused to repeal a Draconian provision in the state constitution, written in 1890, that disenfranchises anyone convicted of a catalogue of crimes that includes, car theft, robbery, perjury and receiving stolen goods. A woman holds a voting rights sign as demonstrators march through the streets of Winston-Salem, NC [File/Chuck Burton/AP Photo] White backlash Legal scholars and advocates have said that this wave of voter suppression is not isolated, but rather part of a broader white backlash that is animated, in large measure, by growing economic woes, and the feeling that people of colour – African Americans especially – are gaining ground and may soon surpass whites in terms of social status and economic prosperity. In this way, many academics have said, renewed efforts to suppress the Black vote are related to the mostly white rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021 in an effort to overturn the presidential election, and the litany of young, white gunmen who have waged racially motivated attacks in recent years on African American parishioners and shoppers. A peer-reviewed study published by the Brennan Center for Justice in 2022 found that the US is amid “an unprecedented wave of anti-voter legislation introduced and passed across the country.” Continuing the report’s author wrote, “In 2021, at least one bill with a provision restricting access to voting was introduced in the legislature of every state except Vermont. By early May of this year, nearly 400 restrictive bills had been introduced in legislatures nationwide,” representing a nearly seven-fold increase over 2020. “There is a true backlash towards Black and brown folks” Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation told Al Jazeera. “That makes it [this election year] very different … It’s a very toxic environment.” ‘Gaza will hurt if they don’t change course.’ Campbell and Albright said that their organisations have mounted massive “ground games” to offset the campaign of voter suppression, going door to door to educate and register voters, staffing phone banks, sending text messages and even touring Black neighbourhoods in the South by bus to shine a spotlight on the wide range of material deficits on the ground. Scholars have said that suppressing the African American vote, however, is not a bug but a feature of US democracy, dating back to the era known as Jim Crow. Mobs who set upon African American neighbourhoods in Atlanta in 1906, for example, did so as part of a campaign strategy devised by a gubernatorial candidate. The Atlanta riot was, in fact, informed by one in Wilmington, North Carolina eight years earlier when Democratic party operatives organised a coup to overthrow a populist political party that enjoyed broad support from Black male voters. Similarly, the GOP’s efforts today are motivated by political gain, Albright said, although he acknowledged that the Democratic party’s leadership can at times be its own worst enemy. Speaking of Black activists working to turn out the Black vote, he told Al Jazeera: “We get almost zero resources [from the Democratic National Committee]. They’ve got their favourite groups and white, male consultants. And Black groups end up contracting the same white consultants.” Moreover, he said that the GOP’s efforts to suppress the Black vote is only a part of the Democrats’ problems. “Young people don’t have much confidence with [Biden].” And noting the 100,000 Michigan voters who chose the “uncommitted” option in last month’s primary to protest Biden’s failure to stop Israel’s siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip and, increasingly, the West Bank, Campbell said of the Biden campaign: “Gaza will hurt if they don’t change course … Biden could lose the election.” Adblock test (Why?)

