'Cheap shot': Biden allies go on the attack against the special counsel and the media

WASHINGTON — The Biden campaign and the White House have landed on an initial strategy for responding to special counsel Robert Hur's report that has spurred questions about the president's fitness to hold office: Attack Hur and the media covering the report.

The morning after Biden flashed anger at Hur for what he and other senior advisers argue was an inappropriate and excessive focus on his age, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel, sparred with the press corps for cherry-picking findings in the report, which he suggested was written in a way to shield Hur from political pressure from Republicans.

“I know it’s hard to wade through 400 full pages,” he said. “The report lays out example after example of how the president did not willfully take classified documents.”

Behind the scenes, Biden advisers in both the White House and his campaign were more scathing. One Biden ally said the report angered some of his supporters and, as a result, it was rallying them to his defense.

“People who are supporters of Biden are looking at that thinking that’s a cheap shot and he was playing politics,” the ally said.

The White House's simmering animosity toward the media also burst into the public. One Biden aide said the media was “shameful” in its handling of the highly sensitive political moment.

“Hur couldn’t make his case and he takes partisan, personal and untrue swipes at Joe Biden,” one aide, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about internal views of the president’s team, said. “[He] did it so the media would take the bait, and none of you have learned a damn thing since 2016.”

The aide was referring to another fraught episode when then-FBI Director James Comey determined that while Democratic