Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday how President Joe Biden “can be trusted.”
Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report Thursday indicating Biden presented himself as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” during their interviews. Hur noted that Biden forgot when his vice presidency began and ended and when his son Beau died. The president lashed out at the press and was scrutinized for his performance at a Thursday night press conference.
“If the special counsel says President Biden has got significant limitations on his memory, then who is helping him run the country?” Doocy asked.
“The President of the United States runs the country,” Jean-Pierre said. “The Commander-in-Chief runs the country.”
“How can he be trusted with the nuclear codes if — I get that you’re saying — that nobody in the building would say he has an issue with his memory. But, just the little part of what we get to see, he’s made mistake after mistake after mistake after mistake on camera this week,” Doocy said.
“I want to be very clear here. The reality is that report, that part of the report does not live in reality,” the press secretary said. “It just doesn’t.” (RELATED: ‘What Is The Rabbit Hole?’: KJP Flees Doocy’s Question About Biden’s Mental Health)
“So the special counsel is lying about the president’s memory?” Doocy interjected.
“It was gratuitous. You heard from Ian Sams, my colleague. It is unacceptable, and it does not live in reality. Those are just the facts. And, look, it is a closed case. That is what the special counsel said, and what matters is, here, is that the president in the last three years has delivered on the economy, has delivered on healthcare, has turned this country around after the last president left us with an economy that was in a tailspin. That’s what we were dealing with.”
The president confused French President Emmanuel Macron with former President François Mitterrand, who died from prostate cancer in 1996, in early February. Biden claimed Wednesday to have spoken with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl about the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, though he died in 2017.
Biden also mixed up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt and forgot the parish that gave him the rosary he carries daily to remember his son Beau on Thursday.
Biden previously appeared to search for Republican Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski during a Sept. 28, 2022 event soon after she had passed away in a car crash.
An NBC News poll found that 62% of voters have “major concerns” about the president’s mental health. Another NBC News poll showed voters’ perceptions of Biden’s competency and effectiveness dropped from 47% to 32% since the 2020 election.