President Joe Biden forgot when his term as vice president began and ended and when his son Beau had died during an interview with the special counsel reviewing Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Special Counsel Robert Hur concluded his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents and declined to pursue criminal charges, the report released Thursday said. During an interview with the special counsel, the president appeared to forget the timeline of his vice presidency and could not remember when his late son, Beau Biden, died. (RELATED: Biden Again Claims He Lost His Son In Iraq While Consoling Gold Star Families, Video Shows)
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He 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 wrote in the report.
“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,” Hur continued about the president.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act in the State Dining Room of the White House on February 6, 2024 in Washington, DC. President Biden urged Congress to pass the Senate-negotiated $118.3 billion deal which would provide funding for Ukraine and Israel as well as national border security measures. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Hur’s report repeatedly notes that Biden appeared to have a poor memory, even going as far as to say that if the president were to appear before a jury, he would present himself as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur concluded that Biden willfully kept classified documents relating to U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and handwritten notebook entries concerning sensitive national security matters. Biden held on to the documents as a private citizen after the conclusion of his vice presidency.
Joe Biden kept notebooks containing classified information at his home inside of unlocked drawers.
The notebooks included info from his intelligence briefings and meetings in the situation room. At least three times, he read classified entries to his ghostwriter @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/MkPc549jlk
— James Lynch (@jameslynch32) February 8, 2024
Biden’s lawyer Bob Bauer and special counsel Richard Sauber pushed back on the characterizations of the president’s memory.
“We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate,” they wrote in part. “The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events.”
The president addressed the special counsel report while speaking at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference.
“The special counsel acknowledged I cooperated completely,” Biden said Thursday not long after the report was released. “I did not throw up any roadblocks. I sought no delays.”
“In fact, I was so determined to get the special counsel what they needed, I went for a five-hour in person interview over two days of October — the 8th and 9th — even though Israel had just been attacked by Hamas on the 7th. I was in the middle of handling an international crisis,” the president continued.
Former President Donald Trump, who is himself facing charges for his handling of classified documents, responded to the report Thursday.
“The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine. I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal,” the former president wrote in part.