Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, commented Wednesday on the appointment of former Maryland federal prosecutor Robert Hur as a special counsel to investigate President Biden's potential mishandling of classified documents, saying the presidential ally looked like he was in "a hostage video."
Cruz said Biden has had his worst week in office since the bungled pullout from Afghanistan that led to 13 American servicemembers being killed and cession of Bagram Air Base and its cache of weapons and technology among other U.S. losses.
"They've had incompetence, they've had scandal, they've had corruption, they've had dishonesty and they've had hypocrisy. And all of that has been on display in the past week," Cruz said.
"When we saw Merrick Garland stand up and appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden, I joked on my podcast ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz’ that Merrick Garland was like a hostage video: He was blinking out S.O.S. because he was so unhappy and he was forced to do it."
TOP REPUBLICAN TORCHES HUNTER BIDEN WRINKLE IN DOCS PROBE
Cruz said Garland recognized his department's scrutiny and special counsel appointment regarding former President Donald Trump's potential mishandling of classified information left him no political choice but to do the same for his boss.
However, Cruz added he believes Hur may not have been the strongest candidate for a Biden special counsel, given his ties to former Trump Attorney General Rod Rosenstein – who appointed ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller to look into RussiaGate – and current FBI Director Christopher Wray.
For that reason, the senator said, the White House is not likely "really concerned about legal exposure."
EMAILS SUGGEST HUNTER BIDEN HAD ACCESS TO GARAGE WHERE JOE KEPT CLASSIFIED DOCS, CORVETTE
"Merrick Garland, appointed as a special counsel, someone who had been the right hand of Rod Rosenstein, who had been the right hand to Chris Wray. I think they believe the special counsel is going to give [Biden] a slap on the wrist, slap it under the rug and be done with it," he said.
Hur notably succeeded Rosenstein as U.S. Attorney in Baltimore, but was also himself a Trump appointee to that former role.
Biden and Garland's true concern, Cruz later said, is the idea of a Trump indictment over the Mar-a-Lago documents saga is slipping away with every new classified document discovery at a Biden-linked office or residence.
Documents have been found at the president's former office at a University of Pennsylvania-linked center in Washington, and the Biden family home in Greenville, Del., outside Wilmington.
"Merrick Garland and the Biden White House wanted to indict Donald J. Trump. They wanted to indict him for Mar-a-Lago, and suddenly they're in a world of hurt politically, because if they bring that indictment, even someone who's been asleep under a log for 100 years will wake up and say: ‘Wait a second, why did you indict that guy for doing the same thing the other guy did?’," Cruz said.
"That's their problem. And it's why they're so dismayed."
