Weekly Recap: Mar 9th - 15th
A recap of the big political stories affecting the United States this past week.
Robert Hur’s report on his investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified documents, along with the transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden, was released this week. The transcripts contradicted Hur’s claim that Biden was an “elderly man with poor memory.”
Biden gave numerous detailed accounts of moments and situations from his past. Contrary to Hur’s claim that Biden couldn’t remember when his son died, Biden replied the month and exact day of his son’s death. Hur even wrote in his report that Biden has “a photographic understanding and recall of the house,” in reference to Biden’s ability to give a lengthy description and layout of his Delaware home.
The House of Representatives held a hearing to discuss Hur’s report and the contradictions of his statements. The hearing also highlighted how the report had shown there was no justification to charge Biden over his handling of classified documents and the significant differences between Biden’s handling of documents and Trump, who had deliberately lied about the documents, hid them, and obstructed efforts to retrieve them.
Also, this week, a large majority of bipartisan members in the House voted to pass a bill that would force TikTok to either divest itself fully from China or be banned in the United States. Bipartisan support also existed against the bill.
Even though President Biden recently created a TikTok account to connect with younger voters, he said he would sign the bill if it reached his desk. However, the path forward is not as clear in the Senate, where several members have already stated they are against the measure.
Opponents of the bill say it is an attack on free speech and that it makes us no better than communist China if we ban apps from other countries.
President Biden continued his work on achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, although no agreement was reached. In the meantime, Biden is also working on additional plans to get aid to Gaza, where malnutrition and starvation are killing people, especially children, daily.
The current plan that is already in the works is to build a floating pier in the sea which the US military will then ram into the shore. While it is a riskier plan, it would create a better path for aid while keeping American military members from stepping foot in Gaza and, therefore, not becoming part of the war itself.
The RNC appointed Lara Trump as co-chair. Following the appointment, almost 60 RNC members were fired to ensure the organization was staffed with Trump loyalists.
Lara Trump has also said that the RNC should focus its energy and spending purely on supporting Trump, a move that would give less support to the Republican candidates for Congress.
The RNC is already low on funds, both from paying for some of Trump’s legal issues and due to lower-than-normal fundraising. This is in stark contrast to the DNC, which has had successful fundraising, is flush with cash, and intends to support the Democratic party overall, not just President Biden.
Mike Pence officially said he will not endorse Donald Trump. While it isn’t surprising that the former Vice President wouldn’t support the man who riled up a mob that wanted to kill him, it still took this long for Pence to make the announcement.
This lack of endorsement continues a pattern where many members of Trump’s former administration have spoken out against Trump’s presidential bid.
