Joe Biden’s critics supercharged with particularly troubling verdict on president’s ‘limited’ memory
It is another ‘wow’ moment for the United States.
The American president – the most powerful man in the world – has a memory so “hazy” and “poor” that he couldn’t remember when he was vice president.
That was one of numerous startling assessments of a Justice Department special counsel appointed to determine if Joe Biden should face charges for holding classified documents at his Delaware home.
The lack of charges is not the story. The story is him and it is devastating.
Over more than 200 pages, Robert Hur explains why President Joe Biden will not face charges for holding classified documents after leaving office as vice president.
Essentially, the report concludes that a conviction would be unlikely because a jury would see him as “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory… someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt”.
“Mr Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023… He did not remember when he was vice president…
“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.”
For any sitting president this would be a damning portrayal. But for President Biden it’s particularly troubling. The 81-year-old is facing growing questions about his age and mental capability.
On Thursday, his spokesperson said: “Many people, elected officials… they can misspeak sometimes,” after three slip-ups over the past few days.
He confused French President Emmanuel Macron with his predecessor of three decades ago, Francois Mitterrand.
On Tuesday he couldn’t remember the name ‘Hamas’ when discussing the war in Gaza and on Wednesday he confused former German chancellor Angela Merkel with one of her predecessors Helmut Kohl.
This report will increase concerns from his own side about his fitness for office and will supercharge the critics on the other side.
Responding to the Hur report, Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, and Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal counsel said: “We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate.”
They added: “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events.”
Reflecting on the conclusions in the report and the fact that he wouldn’t be charged, the president said the matter was now closed.
The reality is that the matter won’t be closed, far from it. This will put he and those closest to him under intense personal pressure about the decision to run again. But it will be about now too; about his fitness to lead America at a time of such huge global uncertainty.
He has never shown any doubt about his capability or his health. It is a self-assurance, some would say hubris, which will now be tested hard.