The PJ Media headline is certainly a click-magnet: “Biden Admin Tampered With Evidence, Altered Biden’s Hur Interview Transcript.” If one has been following all of the machinations of this totalitarian-leaning cabal, that seems perfectly in character. Sure, why not? If they’ll contrive ways to keep their major political rival in court if not in jail a few months before the election, what won’t they try to get away with?
The story, however, is more equivocal. In a federal court filing, the Department of Justice admitted that the transcript of President Joe Biden’s testimony to Special Counsel Robert Hur was missing “filler words (such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’)” and words that “may have been repeated when spoken (such as ‘I, I’ or ‘and, and’)”:
“14. The interview transcripts are accurate transcriptions of the words of the interview contained in the audio recording, except for minor instances such as the use of filler words (such as “um” or “uh”) when speaking that are not always reflected on the transcripts, or when words may have been repeated when spoken (such as “I, I” or “and, and”) but sometimes was only listed a single time in the transcripts. Besides these exceedingly minor differences, based on my simultaneous review of the transcripts while listening to the audio recording, “Disclosure of that record is unwarranted,” the DOJ said in a court filing. “Release of the audio recording would threaten critical law enforcement interests by chilling the potential cooperation of witnesses in current and future sensitive investigations. In addition, disclosure would constitute a significant invasion of privacy. … These privacy harms are amplified by the threat of malicious manipulation of audio files that has recently become much more acute None of the minor differences include any audible substantive exchanges – that is, based on my review, there is no material omission of words between the audio recording and transcripts. Special Counsel Hur and FBI personnel who attended the interview and compared the audio recording to the transcripts also informed me of their determination that the transcripts accurately reflect the words spoken on the audio recording aside from the minor instances I described above. Special Counsel Hur emphasized to me that it was important for purposes of his investigation that the interview transcripts be accurate.”
Well, that can mean anything, or nothing at all. Hur, based on his conclusion that Biden was confused and that no jury would find him guilty of anything because he would be seen as decrepit and addled, saw and heard something in the interview that convinced him that the President wasn’t quite right upstairs. But what? An “uh” here and there is hardly damning. Repeating a word a couple times in a sentence isn’t either. But “uh” followed by a long, long pause? “I,I,I,I, I,I,I…and another long pause? These might be telling and alarming. (I know, I know, Biden had a childhood stutter that was somehow never talked about until Democrats were looking for ways to deflect his obvious mental decline. I’m sure we’ll hear that again…)
Quite reasonably, those not inclined to take the White House’s word that Joe was as nimble-tongued as Danny Kaye singing “Anatole of Paris” and that Hur was just imagining things would like to have access to the audio, which should clear up any suspicions, doubts and controversies. But DOJ says no.
“Disclosure of that record is unwarranted,” DOJ said in another court filing. “Release of the audio recording would threaten critical law enforcement interests by chilling the potential cooperation of witnesses in current and future sensitive investigations. In addition, disclosure would constitute a significant invasion of privacy. … These privacy harms are amplified by the threat of malicious manipulation of audio files that has recently become much more acute.” Seriously?
Is it too much to ask that we be able to assess such things for ourselves rather than rely on biased interlocutors with partisan agendas? Conspiracy theories flourish when it seems that transparency is being deliberately obstructed. PJ Media’s Matt Margolis is jumping the metaphorical gun by saying that the transcript was “manipulated” and that the evidence was “tampered” with, but those changes described could be substantive or not: we don’t know without the recordings.”[T]he transcripts accurately reflect the words spoken on the audio recording” sounds like a carefully constructed Clintonism to me. It reflects the words, but does it accurately reflect the tone, the clarity, the pauses?
And why is it left to the conservative blogosphere and right wing activists like Judicial Watch to ask these questions? Where are the Washington Post’s vaunted investigative reporters? Why has no one leaked the tapes, as we know someone would have if it was Donald Trump being interviewed? The Post thinks democracy dies in darkness, except when the darkness protects an undemocratic administration that the Post is propping up.
I cannot begin to tell you how sick I am of this crap.
Ethics Alarms 
It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘words’ is.
It’s Science!
https://studenttheses.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/20.500.12932/23089/Final%20Scriptie.pdf?sequence=2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6258767/
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/WolfFiles/story?id=90907&page=1
honestly, I thought I recall Bush Jr. Being treated unfairly for his use of filler words, but they did not pop up in my search.
as I recall, he was characterized as dumb for all the filler words, but Biden appears to get a different treatment.
-Jut
Who’s the witness and does he have an expectation of privacy in this instance?
The President? He can keep the full extent of his cognitive decline reflected in the interview private? Why does his privacy trump the public right to know?
I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to saying it until there is a very noticeable change in the pattern I’ve observed…
As far as I’m concerned, the observed pattern is self-evident. I don’t believe any narrative that the political left pushes, period. The Democrats don’t seem to give a damn about the the consequences to their actions to the United States of America, they seem to want to fundamentally change the USA into some cultish tribe of stupid controllable sheeple.
