Brain Freeze: Joe Biden Says Son Beau Was ‘Attorney General of the United States'
Appearing Thursday at a CNN town hall event, former Vice President Joe Biden delivered yet another gaffe by saying his deceased son Beau Biden, who served as the Attorney General of Delaware, was the United States Attorney General — a position held by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch during the Obama Administration.
"The Justice Department isn't the President's private lawyer — it's the people's lawyer. … Let the Justice Department do its job. Period." Former Vice President Joe Biden says President Trump has "weaponized" the DOJ. #CNNTownHallpic.twitter.com/hEDDvAOYQY
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 21, 2020
A transcript is as follows:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: President Trump’s Department of Justice recently got involved in the trial of Roger Stone — a close confidant of Trump’s. This led to four of the federal prosecutors to either withdraw from the case or resign from the department altogether. Many see this as a further abuse of presidential power that challenges our very ideas of what the justice system should be. As president, how will you restore the barriers between the Department of Justice and the Oval Office?
JOE BIDEN: First of all, for years and years I was chairman of the [Senate] Judiciary Committee. I have never, never, never — including when I got elected as a kid at 29-years-old when Nixon was president — this is not an exaggeration that no one, no one has abused that office or weaponized it, flat out weaponized it. And he’s made it real clear that whatever you do, it’s almost like the biblical phrase that whatever you do in my name to help me, you will get pardoned. That’s the message being sent. And the idea that Roger Stone… who is convicted of lying to federal prosecutors and a judge said, “whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m not going to listen to what the Justice Department has to say now, I’m sentencing this guy now to 40 months.” Guarantee you, he’s going to be pardoned… what’s the message about? Don’t worry, do anything illegal for me and you’re okay, I will pardon you. No one has ever weaponized it before like this.
Number one, the Justice Department is not the president’s private lawyer, it’s the people’s lawyer and I will never direct the Justice Department to who they should or should not indict and under what circumstances they should or should not. That is an independent judgment to be made. My son — my deceased son — was the Attorney General of the United States and before that, he was a federal prosecutor in one of the largest office’s in the country in Philadelphia.