Almost exactly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court ordered President Richard Nixon to turn over White House tapes that he had refused to release for nearly a year, citing executive privilege. On July 24, 1974, the court unanimously rejected Nixon’s executive privilege claim. Sixteen days later, Nixon resigned.

Fast forward to this year, and President Joe Biden is refusing to release tapes of his interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur about his handling of classified documents, citing, as Nixon did, executive privilege, with an added twist about the risk of “deep fakes.”

Biden is, in fact, so determined to keep the tapes secret that he’s willing to let his attorney general get slapped with contempt of Congress, a charge two House committees advanced on Thursday for Garland’s refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena.

The White House is also being sued by the Heritage Foundation, Judicial Watch, and a dozen news organizations – including CNN and the Associated Press – for access to the tapes after the White House refused to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests.  

The Biden administration argues that there’s no reason to turn over the tapes since the transcripts are already out.

But last Friday, the administration admitted that the transcripts had been altered.

That admission came in response to Heritage’s lawsuit. The White House told a federal court that the transcripts were “accurate … except for minor instances.”

In response to that, Heritage’s Oversight Project posted on X that: “After being forced into federal court by us, the White House admits they altered evidence to make Biden appear less incompetent This case has been blown wide open.”

The White House response was to label Heritage’s assertion a “total lie.” But Biden has already been caught lying about what he told Hur, so why should anyone trust this administration when it says the transcripts are accurate?

Indeed, the more the White House fights the release of these tapes, the weaker its case becomes.

If releasing the transcript didn’t fall under an executive privilege claim, how in the world does the actual recording?

The idea that AI is the reason for withholding this evidence is completely ludicrous. Anyone with skills could use the transcript as the basis for “deep fakes.” If anything, releasing the audio would make it harder to get away with deep fakes because the actual recording would be widely available.

And if Heritage is lying about the White House doctoring the transcript, then prove it by releasing the tape!

The public’s right to have access to these tapes became more urgent this week after the Wall Street Journal reported that in small, private meetings, Biden’s mental acuity is often terrible – that he’s frequently inaudible, confused, and sleepy.

This is a side of Biden that the White House – with the willing participation of the mainstream press – has meticulously kept hidden.

See Also:

Release The Biden Transcripts Now

Media Gaslight The Public About The Disastrous Biden Transcripts

As the Journal reports: “Americans have had minimal opportunities to see Biden in unscripted moments. By the end of April, he had given fewer interviews and press conferences than any of his recent predecessors … His last wide-ranging town-hall-style meeting with an independent news outlet was in October 2021.” The Journal further notes that Biden has also sharply cut back on small meetings with lawmakers.

So, getting access to these tapes isn’t just about embarrassing the president. The public has the right to know just how incapacitated Biden is before they decide whether to return him to office.

In the end, Biden, like Nixon before him, is likely to lose his effort to keep these tapes hidden from the public. In Nixon’s case, that sealed his fate. Will the same be true for Biden?

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board