For your Extra Credit this week, I chose to spend time in the MTP classroom, where What's-his-name talked with former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). We'll start with the senator.
The Biden document issue was front and center. WHN asked if the White House, by not coming clean right away, puts Dems in a tough spot of "not knowing what to defend and what not to defend." Stabenow didn't have an issue here, and she made a distinction between what's happening now and what happened with former president Trump.
They take it very, very seriously. And they're talking to all of the right people. They're not going to defy subpoenas or require FBI raids to be able to get the documents. The president isn't saying that somehow magically when he thinks about classified documents that he can declassify them. I mean, it's totally different right now. Both serious in terms of having classified documents. But the president is doing the right thing.
Stabenow said it was "certainly embarrassing" that they found a "small number of documents, certainly not on purpose," but reiterated they're working with DOJ and the National Archives to correct it. And, she said, her concern is the "chaos" the Rs love to create.
Let's not talk about the fact that we have a manufacturing renaissance going on in this country. More jobs created, lower unemployment rate, higher wages. And what they're proposing to do that would interfere with that would really put us on the edge economically. They don't want to talk with us about how to move the country forward. And I can tell you people in Michigan, they want folks that are going together, get things done, that care about their families and aren't interested in all of this just chaos and investigations. Which is where the Republicans feel comfortable, unfortunately.
WHN wondered if there were any issues Stabenow wanted to work on, now that she's free from the political pressures of reelection. She said she'll continue working across the aisle, as she has "on issue after issue." She pointed to the upcoming five-year farm bill, which has bipartisan support, and said it's about more than just farms.
It's the largest investment we make in land and water conservation for the country. And so that's incredibly important. And frankly, we need workers. And one of the things we need to do is comprehensive immigration reform so that our farmers have access to a legal system for their workers.
The next question - whether Dems should support Kyrsten Sinema's reelection bid - seemed to come out of left field. Stabenow said she and Sinema have worked together, including on gun safety and mental health, but said "we'll let that play out a bit," and that "it's very, very early" to be talking about that.
Stabenow says she finds it interesting that so many people think that Washington DC and Congress are 'broken.' Even given "all the division and chaos and everything that's happening and trying to pull the country apart, (to) stop us from governing,"
we actually, in the last two years with a 50/50 Senate, you don't get closer than 50/50 in the United States Senate, Democratic House and President Biden got more done than at any time, literally in our lifetimes. And that's not an exaggeration.
She believes the reason the Dems gained a seat in the midterms, and why they'll keep the majority in 2024 "is because we are actually focusing on the things that people care about."
During his interview, WHN reminded Rosenstein he probably wouldn't have appointed a special counsel to look into Trump's document problem; he asked about one being appointed to look into Biden's issue.
Rosenstein said AG Merrick Garland didn't really have a choice, unless the preliminary inquiry established that "there was no chance a crime had been committed." He said "that wasn't the case," based on what we know so far. He said Jack Smith and Rob Hur, the two special counsels, will look at the facts and the law, and make recommendations accordingly.
...these are two professionals who spent extended amounts of time in the Department of Justice. They understand that their goal is to focus on the facts, and law, and apply department policy. And both of these men are not going to be influenced by political pressure.
They won't be influenced, but they will be attacked.
It's certainly true of these gentlemen, as it was with people like Ken Starr and Bob Mueller, that you pick people with sterling reputations who are known for being nonpartisan. But you're in the political arena where it's inevitable you're going to be attacked.
They discussed issues with the two cases, including the question of whether Biden knew about the documents that were found. Rosenstein said if he were running the investigation, it "would be a logical step" to request an interview with the president.
Rosenstein said a decision on charging President Biden is not up to the special counsel. Hur will make recommendations
taking into consideration the facts, the law, and DOJ policy, but the decision
on indictments to Garland. He also said that it's not the DOJ's
responsibility to make public announcements about things like this; that
decision "would be left to the president and the White House."
Two final points:
- DOJ should accommodate any Congressional requests they can, but they shouldn't "turn over anything that's going to in any way interfere with" an investigation.
- We need to separate Hunter Biden from President Biden. "We don't know whether that Hunter Biden (investigation) implicates the president in any wrongdoing. If it did, I think Merrick Garland would need to make that decision (to appoint a special counsel). But as long as it's just about Hunter Biden, I don't think that decision point will be reached."
That last point is for the folks in the booth in the corner in the dark in the back.
See you around campus.
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