Before the November presidential election, US President Joe Biden has defended his memory in the wake of a special counsel investigation about his handling of confidential documents that raised additional questions about his suitability for office.
In passionate and occasionally irrational remarks, Biden attacked Special Counsel Robert Hur for concluding during his interview with prosecutors that his memory was so "severely limited" that he was unable to recall the year he started as President Barack Obama's vice president or the year his son Beau passed away.
During a news conference on Thursday at the White House, Biden even mentioned that he couldn't recall the exact date of his son's death. "How is it possible for him to bring up that?"
In reference to his son, who died in 2015 of brain cancer, Biden remarked, "I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away."
At the end of his second term, if reelected, Biden, the oldest US president in history, would turn 86. He claimed his memory is "fine" and "has not gotten worse."
Expected to take on former President Donald Trump in November, Biden claimed to have spent hours interviewing with prosecutors following the “international crisis” that resulted from Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.Along with disputing Hur's claims that he handled secret documents improperly, he refuted the idea that he gave his ghostwriter access to classified material.
According to Hur's assessment, which was made public on Thursday, Biden will not be prosecuted for removing classified materials at the conclusion of the Obama administration because he complied with investigators and would seem reasonable in front of a jury.
As he did in our conversation, Mr. Biden would probably portray himself to a jury as an elderly guy with impaired memory who is kind and well-meaning, Hur said in his report.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur, a former federal prosecutor from the Trump administration, to look into Biden's handling of secret material after it was found that the senator's private Washington, DC, office had sensitive materials.
Later investigations into his Delaware residence and the University of Delaware uncovered more sensitive material that had been wrongfully removed.
US voters and Democratic Party officials are becoming increasingly concerned about Biden's age; they have primarily voiced their concerns in private conversations with journalists and colleagues.
According to a survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research last year, Biden is too elderly to lead until 2028, according to 77% of respondents, including 69% of Democrats.
Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson claimed that Biden is "not fit" to be president based on his news conference after the special counsel report.
Recently, Biden has committed a number of faux pas that have brought attention back to his advanced age and poor mental clarity.
When Biden said at a campaign rally on Wednesday that he had seen Helmut Kohl at a G7 conference in 2021—four years after Kohl's passing—he seemed to be confusing the late German chancellor with Angela Merkel.
The error occurred a few days after Biden claimed to have spoken with French President Francois Mitterrand—who passed away in 1996—rather than current leader Emmanuel Macron—during the same G7 gathering.
In addition, Biden referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the “president of Mexico” on Thursday during his statements defending his memory.
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