House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) compared President Biden to former President Nixon over his handling of the special counsel tapes.
Last week, the president invoked executive privilege to block House Republicans from obtaining audio recordings of his interviews with special counsel Robert Hur about his handling of classified documents, after the files had been subpoenaed by the House Judiciary and Oversight committees
Comer, in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday, compared the move to Nixon’s refusal to release the tapes of recorded White House conversations relating to the cover-up of the break-in at the Watergate Hotel in the early 1970s.
“No difference in Joe Biden trying to hide these audio tapes and Richard Nixon trying to hide his audio tapes during the Watergate investigation. This should be something that should be readily available in a simple FOIA request,” Comer said.
In announcing it wouldn’t release the special counsel tapes, the White House argued the decision is due to Biden’s “commitment to protecting the integrity, effectiveness, and independence of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement investigations” and questioned the motives of the GOP.
Comer responded in a statement that, “Biden and his advisors fear releasing the audio recordings of his interview because it will again reaffirm to the American people that President Biden’s mental state is in decline” and argued his committee needs the recordings for its investigation into the president.
The transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur, which took place over two days in October, was released to House Republicans in March before Hur’s public testimony.
Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents declined to bring charges against him and described the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man” and described him as having memory problems.
