Democrats, media run with criticism of 'gratuitous' language in reaction to Special Counsel report
President Biden's allies and media pundits have repeatedly described Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on the president's handling of classified documents as "gratuitous."
President Biden's administration as well as media allies have repeatedly used the word "gratuitous" to describe Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's handling of classified documents.
Spokesman for Oversight and Investigations Ian Sams repeatedly called the Special Counsel's report "gratuitous" during a press briefing on Friday. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also deemed the report "gratuitous," and said it "does not live in reality."
"The reality is, that report, that part of the report does not live in reality. It just doesn't, it is gratuitous," she said, responding to a question about Biden's memory. "It is unacceptable and it does not live in reality."
Sams said the report cleared Biden of any wrongdoing related to his handling of classified documents, but offered sharp criticism of Hur's description of the president as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
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"Unfortunately, the gratuitous remarks that the former attorney general talked about have naturally caught headlines in all of your attention," Sams told reporters at the daily White House press briefing. "They're wrong and they're inaccurate."
Vice President Kamala Harris also took aim at Hur and the report, describing it as "politically motivated" and "gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate."
"So the way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous," she added.
In the days that followed, Biden's Democratic allies and media pundits also repeated the word while describing the report during media appearances on CNN, MSNBC and elsewhere.
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CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen said the report was, for the most part, "on the money," but took issue with some of the language in the report.
"It is legitimate to say that Biden did not remember. But by stringing together those adjectives about age and memory, that was gratuitous. I don’t want to criticize the special prosecutor, and I agree what Biden did was wrong, but I think it went too far," he continued.
Neal Katyal, an MSNBC legal analyst and former Obama administration official, told MSNBC host Jen Psaki he was surprised the report took a "swipe" at Biden for "being old and having a folding memory."
"And I’m surprised that attorney general Garland didn’t push back on that part, either ask for that to be removed as it should have been, or at least redacted. There’s a Justice Department tradition that you don’t interfere with presidential elections. This seems like the height of interference. It’s gratuitous and Hur's own statements throughout the report saying there was nothing to this investigation, that there were obviously innocent explanations for what Biden was doing. So to add that, at the end of the report, I just think was totally wrong and inappropriate and deserves condemnation," he said.
President Joe Biden held a press conference on Thursday in response to Special Counsel Robert Hur's description of his age and memory. (Reuters)
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DHS Secretary Mayorkas also offered criticisms of the report, which he declared was "improper." Mayorkas said Hur "made gratuitous, unnecessary, inaccurate personal remarks, and those are improper."
Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin, Daniel Goldman and more said Hur's references to Biden's memory and age were unnecessary.
Raskin said Hur took some "gratuitous slaps at Joe Biden because of his age."
"A lot of these age-discriminatory and age-insulting remarks are getting rather tiresome," he added.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California (right) speaks at a House committee hearing on Feb. 28, 2023 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Office of Rep. Ro Khanna)
On Sunday, Khanna told CNN's Jake Tapper he was bothered by the "gratuitous mention" of Beau Biden's death.
"What is this country coming to that we're politicizing that?" Khanna asked.
Tapper was sympathetic, saying he knew a "very conservative woman" and Gold Star mother who was angered by Hur's mention of the president's son.
"She thought that was so gratuitous," Tapper said.
Biden's national campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu also said the references made to Beau Biden were "gratuitous attacks."
"This was extremely gratuitous, unnecessary, and just a political pot shot in the middle of an election year when the special counsel knows it’s two elderly men who are running for president, and this one who was appointed by Donald Trump wanted to make sure he got his licks in," Goldman told CNN on Friday.
Former Maryland Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards joined MSNBC on Sunday and also deemed the report "gratuitous," intentional and unnecessary.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference, Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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In his report made public on Thursday, Hur described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," and said he would bring no criminal charges against the president after a months-long investigation into his improper retention of classified documents related to national security.
Hur's assessment of Biden and recounting of his memory lapses constituted part of his conclusion about why Biden shouldn't be charged. They included examples of him forgetting when he was vice president, when his son Beau died and details of a debate over the war in Afghanistan.
"Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt," the report states. "It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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