Biden’s memory is ‘hazy’ and ‘poor,’ says a special counsel’s report raising questions about his age
WASHINGTON — Long-standing concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and memory intensified Thursday following the release of a special counsel report examining his possession of classified documents.
The report described the 81-year-old Democrat’s memory as “fuzzy,” “fuzzy,” “defective,” “poor” and with “significant impairment.” It noted that Biden could not recall any defining milestones in his own life.
“He couldn’t remember when he was vice president, forgot on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being vice president?’), and forgot on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘am I still vice president in 2009?’),” the report said. “He even within several years no longer remembered when his son Beau died.”
While Biden will not be charged with mishandling classified documents, the report’s claims about his memory could undermine Biden’s message to voters that he can run the government and protect the country. Voters are already heading into this year’s election with serious doubts about Biden’s age, having scrutinized his blunders, his coughing, his slow walking and even a summer fall from his bicycle.
In ruling out a prosecution of Biden for keeping top secret materials as a private citizen, the report suggested he appeared too weak to prosecute: “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious crime requiring a mental state of willfulness.”
The White House walked back the characterizations of Biden’s memory in a Feb. 5 letter from the president’s lawyers, which was published in special counsel Robert Hur’s report. The letter argues that Biden’s “inability to remember dates or details of events that occurred years ago is neither surprising nor unusual,” especially when it comes to when certain documents were packed up or moved.
“We do not believe the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate,” the letter said. “The report uses highly biased language to describe an everyday occurrence among witnesses: a lack of memory of years-old events. Such comments have no place in a report from the Ministry of Justice.”
It is not uncommon for subjects in government studies to say they cannot remember an event or conversation, to avoid problems like perjury. The special counsel has not released the transcript of Biden’s interviews, so some context is unclear. Former President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, has boasted of his own vast memory but has also sometimes said in legal proceedings that he does not remember certain events.
Biden noted in a statement issued Thursday that he conducted five-hour interviews with Hur’s team over two days on Oct. 8 and 9, “even though Israel had just been attacked on Oct. 7 and I was in the middle of an international conflict. crisis.”
In an August poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, 77% of American adults said Biden is too old to be effective for another four years. It was one of the rare sources of bipartisan agreement in a politically polarized era, with 89% of Republicans and 69% of Democrats saying Biden’s age is a problem.
The release of the report overlapped with recent speeches by Biden in which he falsely claimed to have spoken to European leaders – France’s François Mitterrand and Germany’s Helmut Kohl – who had in fact not held office since the 1990s and had died several years ago .
Trump, 77, also faces questions about recent memory loss. In a speech in January, Trump repeatedly confused former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, his leading opponent for the Republican nomination, with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Pelosi was the Speaker of the House of Representatives during the January 6, 2021 insurrection of Trump’s supporters who attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. Trump said it was Haley who led the House and claimed she should have done more to secure it.
But Republican critics quickly piled on Thursday when the special counsel’s report became public.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said on X, formerly Twitter, that the report was “alarming” and that it is clear Biden “does not have the cognitive capacity to be president.”
“If you’re too senile to stand trial, then you’re too senile to be president. Joe Biden is unfit to lead this nation,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesman for Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC backing Trump’s candidacy.
Shortly before the special counsel’s report was publicly released, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed Biden’s blunders during the daily news briefing. Jean-Pierre said the errors are “common” among most public figures, including those younger than Biden.
“It happens to all of us,” said Jean-Pierre, who noted that she herself has made a mistake, as has House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Jean-Pierre tried to say that the public’s attention should be more focused on the substance of what Biden said about how world leaders are concerned about Trump’s possible return to the White House.
And Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford, D-Nev., on Thursday dismissed concerns about Biden’s mental acuity following the president’s confusion earlier this week.
“I was with the president on Sunday,” Horsford said, referring to Biden’s visit to Nevada. “The president is well suited to be our commander in chief and we will continue to focus on the issues that the American people are focused on.”
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.