‘My memory is fine’: Defiant Biden rejects special counsel’s devastating report that raises questions about his mental health

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday rejected a damning report by a special prosecutor, which, in addition to indicating that he mishandled classified documents, said the president had a “fairly limited memory.”

Special counsel Robert Hur released a report Thursday on the president’s handling of classified documents and, although he concluded he would not be prosecuted, his reference to Biden’s memory raised concerns about his age and mental health. .

The document indicates that, during inquiries conducted in 2023, Sometimes he can’t remember when he was Vice President or when his son Beau Biden died, which the president denied.

The president said in his statement, “There’s even a reference I don’t remember to when my son died. How dare you bring that up? Frankly, when they asked me the question, So I figured it had nothing to do with him.” Unexpected conference.

In the report, the special counsel said Biden’s poor memory was also made clear by listening to recorded conversations while he was writing his 2017 memoir. promise me daddy,

“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden had a poor memory. He doesn’t remember when he was Vice President or when his term ended,” according to the report, which also quoted his response: “If it was 2013, when did I stop being Vice President?”

Additionally, he asked if he was still the Vice President: “In 2009, am I still the Vice President?”,

“Even after many years he could not remember when his son Beau died. and his Smriti seemed confused while describing the debate on Afghanistan This was once very important to him,” the report said.

Hur also said that if Biden appeared before a jury, he would look like a “sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.” However, the special prosecutor did not release the transcripts of the interviews.

In his response during the press conference, he said, Biden said he worked five hours “Even though Israel was attacked on October 7 and I was in the middle of managing an international conflict,” Hur said in interviews with the team over two days, October 8 and 9.

One of the reporters asked Biden: “How bad is your memory? Can you remain president?” Biden responded: “My memory is so bad that I let you talk.”

Other The reporter asked him if he thought his memory had deteriorated, but Biden tried to joke: “None of you thought I’d get through any of the things I went through. How did it happen? I guess I forgot what was happening.”

While Biden will not face charges of misuse of classified documents, the report’s claims about his memory could undermine Biden’s message to voters that he can run the government and protect the country.

Voters are already entering this year’s election with serious doubts about Biden’s age, having analyzed his mistakes, his coughs, his slow gait and even his fall from his bicycle.

For their part, Republican lawmakers accepted Hur’s description of Biden’s frailty and advancing age.

“Special counsel Hur called Biden a ‘well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.’ His current physical and mental condition may prevent him from becoming President of the United States” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-North Carolina, said on his X account.

The chairman of the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio, gave this assurance “Joe Biden is not fit for office”,

The White House rejected the characterization of Biden’s memory in a February 5 letter from the president’s lawyers, which was published in special counsel Robert Hur’s report. The letter said Biden’s “inability to recall dates or details of events that occurred years ago is neither surprising nor unusual,” especially when some of the documents were packed or moved.

“We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or fair,” the letter said. “The report uses very damaging language to describe a common phenomenon among witnesses: a lack of memory of events that occurred years ago. “These comments have no place in the Justice Department report.”

this is what the report says Out of 37 confidential documents, 21 were declared confidential and six were declared top secret., Investigators found notebooks containing information about Afghanistan that were taken from internal White House briefings during Biden’s tenure as vice president.

Those notebooks were shared with a ghostwriter with whom Biden worked on his memoirs, even though the president knew some of the information was confidential.

However, in her conclusion released Thursday, Hur declined to prosecute Biden for misuse of classified documents, saying that although the president withheld documents containing classified information, he was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. .