WASHINGTON — President Biden tried to laugh off questions about his mental stamina on Monday, four days after slamming special counsel Robert Hur, describing him as a “well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.”
“I know I don’t look like that, but I’ve been around for a while,” Biden, 81, told county officials gathered at a hotel near the White House.
After pausing for dramatic effect, Biden added, “I remember that!”
The gaffe-prone president’s attempt to downplay his age comes a week after Mr. It happened within a short time.
In an impromptu news conference afterwards, Mr. Biden attacked a journalist who asked about Mr. Xu’s report and what it meant for his bid for a second term.
“I’m well-meaning, I’m old, I know what I’m doing,” Biden fumed, editing out Xu’s description of himself during a sparring session with reporters.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also defended Biden’s mental strength during Monday’s regular briefing.
“He’s sharp. He’s in great shape,” Jean-Pierre insisted.
She pointed out that Mr. Hoa is “not a doctor.”
But Jean-Pierre declined to commit to allowing the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to take questions from reporters after Biden’s next annual medical examination, which is expected to take place as early as this month.
Jean-Pierre said O’Connor did not perform cognitive tests on Biden last year because his performance as president indicated they were unnecessary.
Breaking from historical convention, Mr. O’Connor was never allowed to address the press.
Polls over the past year have consistently shown that a majority of voters are concerned about Biden’s mental fitness to serve as president.
Joe Biden classified document investigation report
- Special Counsel Robert Hur determined that President Biden “intentionally retained and disclosed classified materials” after he left office as vice president in 2016.
- The records kept by Biden included documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other national security and foreign policy issues.
- Biden kept classified documents to help write his memoir. “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden reportedly told the ghostwriter in a 2017 conversation.
- Despite these findings, Mr. Xu’s 388-page report recommended that the president not be indicted.
- The special counsel said that if Biden were to go to trial, he would likely present himself to the jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
the current, 86% of Americans An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday and conducted after the release of the Hur report found that many believe Biden is “too old” to be president, but are seeking a rematch with him. 62% of respondents said they thought the same about former President Donald Trump, 77. Biden in the November election.
Trump faces 40 criminal charges in his own dossier case, which carries a maximum penalty of 450 years in prison. His trial is scheduled to begin May 20 in South Florida.
According to the special counsel’s report, Biden, like Trump, has expressed a desire to keep some documents despite the legal gray area, and has even revealed secret information from the book’s ghostwriter. The ghostwriter later deleted the tape of Mr. Biden’s remarks after Mr. Xu’s investigation began.
The president has kept documents for decades, with the records marked as classified dating back to the 1970s when Biden was a senator and back to his time as vice president, which ended in 2017. , Hoare wrote.
The state secrets were found in Biden’s vice-presidential office, provided by the University of Pennsylvania near the Capitol, and among “domestic debris” in Biden’s garage and home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Mr. Hoar’s report revealed that Mr. Biden’s D.C. office could not be locked to prevent students and staff from using the spacious suites at the Penn Biden Center. Meanwhile, Biden’s home in Delaware did not have Secret Service protection during his run for president.
According to Xu’s report, the 12 documents still contained top secret information. Ten handwritten notebooks and two notecards kept by Biden also contained current top-secret information, and other documents contained classified and confidential information.