House GOP exposes ‘woke’ items in Biden’s $7.3 trillion budget

House Republicans are furious over “woke” programs President Biden wants to fund in his $7.3 trillion budget request. Biden released his 188-page proposal to fund the federal government on Monday. It lays out roughly $5 trillion in tax increases overall, which the White House said would be split evenly between corporations and the top 2% of earners. A new memo by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, highlighted billions aimed at green energy initiatives and equity programs. HOUSE LEADERS SMACK DOWN BIDEN’S $7.3 TRILLION SPENDING PLAN AIMED AT ‘PUSHING A LEFT-WING AGENDA’ The document pointed to $3 billion for the State Department to “advance gender equity and equality worldwide,” as well as $1.5 billion for the Transportation Security Administration’s “pay equity initiative.” It also mentioned $11 billion that Biden wants for the Department of Interior to “preserve the stories of the cultures and history across America.” On climate change, Biden is seeking $8 billion for his American Climate Corps, aimed at hiring 50,000 new staffers by 2031 to “mobilize a new, diverse generation of… climate resilience workers,” according to Arrington’s memo. LARRY KUDLOW: THE ECONOMY IS DEPRESSED The Texas Republican also flagged $10.6 billion that Biden wants for the Department of Energy to bolster “climate and clean energy research, development, demonstration and deployment programs” – a 12% increase from the previous year. Biden is also seeking $1.5 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights’ “environmental justice efforts,” as well as $500 million for the Green Climate Fund to “expand climate adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries,” the memo said. The president also requested $90 billion to expand access to free community college, even after pushback from both the House and Senate on his efforts to broadly forgive student debt. The U.S. national debt is currently just under $34.5 trillion, according to the latest data. SOARING DEFICITS TO PUSH PUBLICLY HELD DEBT TO RECORD LEVEL IN 4 YEARS CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Budgets are more than just numbers on a spreadsheet – they are a set of values and principles – and based on his FY25 budget, it is clear President Biden values a bigger, more radical, and more powerful federal government over the freedom, safety and economic security of his fellow Americans,” Arrington told Fox News Digital. The budget is largely symbolic and has virtually no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House.  However, it is a significant part of the president’s pitch to voters as he seeks to win another term in November. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Arrington’s memo.

North Carolina Republicans ‘frustrated’ over ‘lack of transparency’ at new migrant facility

FIRST ON FOX: The North Carolina Republican congressional delegation says it is “frustrated” by what it describes as a lack of transparency regarding the opening of a migrant facility in the state, arguing that they have been unable to get information about its operations. The lawmakers say in a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra that they were told on March 1 that the Greensboro Influx Care Facility, where unaccompanied minors will be housed before being transferred into the care of a sponsor, will be operational on March 15. The letter is led by Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and also includes the signatures of other North Carolina Republicans, including Sen. Thom Tillis, Rep. Virginia Foxx and Sen. Ted Budd. Unaccompanied children are typically moved from Border Patrol custody to HHS care when they are encountered at the southern border as they are moved through the country to be put into the care of sponsors. BIDEN ADMIN SIGNS FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT TO HOUSE MIGRANT KIDS AT FORMER NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL  “Our offices were notified late afternoon on Friday, March 1, 2024, despite repeated, outstanding requests for answers about plans for operationalizing the facility,” they write. “We are frustrated by this sudden announcement and the [HHS] lack of transparency to Congress and the State of North Carolina related to this issue.” They say they have requested information regarding site selection, contracts, services and plans to ensure the well-being of the minors, as well as the impact on surrounding areas.  Fox reported in 2022 that the administration had signed a five-year contract to begin leasing the site – an abandoned school. City officials at the time said the site was “about doing the right thing for these children.” But the lawmakers say there has been a lack of transparency in response to their queries. FBI DIRECTOR WARNS OF ‘VERY DANGEROUS THREATS’ AT BORDER, SMUGGLING NETWORK WITH ‘ISIS TIES’ “While we have continued to push for information about this facility, we have consistently faced significant delays in responses to our inquiries,” they say. “This delay and lack of transparency have left us with continued concerns about whether the facility is fit for operation,” they go on to say, adding that one concern is that the facility is being operationalized even while changing who contracts for services. Fox 8 reported that officials have said children will not immediately be housed there, despite it being operational. It reported that HHS has previously told officials in 2022 that arrivals will be given assessments, medical exams, daily education, counseling, case management, contact with family members and access to legal services. Fox News Digital reached out to HHS on the matter. The lawmakers’ letter comes amid furious debate over the three-year crisis at the southern border. The administration has said it needs more funding and comprehensive immigration reform from Congress, including a recent bipartisan Senate bill. Republicans have said it is the administration’s policies that have increased the number of migrants being encountered at the border. “It is unacceptable that the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies have resulted in a humanitarian crisis for migrants and the need for an ICF at all. We are particularly concerned about the need for a facility 2,000 miles away from the border in North Carolina,” they say, calling on the administration to “take action to secure our border and address the crisis of unaccompanied minor migration with real solutions.” Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

