President Biden today used executive privilege to deny House Republicans

access to audio recordings from his interview with Special Counsel Robert Herr.

The October 2023 interview centered on the president's handling of classified documents.

Hers report described the president as a quote sympathetic well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.

House Republicans including representatives Jim Jordan and James Comer, requested the audio

and planned to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for failing to provide

it. Earlier today, Garland addressed the matter.

There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice

Department. This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining

our sensitive law enforcement files is just the most recent.

Following it all is NPR's Carrie Johnson who joins us now.

So Carrie, House Republicans already have transcripts of the interview as provided by the White

House.

What's their argument for why they need the actual audio and why

was that request denied? Jim Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee

signaled that he simply doesn't trust the White House in this transcript. He

wants to see what Biden said and hear what

Biden said for himself and he said more about the president's state of mind and

his memory issues could become more clear if he's able to hear the audio. The Justice

Department and the White House seem to be signaling that they've already made

extraordinary accommodations. They've given written transcripts. they've given House Republicans correspondence between

the Justice Department and Biden's White House Council and his private lawyers, and a couple

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