President Biden slammed reporters and Special Counsel Robert Hur on Thursday night in response to a scathing report about the mishandling of classified documents that could have devastating effects on Biden’s re-election prospects. .
Mr. Hsu’s report on Mr. Biden’s misretention of classified materials does not recommend criminal charges, but during an interview with investigators, it was revealed that the 81-year-old commander-in-chief had suffered a severe mental breakdown and was unable to report important events in his life. It was observed that the date was forgotten.
“I’ve been seeing the headlines since my report on intentional document retention was released. These claims are not only misleading, they’re flat-out wrong,” Biden said in a statement at the hastily scheduled White House defiantly stated during an appearance in the Diplomatic Reception Room.
“Furthermore, I am aware that some attention has been paid to the wording of the report regarding my recollection of events. There are also documents in which I do not remember when my son died. Why on earth would he bring it up? Can you? Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought it was none of their business.”
Mr. Biden then slammed Mr. Heo’s assessment, saying he would likely be removed from the jury on grounds of senility, just before misidentifying Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as the “President of Mexico.”
Biden was furious, saying, “I’m a well-meaning, elderly person who knows what I’m doing,” and appears to potential jurors as a “well-intentioned, elderly person with chronic health conditions.” and edited Mr. Heo’s explanation. I have bad memory. ”
The president retorted: “I became president and got this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”
Mr. Biden told one reporter, “My memory is fine,” and told another, “My memory is so bad that I let him speak.”
Mr. Biden avoided responsibility for the document blunder when pressed by reporters.
“I had no idea how half the boxes got into the garage,” he said, blaming staff for decades of sloppy handling of state secrets.
“I take responsibility for not seeing exactly what my staff was doing,” he said, adding that the records show “what showed up in the garage, what came out of the house, what was moved by me, not by me. “Things,” he said. staff. “
Asked if he should have done anything differently, Mr. Biden cracked up: “I wish we had been more careful about how we moved the documents.”
Hoar’s report said Biden kept classified documents from his time as a senator in the 1970s, as well as more recent vice presidential records, along with “family debris” in his garage and in Pennsylvania after he took office as vice president. It is said that it was kept in another location, such as an office. Biden Center in Washington, DC.
The office provided by the University of Pennsylvania near the Capitol “was not locked,” Herr’s report found.
Biden is seeking to differentiate himself from former President Donald Trump, 77, who faces 40 criminal charges (up to 450 years in prison) for resisting document production after leaving the White House in 2021. Ta.
“It was in my house. It wasn’t done in public like Mar-a-Lago, it wasn’t classified,” Biden claimed at an evening news conference.
In fact, according to Mr. It was judged by. Other documents contained classified information.
Trump, whose trial is scheduled to begin May 20 in South Florida, argued on Thursday that Huo’s recommendation that Biden not be indicted showed political bias within the Justice Department.
Biden defended his recognition despite repeatedly getting the names of foreign leaders wrong. On Wednesday, donors were told twice that Helmut Kohl, who resigned as German chancellor in 1998 and died in 2017, will speak out in 2021 about that year’s Capitol riot, and that the former French president said on Sunday: . Francois Mitterrand, who resigned in 1995 and died in 1996, also joined the conversation.
Journalists pressed Biden on the implications of this report and questions about his mental health in the November election, which is expected to be a rematch with President Trump.
“Many Americans are paying attention and expressing concern about your age,” the female reporter began, referring to “polls.”
“That’s your decision. That’s your decision,” Biden barked, pointing at the woman, before adding, “That’s not the press’ decision.”
The journalist went on to say, “In December you told me that you believed there were many other Democrats who could defeat Donald Trump. So why does it have to be you now? mosquito?
“Because I’m the best person in this country to be president of the United States,” Biden retorted, “and I’m going to finish what I started.”
