Democrats and their allies came under intense questioning Friday in a prosecutor’s report on Joe Biden, as they were formulating a damage control response to a hastily organized White House press conference the night before. He appears to have failed in his mission to reassure voters about his mental acuity. kept his classified documents at the end of his vice-presidential term.
Biden had already said that his meeting with Special Counsel Robert Hur last October (in which he reportedly forgot the year of his son Beau’s death and the exact time he was vice president) was a sign of Hamas’s involvement in Israel. It states that it was carried out immediately after the attack on the south. Mr. Biden was preoccupied with the U.S. response.
Huh’s report said Thursday that even though Biden “intentionally” retained and disclosed classified material, no criminal charges have been filed in the case, which would be unacceptable in any case for a sitting president. , concluded that it would not be justified even if he was no longer president. president.
But Ho later detailed how he noticed the US president’s memory was failing, sparking anger from Biden and prompting Democrats and aides to come to his defense in the hours that followed and Friday. Became.
“The characterization of the president’s behavior in that report could not be more wrong based on the facts and is clearly politically motivated,” Kamala Harris told MSNBC on Friday. Ta.
The vice president blasted claims in the 388-page report that Biden was mentally impaired as “unsubstantiated, inaccurate and inappropriate.”
Earlier, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, a key battleground state, said any recall of the 81-year-old president would be “very limited” and that Herr would not be charged over the classified documents, in part because of the jury’s opinion. He referred to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s conclusion that He will see the U.S. president not as a willful criminal, but as a “well-meaning old man with a bad memory.”
“I judge presidents by what they’ve done and whose side they’re on,” Baldwin said. told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.. She pointed to Biden’s “strong track record of creating good-paying jobs, rebuilding infrastructure and lowering prescription drug prices.”
Tommy Vieter, former Obama administration staffer, I wrote to X He said the prosecutor’s comments were “nothing more than the work of right-wingers from within Mr. Biden’s own Justice Department.” wild. “
On MSNBC, which frequently foretells the Democratic Party line, host Joe Scarborough said a presidential recall would be “very limited” and that jurors would see Biden as “a president.” referred to the special counsel’s conclusion not to bring charges over classified documents. He is a “well-meaning old man with a bad memory” and not a criminal.
“It’s very strange,” Mr. Scarborough said. “Why on earth is this happening? [Hur] Neurological evaluation of Joe Biden included in report, and why? [US attorney general] Did Merrick Garland publish such garbage in his Justice Department report? ”
Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York told the station he had “no concerns” about Biden’s age or abilities. “Remember, the president’s job is to lead our country. It’s not to be America’s cheerleader. It’s to govern our country,” he said.
Mr. Scarborough mentioned the disappearance of Hillary Clinton’s emails on the eve of the 2016 election, saying, “James who politically prosecuted Hillary Clinton in 2016 because he could not legally prosecute her.”・It’s like Mr. Comey,” he added.
Vieter echoed those words, claiming that Ho has “clearly decided to follow the Jim Comey path of burying a report that absolves Biden of any criminal acts by attacking humanity.”
Dean Phillips, a leading Democratic primary challenger who is campaigning against Biden, said Huh’s report is “as good as handing the 2024 election to Donald Trump.” Stated.
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“This report simply affirms what most Americans already know: the president cannot continue to serve as our nation’s commander in chief beyond his term, which ends on January 20, 2025. ” said Phillips. statement.
Some Democratic lawmakers have privately expressed growing concern about the re-election narrative focused on Biden’s age. “It’s a nightmare,” a Democratic congressman told NBC News. “That would weaken President Biden electorally and turn Donald Trump into a disastrous authoritarian.”
“For Democrats, we are in a tough situation,” the anonymous source reportedly added.
Mr. Biden hit back at Mr. Xu’s characterization of his mental state in a surprise press conference at the White House on Thursday night. The president insisted his memory was “perfectly fine” and said during the tense exchange that he “knew what he was doing,” adding that his remark about his memory meant “there is no room for this report. No,” he said.
“My memory is fine,” Biden said. “Look at what I’ve done since I became president.”
“As for irrelevant comments, they don’t know what they’re saying,” he added. “That has nothing to do with this report.”
At the end of the interview, in response to a reporter’s question about the current situation in the Middle East, he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as “the president of Mexico.” The error came after two other public gaffes this week in which Biden claimed to have met with two European leaders, Germany’s Helmut Kohl and France’s François Mitterrand, who recently passed away.
Polls consistently show that concerns about Biden’s age are seen as his biggest political liability in a rematch with Donald Trump.
NBC News poll When asked last month whether Biden has the “physical and mental health necessary to serve a second term,” it found that 76% of voters had serious or moderate concerns. When asked the same question about President Trump, 77, 48% said they had serious or moderate concerns.
