Watch top Democrat slam GOP for defending Trump's 'indefensible acts'

The House Judiciary Committee met on Thursday to discuss whether to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. The charge? That the Department of Justice has refused to hand over the audio recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. The DOJ has already turned over a transcript of the interview.

The president asserted executive privilege over the recording earlier on Thursday, but that didn’t stop the GOP-controlled committee from plowing ahead.

Ranking Democrat Jerry Nadler wasted no time slamming committee chair Jim Jordan and his partisan political theater.

"Chairman Jordan consistently opposes government spending, and everything from feeding children to education and health care, has spent $20 million taxpayer dollars in this Congress to investigate his various conspiracy theories,” Nadler said. “And what exactly has he delivered to the American people on their $20 million investment? Exactly. Nothing."

This entire exercise, Nadler continued, is an attempt by Republicans to smear Biden on behalf of Donald Trump. Republicans are hoping that the audio recording will embarrass Biden and make him appear old and mentally incompetent. 

"What Republicans won't show you,” Nadler said, “is the mounting evidence that Trump is mentally incompetent to hold the office of the president."

Nadler scoffed at Trump’s inexplicable praise at a recent rally of the fictional character Hannibal Lecter from “The Silence of the Lambs.”

"’The late, great Hannibal Lecter,’” Nadler quoted Trump. “I can't even begin to understand how Republicans have chosen this man as their champion. But they have. And now House Republicans are paying for it by flocking to the sidelines of his criminal trial, sacrificing their integrity to defend them against, frankly, indefensible acts."

Nadler finished where he began, calling out Jordan’s waste of the public’s trust. 

“This markup may give Donald Trump something to watch on Fox when he gets home from his criminal trial tonight,” Nadler said, “but it will almost certainly not convince the Department of Justice to produce the one remaining file in question.”

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