The conversation got heated Wednesday as The View hosts former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin and ex-Donald Trump staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin debated special counsel Robert Hur's testimony before Congress on Tuesday.
Hur had been questioned about his report into classified documents improperly found in the possession of President Joe Biden.
One of the things released on Tuesday was the transcript of Hur's interview with Joe Biden. In it was a comment about Biden's "photographic understanding and recall." Democrats pounced on the nugget, given that Hur had said in his report that he could never get a conviction because Biden couldn't remember anything.
"So, I saw this hearing quite differently. Listen, it did not go how House Republicans wanted it to," Griffin conceded. "They thought it would be a slam dunk. That didn't happen. But I thought it was partisan hackery on both sides."
She spoke glowingly about Hur as a career professional with the Department of Justice, and she stressed that he stood by his report when he addressed the House committee.
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Hur "resisted efforts to make him overreach and diagnose things about Biden's mental acuity time and time again. He also made clear it is totally different than Donald Trump's handling of classified documents, which was far more egregious and implored elected officials to actually care about protecting classified documents," Griffin noted.
Democrats, she complained, behaved like MAGA Republicans in the hearing.
"You can be a Republican working at DOJ and still follow the letter of the law. It's not a witch-hunt. It's not a partisan attack," Griffin continued.
Joy Behar asked why Hur would leave out words like "photographic recall," and Griffin said it was "a mistake," a phrase Behar jumped on before Hostin stepped in.
"I disagree with the assessment that this special counsel, that was appointed by Trump, was nonpartisan," said Hostin. "There is no way that a prosecutor puts — summarizes things in a report that are not contained in the transcripts. That is not how the procedure is done."
She explained that during her time at the Justice Department, she never knew who was a Republican or Democrat and that prosecutors like her may have been appointed by one administration, but continued on through another. What came first was always the law, and the law had no party.
Griffin butted in, asking specifically what was against legal standards as the tone of the conversation got heated.
"His description saying that Joe Biden, part of the reason he wouldn't charge Biden was that the president could portray himself as an elderly man with a poor memory who would be sympathetic to a jury," said Hostin. "That is not the standard when you're a prosecutor. The standard is, can you prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt?"
As the two debated back and forth, Whoopi Goldberg was forced to step in to calm it down. But it didn't end there. Toward the end of the segment, Griffin and Hostin continued the debate, until Goldberg cut them off again.
See the clip in the video below or at the link here.
