House GOP to sue for Biden audio tapes

Vinay Simlot
·2 min read
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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Friday the House would be filing a lawsuit to get the recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur’s office.

Johnson said the suit will be filed Monday on the heels of Biden’s poor debate performance Thursday night.

“President Biden showed last night that he was weak, sadly, that he is feeble,” Johnson said. “He will very likely sound exactly on that tape as he did on the stage last night and that’s embarrassing to the President.”

Garland released the transcript of the interview to the House. The White House invoked executive privilege on the recordings, blocking their release.

On Wednesday, several House members, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) announced they would seek an “inherent contempt” vote to force Garland to release the recording.

The Congressional Research Service said Congress has not used that provision in over 100 years. A vote to hold Garland in “inherent contempt” would order the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest the Attorney General.

On Friday morning, Luna tweeted several times, promising to bring the inherent contempt vote to the House floor.

“I AM NOT BACKING OFF ON INHERENT CONTEMPT. IT IS COMING TO THE FLOOR TODAY!” one of the tweets read.

But the inherent contempt vote didn’t make it to the House floor on Friday.

“I think that the sponsors acknowledge that the appropriate next step is to escalate through the courts,” said Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.). “I think at the moment we should focus on what the American people saw last night.”

Luna tweeted she has leadership’s support to bring the inherent contempt vote up next time the House is in session.

In a press conference on Friday, Johnson said the best way to move forward is to have the courts weigh in on this dispute.

The Department of Justice said in a letter to Johnson, Garland has not broken any laws.

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