Garland contempt resolution survives key hurdle, setting up House-wide vote

House Republicans' contempt resolution against Attorney General Merrick Garland passed a key procedural hurdle Tuesday evening, setting up a chamber-wide vote.

GOP lawmakers are looking to hold Garland in contempt over his refusal to turn over audio recordings of Special Counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Biden.

The resolution passed the House Rules Committee in a party-line vote after a contentious hearing where Republicans and Democrats clashed over Hur's assertions about Biden, though the debate quickly devolved into back-and-forth comparing Biden and his son, Hunter, to the probes and prosecutions of former President Trump.

That opens it up to a House-wide "rule" vote to allow for debate and then a vote on final passage of the resolution.

The 388-page special counsel report cleared Biden of wrongdoing despite him having "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" from before he was president.

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Hur said Biden came off "as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," and that "it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

Republicans seized on the report, arguing it's proof Biden is not mentally fit to be president and accusing the Department of Justice (DOJ) of selective prosecution.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Hur's description of Biden's mental state "gratuitous," which was challenged by House Rules Committee Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas.

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