Hur testifies he ‘did identify evidence’ that ‘pride and money’ motivated Biden to retain classified records

Ex-Special Counsel Robert Hur agreed that he identified evidence that “pride and money” were “strong” motivating factors for President Biden to retain classified records, as the former vice president sought to keep materials to use for a memoir he wrote that brought him $8 million. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan questioned Hur during a public hearing Tuesday and asked him “why did Joe Biden, in your words, willfully retain and disclose classified material?”  HUR TESTIFIES BIDEN ‘WILLFULLY RETAINED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS,’ BUT PROSECUTORS ‘HAD TO CONSIDER’ MENTAL STATE “He knew the law. Been in office like 50 years, five decades in the United States Senate; chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; eight years as vice president; he got briefed every day as vice president; he’s been in the Situation Room,” Jordan said. “In fact you know he knew the rules because you said so on page 226.”  Jordan referred to Hur’s report, in which he stated that Biden “was deeply familiar with the measures taken to safeguard classified documents.”  When pressed on why Biden broke those rules, Hur replied that his “conclusion as to exactly why the president did what he did is not one that we explicitly address in the report.”  But Jordan pushed back.  “I think he did tell us,” Jordan said. “I think you told us, Mr. Hur. Page 231. You said this: ‘President Biden had strong motivations,’ that’s a key word. We’re getting to motive now. ‘President Biden had strong motivations to ignore the proper procedures for safeguarding the classified information in his notebooks.’”  BIDEN RETAINED RECORDS RELATED TO UKRAINE, CHINA; COMER DEMANDS ‘UNFETTERED ACCESS’ AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY “Why did he have strong motivations? Because, next word, because he decided months before leaving office to write a book,” Jordan said. “That was his motive. He knew the rules. He broke them because he was writing a book.”  Jordan reminded that Hur explained that Biden “began meeting with the ghostwriter” for that book while he was still vice president.  “There’s the motive,” Jordan said. “How much did President Biden get paid for his book.”  Hur noted that the figure is stated in the report, and replied: “It may be $8 million, if that’s accurate.”  “$8 million. Joe Biden had 8 million reasons to break the rules, took classified information, and shared it with the guy who was writing the book,” Jordan said. “He knew the rules, but he broke them big for $8 million in a book advance.”  Jordan, quoting Hur’s report, said Biden “viewed his notebooks as an irreplaceable, contemporaneous record of the most important moments of his vice presidency.”  “He’d written this all down for the book, for the $8 million,” Jordan said, further quoting Hur’s report which stated: “Such record would buttress his legacy as a world leader.”  Jordan said that the breaking of the rules “wasn’t just the money.”  “It was also his ego,” Jordan said. “Pride and money is why he knowingly violated the rules — the oldest motives in the book — pride and money.”  SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS BIDEN ‘SYMPATHETIC, WELL-MEANING, ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY,’ BRINGS NO CHARGES Jordan added: “You agree with that, Mr. Hur? You wrote it in your report.”  Hur replied: “That language does appear in the report. And we did identify evidence supporting those assessments.”  Hur’s report said that Biden risked “serious damage” to America’s national security when he shared the classified information with the ghostwriter of his book.  Hur testified that ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, had audio recordings of his conversations with Biden, in which the then-vice president read information from classified records.  BIDEN FUZZY ON DATES, FUMBLED DETAILS IN INTERVIEWS WITH SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR With those recordings, though, Hur testified that Zwonitzer “slid those files into his recycle bin on his computer” upon learning that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate the matter. Jordan asked if the ghostwriter tried to “destroy the evidence.”  “Correct,” Hur testified.  “The very guy who was helping Joe Biden get the $8 million, $8 million Joe Biden used — the motive for Joe Biden to to disclose classified information to retain classified information, which he definitely knew was against the law, When you get named special counsel, what’s that guy do? He destroys the evidence,” Jordan said. “That’s the key take away in my mind. That’s the key takeaway.” 