Reading, watching, and listening to the constant propaganda from the political left parroting obvious nonsense, mouthing cherry picked half-truths, boldly proclaiming mind-numbingly ignorant talking points, projectile vomiting one false narrative after another, and looking straight into the eyes of the American people and telling us bald-faced lies during this presidential election campaign season is going to be intolerable.
It’s in-our-face obvious that the United States Department of Justice is now a willful political arm of the Democratic Party and denying that at this point in time is delusional.
That’s all I can stands ‘n I can’t stands no more!
What’s going on in this country right now is absurd (that’s an understatement) and it’s not going to end well. I don’t want to get sucked into it any further. I’m on the verge of walking away from the cultish tribal end justifies the means chaos, grabbing some cans of spinach, getting on my motorcycle, go live like a hermit way back in the woods where no one can find me and wait to see which extremists win the inevitable civil war. Hmmm, maybe a treehouse.
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Someone please throw me a line.
https://youtu.be/rMbATaj7Il8?si=ex5GyQvIgTyIv7dB
Steve this is the only line I can offer. Why do people lie? People lie to deceive. They lie to avoid the consequences of the truth. They lie to advance an agenda, that is unsupportable if the truth were known. Ultimately, they lie because they are afraid! In the United States the politicians, government bureaucrats, and a sycophantic media are afraid of you, me, and millions more of our countrymen. President Kennedy said it best. A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
Experience has taught me that where there is fear there is always hope. Four times in my life I have been very near death. Three of those times I was fearful. Each of those times I hoped I would not die. However, one time when death was near, I resigned myself that my death was inevitable. I had lost hope of survival. At that time, I was overcome with profound peacefulness. I had no fear. While I am happy, I was wrong about what I thought was a certain death I was also grateful for the lessons I was taught. Don’t fear death and where there was fear there was hope. The trick is, to not let fear paralyze you and use hope to motivate you.
They are still lying to us. Their lies are frequent and tough to swallow because they are afraid. Now is the time to not lose hope. Now is the time for more hope. Let that hope motivate you to action.
Albert Einstein was correct when he said. “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Work to vote incumbents out of office. Demand more from their replacements. Stop watching network and cable news. Write their advertisers and explain they are wasting their money on commercials you won’t see. Come up with other ways to turn this country around. It won’t be quick or easy. I still think our country is worth saving. It is not time to let a government of the people, by the people, for the people perish.
Get your frock coat, your kepi, your cartridge box, and your musket and meet me on the village green. The roots of the tree of Liberty are looking very dry.
That is one approach but it wouldn’t be my first choice.
How many times do we need to witness that our soap box, ballot box, and jury box are no longer valid choices before it’s time to use our last box of liberty?
It is interesting, that I don’t think leaking a Trump recording would have the same effect. The media tends to “accurately” transcribe Trump’s stream of consciousness, the more filler words and interjections the better, to make him sound incoherent.
When you listen to the recording or watch the video, and hear Trump’s logically placed pauses and changes in tone, or see his parenthetical guestures or expressions, the gibberish on the transcript is suddenly not. It doesn’t make what he’s says intelligent or factually accurate (or pleasant to listen to), just not the word salad the media wants you to believe he spewed.
If the raw recording of Biden’s deposition is available, how much more invasive is the raw recording? People who believe (or want to believ) Biden is sharp will hear nothing damning compared to the transcript. Those who believe (or want to believe) he is decrepit will hear confirmation. It seems an easy punt to release it, and not releasing it says more than anything might learn from it.
With a leaked Trump recording, a Trump fan would find vindication in the the recording; a Trump-derranged would say the transcript made him sound too coherent. Neutral critics might actually get a sense of what he said though – all the more reason the Trump deranged might suppress it. Same with the Biden recording, a neutral critic might find Biden’s coherence disturbing. Can’t have that!
One could argue that a delay in releasing the audio recording gives the DOJ ample time to create the very manipulated recording they claim could happen.
Releasing the actual recording at the same time the written transcript was released would have prevented someone later claiming a fabricated one is legit. It appears they are creating plausible deniability.
Where’s Bob Gheary on this? What’s the applicable talking point memo direct him to say on this? Executive privilege?
Professor Turley has been all over this ridiculous DOJ argument. He thinks the position they’re taking is preposterous and they are just running the clock out until the election’s over.
Who would suffer an “invasion of privacy” by the mere restoration of filler words? Wouldn’t there have to be other redacted material for that to be a concern, or did Biden stutter out “Colangelo” and “Bragg” in Morse code?
Anyone who has heard Biden mumble and sputter his way through scripted and practiced remarks clearly presented on a teleprompter can well and accurately imagine how decrepit he would sound in spontaneous interview conversation. The Department of (Selective) Justice can’t let us hear that, at least not until after the election.
I’m beginning to believe Biden would be better served by turning the teleprompter around and just letting us read for ourselves what he is supposed to be saying.