Biden denies report: ‘No one’s talking about pursuing Bush criminally’

By David Edwards and Muriel Kane | The possibility that Barack Obama might seek to bring criminal charges against President Bush or members of his administration has been a recurring theme during the presidential campaign, especially since the Obama campaign has attempted to stress themes of bipartisanship. For that reason, Democrats have been quick to downplay any hints of possible criminal prosecutions.

Sen. Joe Biden aroused fresh speculations on Wednesday, when he suggested, “If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution, out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law.”

Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends raised that issue with Biden on Thursday morning, asking about “a report that if you guys are elected … you’re actually going to pursue criminal charges against President Bush’s administration and different people that served there.”

“That’s not true,” Biden immediately replied. “I don’t know where that report’s coming from. What is true is the United States Congress is trying to preserve records on questions that relate to whether or not the law has been violated by anyone. Anybody should be doing that.”

Biden emphasized that “no one’s talking about President Bush. … I’ve never heard anybody mention President Bush in that context.” He noted that “there’s been an awful lot of unsavory stuff that’s gone on … but I have no evidence of any of that. No one’s talking about pursuing President Bush criminally.”

Biden concluded his comments by explaining that possible misdeeds are
“being looked into now, just so it never happens again in any other administration. … The Obama-Biden administration is not going to start off saying, ‘God, let’s go take a look at what this –.’ The American people want to know what we’re going to do, not what happened.”

Biden was also lavish in his praise for Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, saying, “The governor was impressive. She was strong, she was tough, and she delivered that speech extremely well. … I think it’s going to be a tough debate. I think she’s going to be an incredibly skillful debater. I was impressed.”

“I’m not going to attack her,” Biden emphasized. “You look at that family that she brought out last night. It was a beautiful family. … Every family has difficulty as they’re raising their children. … I think she has a fine family.”

Asked if some of the criticism aimed at Palin has been sexist, Biden said, “Yes, by you guys in the media.” He then went on to insist that it “is sexist to imply a woman is incapable of being a mother and being a great leader.”

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