Former assistant US Attorney and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig might have had the most grounded take on CNN concerning Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Joe Biden’s classified document fiasco. The night this report was released—February 8—it was Honig who offered a more somber take, notably how Biden came to the water’s edge regarding criminal charges and how the president willfully retained classified materials and lied to the American people about it. He elaborated more about this in an article for the Intelligencer while painstakingly stating that Donald Trump’s classified document scandal is worse than the president leaving classified materials in multiple locations.
He is fair in one regard: he noted that Hur had to point out Biden’s cognitive issues per department policy. He may disagree with the language, but Honig also said that if Democrats are mad about this report, they must be equally appalled at the Robert Mueller report, which was brutal toward then-President Trump but carried no charges. I’m not holding my breath, so the hubbub over the passages about Biden’s memory is an act. The CNN analyst does include his reasons for why Biden willfully took classified materials on national security—and it involves Joe Biden.