– Examining the Hur Report

We met at nine, we met at eight, I was on time, no, you were late Ah, yes, I remember it well…Maurice Chavalier, Hermione Gingold, I Remember It Well

The classic duet quoted above is charming, as a woman continually corrects the faulty memory of her lover with tenderness and affection. But less than charming is the declining mental health of President Joe Biden, which is obvious to anyone with eyes to see him fall, and ears to hear him shout in anger and forget what he was saying. Obvious, that is – unless you’re a Democrat.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (called) Biden “sharp”, according to NBC News. “’The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail-oriented and focused,’ Mayorkas told Meet the Press.” The Hill reports these comments from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; “I’ve worked with the president for a long time…and he knows … I mean, he’s always on the ball…[a]nyone who would think that they’re at some advantage because of his age thinks that at their peril, because he’s very sharp.”

Then there are the assessments of Biden’s allies in Congress; “Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, told DailyMail.com that Biden ‘is as sharp as ever.’ ‘The president is doing an incredible job, and I look forward to making sure he gets re-elected in 2024,’ Sen. RaphaelWarnock, D-Ga., added. Another Democrat ElizabethWarren agreed, saying said. ‘I know his ability to do the job because he is doing the job. He is delivering every single day for the American people.’ ”

While Warnock and Warren do not directly address Biden’s mental abilities in their comments, the implication is the same as the more direct statements of Mayorkas, Pelosi and Blumenthal – don’t believe your lying eyes!

Meanwhile, the American public displays increasing recognition that the Emperor has no clothes. “Three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, say they have concerns about President Joe Biden’s mental and physical health, according to the latest national NBC News poll... [i]n the new poll, a combined 76% of voters say they have major concerns (62%) or moderate concerns (14%) about Biden’s not having the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term…[b]y party, 95% of Republican voters, 81% of independents and 54% of Democrats say they have major or moderate concerns about Biden’s fitness for a second term.”

As if these poll results were not bad enough news for Biden, along comes the long-anticipated report from Special Prosecutor Robert Hur to throw gasoline on the fire.

You may recall from our article published at usagovpolicy.com in January of 2023, Biden’s Garage of Secrets, not long after the raid on Mar a Lago and the FBI’s seizure of classified documents from the home of former President Donald Trump, current President Biden’s attorney’s revealed that classified documents were also recovered from Joe Biden’s Wilmington, DE home and the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania. These documents dated back to the time before Biden was President, some dating back to his time as a Senator.

As we describe in Chapter 4 of my new book, The Making of a Martyr: An Analysis of the Indictments of Donald Trump, “On January 12, 2023, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur, to investigate ‘the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the Wilmington, Delaware, private residence of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’ Hur is the former US Attorney for Maryland, and according to the Associated Press, ‘Hur was principal associate attorney general under (Rod) Rosenstein at the Justice Department. Hur is also a former partner at the Washington law firm King & Spalding, where FBI Director Christopher Wray was once also a partner.’

We also noted that “[i]t wasn’t until October of 2023 that Hur interviewed the current President in person, a move which PBS believes ‘could signal that the special counsel investigation is nearing its conclusion.’In fact, according to former federal prosecutor Jonathan Turley, ‘[u]nlike his counterpart, Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has been aggressively prosecuting former president Donald Trump, Hur has virtually disappeared since his appointment to investigate President Joe Biden.'”

Judge Wilson’s (ret.) Report concludes tomorrow

Quick Analysis

China’s Tech Targets

Chinese technology is changing and its leadership is using it, along with espionage, to challenge the West in a number of critical areas. The United States is only one of its targets. Previously, Beijing’s spies primarily sought Western technologies as a way to skip generations of develop cost and time to modernize its economy. Today, its acquisition of advanced technologies, and now also its indigenous development, makes the communist giant a threat to freedom-loving people everywhere. This week Nan Mulchandani, the CIA’s chief technology officer, said Director William Burns is preparing for an “infinite race” with Beijing for artificial intelligence and advanced technologies. He argues the US must pivot toward providing American spies with the latest transformative technologies to outcompete China. Mulchandani says this means updating everything the agency does “from operations to the analytic function, support functions and other piece there.” America, he suggests, needs to alter its thinking toward viewing this not as a race with a finite end point, but as an ongoing competition. Mr. Mulchandani predicted that the next area of competition would “be primarily a software war that is powered by something like AI” rather than hardware fueled by software. That competition, however, is not confined to simply acquiring critical technologies for use in the future. China is also challenging the US in space. China announced today it launched a groundbreaking mission to retrieve samples from the far side of the moon. The space capsule will arrive in four days and collect 4.4 pounds of moon rocks and regolith, or moon dirt. Beijing’s desire to one day become a space power and scientific force is for pragmatic purposes in 2024 a fait accompli. Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said during a NASA budget hearing this week, that “while the US remains the global leader in space exploration, we face increasing challenges internationally.” Referring to China’s space station, Lucas said: “We cannot allow China to become the front-runner in space exploration… There are too many consequences for our competitiveness, our national security, and our continued ability to explore space.” A new report released this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says that the United States, to further its geopolitical interests and maintain a strong domestic economy, must approach every aspect of economic and trade policy through the lens of global technology competition. The Biden Administration’s approach, it says, discounts the landscape of competition between China and the US and may “jeopardize US advancements in emerging technologies… which could cede the advantage to China….” In particular, the report recommends that the US take action now because quantum and artificial intelligence (AI) need a federal policy to ensure the country can spur the entrepreneurship and R&D efforts foundational to the strength of the technology sector. As China’s Communist Party (CCP) becomes more hostile to the United States and other Western nations, its aggressive activities abroad expand and intensify. Chinese spy cases far outnumber those of Russia and every other nation. CSIS reports that since President Xi took over in 2012 there have been 224 incidents of spying. Estimates of the long -term economic, scientific, and national security cost to the US run into the billions and have “created immeasurable damage to national security with the theft of weapons technology, including nuclear weapons test data… China has added the theft of massive quantities of personal information, political coercion, and influence operations, to its espionage activities.” The CSIS reports says that 49% of incidents of spying in the US directly involved Chinese military or government employees, with private Chinese citizens accounted for 41%. In 29% of the espionage cases the person involved was attempting to acquire military technology, while in 54% of the incidents it was related to commercial technologies. Almost half of the cases involved cyber espionage, usually by state—affiliated actors. No matter where one turns today China is challenging the West, from the depths of our oceans to outer space. The United States cannot count on China to be a good global citizen and refrain from attempting to enforce its vision of world order with Beijing at the apex. The time is growing short for the West to take action. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.