When delivering a surprise address from the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden slammed special counsel Robert Hur for suggesting in his final report of the handling of classified documents that he struggled to remember when his son Beau died.
“How in the hell dare he raise that,” Biden said when responding to the report. “Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.” He continued, “Every Memorial Day we hold a service remembering him, attended by friends and family and the people who loved him.”
The president paused, then added, “I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”
In a 388-page report released earlier on Thursday, Hur concluded that Biden “willfully” retained classified documents, but declined to bring any charges. While the probe determined that the president did not violate any laws in his handling of classified documents found at his home and office, the report included several jabs at Biden’s memory, describing him as a “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
In January of last year, Hur, a Trump-appointed former federal prosecutor, was tapped to serve as special counsel on the case. In his report, Hur wrote that Biden “did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).” Hur also added that Biden did not remember “even within several years” when his son Beau died. Beau Biden died in 2015.
The president’s team defended his memory after the report’s release, and in a letter sent to Hur on Monday, White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber and Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer wrote they “do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate.”
“The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events,” the attorneys countered. “Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report, particularly one that in the first paragraph announces that no criminal charges are ‘warranted’ and that ‘the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt.’”
As the press on Thursday continued to question the president, 81, on his age, Biden stressed he should be judged on his achievements while in office. “I’m well meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden responded to a Fox News reporter. “My memory is so bad I let you speak.”
