AG Report 5.21.2025
The Smear Campaign Against Robert Hur
Axios obtained and released audio from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden, conducted as part of the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents. The audio confirmed what the previously released transcript largely obscured: consistent with Hur’s report, Biden exhibited significant memory lapses and clear signs of cognitive decline during questioning.
When Hur’s report initially highlighted these issues, a concerted campaign sought to discredit and smear him. Democrats grilled Hur during a congressional hearing, repeatedly implying that his descriptions of Biden’s cognitive issues were driven by partisanship or personal bias. Their media allies echoed these talking points.
The Atlantic published an article claiming that Hur had “misled the country.” Margaret Sullivan wrote a column urging her colleagues to stop reporting on these issues, which she called a “destructive obsession with Biden’s age.” CNN’s Oliver Darcy even published a celebratory piece noting that major media outlets were declaring Hur’s characterization of Biden’s mental state “didn’t match reality.”
In reality, Hur’s description was accurate, and it was the media that overwhelmingly got it wrong by participating in a dishonest smear campaign to cover up Biden’s cognitive decline. This decline was later embarrassingly exposed during the disastrous presidential debate that ultimately ended Biden’s re-election campaign.
There has been little self-reflection from the mainstream media about why they so readily joined a smear campaign against a respected legal official simply because Democrats demanded it. Many observers pointed out this pattern at the time, but the newly released audio makes it undeniable.
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