Kentucky House votes to decrease emergency safety measures in small coal mines

The Kentucky House voted Monday to allow the state’s smallest coal mining operations to reduce the number of miners with emergency medical training assigned for each underground shift. In a state once known as a coal producing powerhouse, supporters said the measure is needed to help keep the smallest mining operations in business amid the industry’s downturn. The bill’s critics warned it would roll back an important safeguard enacted years ago following a Kentucky mining fatality. “It truly troubles me to think that we could potentially be trading the safety of our coal mining families for what appears to be a nominal financial benefit, if anything at all,” said Democratic state Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty, who represents a coal-producing region in eastern Kentucky. KENTUCKY BILL TO CREATE FUTURE-ORIENTED ENERGY COMMISSION ADVANCES AS COAL POWER PLANTS CLOSE The measure — House Bill 85 — passed the House on a 75-18 vote and goes to the Senate next. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers. The bill would cut in half the number of mine emergency technicians required to work when a shift has 15 or fewer miners. Two METs are currently required per shift, but the bill would reduce it to one. Republican state Rep. Bill Wesley said his bill is motivated by instances when entire shifts were shut down and miners sent home because not enough METs showed up for work. “Nobody got paid,” Wesley said during the House debate. “Everyone was sent home. And I think that this is a needed bill to help all the coal miners.” Tackett Laferty said she spoke to a miner with more than 20 years of experience who recalled just one instance when a mine was shut down due to a lack of METs. He told her the entire shift was rescheduled a few days later to make up for the lost production, she said. Tony Oppegard, a mine safety attorney in Kentucky, has said the proposal would weaken safety standards. “I think it’s shortsighted and there’s an easy solution,” he said in a recent phone interview. “The easy solution is mine operators can require more of their miners to be METs as a condition of employment.” It would be an inexpensive option for coal operators, since METs generally are paid an extra $1 per hour, Oppegard said. With two METs per shift, the cost would be an extra $16 per shift, he said. “That’s pennies for a coal company,” he said. METs are miners trained to provide emergency medical care and to stabilize an injured miner’s condition. Oppegard said the requirement for two METs per shift was part of a larger safety measure passed by Kentucky lawmakers in 2007, and it stemmed from the 2005 death of an eastern Kentucky miner. A federal inspection report said the miner was hit by a coal hauler at a Harlan County mine. He suffered “near-amputating injuries.” The report said his injuries were made worse because he was not given first aid before he was taken above ground to an ambulance. The report said workers in the mine had not been trained in first aid. Tackett Laferty said the safeguard of having multiple METs on site isn’t what’s causing mines to close. The bill’s supporters include Republican Rep. Jim Gooch Jr., who represents a coal region in western Kentucky. Gooch comes from a coal mining family and previously worked in mines himself. He said the bill is a recognition of the realities for some operators with as few as 10 employees working a shift. KENTUCKY SENATE VOTES FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AS COAL INDUSTRY DECLINES “I don’t think it’s any threat to the safety of our miners,” he said. Under the bill, two METs would still be required for shifts with more than 15 but fewer than 51 miners. Coal employment numbers in Kentucky have fallen sharply over the last decade as demand for coal has declined. Kentucky employed about 4,700 mine workers at the end of 2023, including about 2,700 in underground mines, compared to nearly 12,000 total miners in 2013, according to numbers provided by the state. Cheaper natural gas prices and tougher environmental regulations have prompted electric providers to move away from buying coal.

