This scenario might sound familiar.
Is President Joe Biden in legal trouble? Are current events reflecting poorly on Biden’s age, ability, or character?
Quick! Deflect by claiming that former President Donald Trump supposedly said this awful thing or did that awful thing, and then Biden will be completely exonerated of all wrongdoing he’s ever committed — ever.
Or at least, that seemed to be the thought process of New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler’s during Special Counsel Robert Hur’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
As seen in a video shared on the social media platform X, Nadler desperately tried to derail the proceedings on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents by playing clips demonstrating Trump’s supposed “cognitive decline.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler uses the Hur hearing to play a collection of clips showing Trum’s cognitive decline. Rep. Nadler said, “That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability. A man who is wholly unfit for office.” pic.twitter.com/dpXIqJs7lf
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 12, 2024
Nadler began, “And then, there is Donald Trump. What kind of man bungles not one, but dozens of opportunities to avoid criminal liability?”
Should Biden have been charged?
Blissfully unaware of how ludicrous his comments sounded in context, he pressed on, saying, “What must that say about his mental state?”
“Here, too,” he said, ready for his mic drop moment, “the record speaks for itself.”
He then leaned back in satisfaction as his lovingly prepared slideshow of Trump gaffes played for the committee — no doubt to the bewilderment of several of the people there.
Most of these clips consisted of Trump admitting he didn’t remember someone’s name, or bungling someone’s name, or failing to recall insignificant details from his presidency.
In other words, these clips Nadler clearly considers an epic takedown of the former president are just a compilation of memory lapses most of us struggle with on a daily basis.
And this series of clips ran for over a minute and a half.
After Nadler’s self-congratulatory slideshow ended, he resumed speaking, “That is a man who is incapable of avoiding criminal liability, a man who is wholly unfit for office, and a man who at the very least ought to think twice before accusing others of cognitive decline.”
That’s nice that you think that, Mr. Nadler, but what does that have to do with Biden hoarding classified documents in his rental home in Virginia?
How does playing a series of clips of Trump forgetting names or stumbling over words play at all into Biden’s guilt or innocence?
The hearing has nothing to do with Trump, and there was no reason for Nadler to use this hearing as a chance to vent his anger against the man.
Ironically, Nadler’s stunt works against Biden on the legal front.
Hur declined to prosecute Biden specifically because of his clear cognitive decline and memory problems: His memory was so bad that, despite willfully holding onto the documents, he wouldn’t be convicted by a jury.
Obviously, the prosecutors didn’t come to the same conclusion about Trump, otherwise he wouldn’t be facing the myriad of legal cases that he is.
Even if what Nadler said about Trump’s versus Biden’s memory is true (and anyone with working eyes and ears knows that it isn’t), that would then mean that Biden should face charges, too.
Not only was Nadler’s whole argument a gratuitous cheap shot against the evil “Orange Man,” but it ended up demonstrating the opposite of what he intended.
At the very least, Nadler did an admirable job of shooting himself in the foot.