Hur testifies Biden ‘willfully retained classified materials,’ but prosecutors ‘had to consider’ mental state

Ex-Special Counsel Robert Hur testified Tuesday that President Biden “willfully retained classified materials,” but said he “had to consider” the president’s “memory and overall mental state” when determining whether to bring charges against him. Hur, who testified publicly before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees Tuesday, explained that he did not bring charges against the president despite the willful retention of classified records about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” BIDEN RETAINED RECORDS RELATED TO UKRAINE, CHINA; COMER DEMANDS ‘UNFETTERED ACCESS’ AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY “My team and I conducted a thorough, independent investigation,” Hur testified. “We identified evidence that the President willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency, when he was a private citizen.”  “This evidence included an audiorecorded conversation during which Mr. Biden told his ghostwriter that he had ‘just found all the classified stuff downstairs.’ When Mr. Biden said this, he was a private citizen speaking to his ghostwriter in his private rental home in Virginia,” Hur continued. “We also identified other recorded conversations during which Mr. Biden read classified information aloud to his ghostwriter.” He added, though, that “we did not, however, identify evidence that rose to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Because the evidence fell short of that standard, I declined to recommend criminal charges against Mr. Biden.”  But Hur said he “needed to explain why” he declined prosecution.  “I had to consider the president’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial,” Hur testified. “These are the types of issues prosecutors analyze every day. And because these issues were important to my ultimate decision, I had to include a discussion of them in my report to the attorney general.” SPECIAL COUNSEL CALLS BIDEN ‘SYMPATHETIC, WELL-MEANING, ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY,’ BRINGS NO CHARGES Hur, in his report, described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” — a description that has raised significant concerns for Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign. “The evidence and the President himself put his memory squarely at issue. We interviewed the President and asked him about his recorded statement, ‘I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.’ He told us that he didn’t remember saying that to his ghostwriter,” Hur said. “He also said he didn’t remember finding any classified material in his home after his vice presidency. And he didn’t remember anything about how classified documents about Afghanistan made their way into his garage.”  Hur defended himself, though, saying his assessment in the report “about the relevance of the President’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair.”  “Most importantly, what I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe. I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly,” Hur testified. “I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do.”  Hur’s opening statement came after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan began the hearing by playing a video of Biden speaking about the former special counsel’s report the day it was released.  “Mr. Hur produced a 345-page report. But in the end, it boils down to a few key facts. Joe Biden kept classified information,” Jordan said. “Joe Biden failed to properly secure classified information. And Joe Biden shared classified information with people he wasn’t supposed to.  “We’re going to play a short video of President Biden’s press conference after your report was released,” Jordan added. “Because there’s things in this press conference that the United States says that are directly contradicted by what you found in your report.”  A transcript of President Biden’s interviews with Robert Hur appears to contradict Biden’s claim that the former Special Counsel had asked him about the date of Beau Biden’s death.  BIDEN FUZZY ON DATES, FUMBLED DETAILS IN INTERVIEWS WITH SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR But Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., blasted former President Trump — who was charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith related to his alleged mishandling of classified records. Trump pleaded not guilty.  The former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee posted on Truth Social before Hur’s testimony, saying the Justice Department gave Biden a “free pass.”  “Big day in Congress for the Biden Documents Hoax,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “He had many times more documents, including classified documents, than I, or any other president, had. He had them all over the place, with ZERO supervision or security. He does NOT come under the Presidential Records Act, I DO.” “The DOJ gave Biden, and virtually every other person and President, a free pass. Me, I’m still fighting!!!” Trump added. Trump, on the other hand, was charged out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation related to his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith’s probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.  Nadler played a video of clips of Trump speaking, putting into question his “mental state.”  “That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability. A man who is wholly unfit for office… a man who, at the very least ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline,” Nadler said of Trump, adding that Hur’s report “represents the complete and total exoneration of President Biden.”  Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., in his opening statement reminded that his panel has subpoenaed ex-White House counsel Dana Remus, and tied Hur’s testimony into the larger House impeachment inquiry against the president.  Comer, for months, has been demanding answers on whether the classified records Biden improperly retained were related to countries that his family did business with.  House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., though, piggy-backed Nadler’s opening statement, bringing the conversation