First Lady Jill Biden blasted special counsel Robert Hur over his scathing report that raised troubling questions about her husband’s advanced age and mental acuity.
While Hur cleared President Biden of any charges related to classified documents found at his Delaware home, he also flagged several instances of the commander-in-chief being forgetful, describing him as “a well-intentioned old man with a poor memory.”
His 388-page report stated that the president could not recall the exact or approximate date when his late son Beau Biden died or even when his vice presidency ended during an extended interview with prosecutors.
“I hope you can imagine what it must have been like to read that attack — not just as Joe’s wife, but as Beau’s mother,” Jill Biden lamented in an email to supporters over the weekend.
“I don’t know what this Special Adviser is trying to achieve. We have to give grace to everyone, and I can’t imagine someone would try to use our son’s death to score political points.”
The First Lady has long defended her husband from complaining about his age. Getty Images
Hur, a Trump appointee and former US Attorney for the District of Maryland, was named special counsel in January 2023 to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.
His report claims that Biden “does not remember, even in years, when his son Beau died.” Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 — and the president has often talked about the agony he went through during that time.
“If you’ve ever experienced a loss like that, you know that you don’t measure it in years — you measure it in grief. May 30 is a day etched in our hearts. It’s devastating to me, it’s devastating to our family,” Jill Biden responded.
“How dare he bring that up? Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought to myself it’s none of their damn business,” said President Biden in an animated press conference last Thursday.
At the age of 81, Biden is already the oldest US president ever.
If he wins and serves a hypothetical second term in office, Biden will be 86 years old at the conclusion.
Hur’s damning report added fuel to speculation about her age, even as she appeared poised to once again take on Donald Trump, who is only three and a half years her junior.
The special counsel claimed that Biden “doesn’t remember when he became 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 (‘in 2009, am I still the Vice President?’)”
President Biden was deeply offended by special counsel Robert Hur’s knock on his age. AP
White House officials have questioned and doubted some of the claims from Hur, complaining that they were not relevant to his investigation in the first place.
While strenuously denying the age part of Hur’s report in a fiery press conference, Biden suffered another blunder, accidentally referring to the misidentification of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as “the president of Mexico.”
Republicans seized on the development, with some like Rep. Claudia Tenney suggested that the cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office on the basis that he lacks the capacity to serve.
The 25th Amendment allows for the removal of the president in the event of some form of incapacity.
“Joe is 81, that’s true, but he’s 81 and does more in an hour than most people do in a day,” the first lady added. “His age, with his experience and expertise, is a tremendous asset and he proves that every day.”
Biden allies then quickly joined former President Donald Trump’s rally in South Carolina on Saturday, where he said he would encourage Russia to attack NATO allies who don’t pay their dues, and wondered why her former US ambassador to the UN, the deployed husband Nikki Haley was absent from the campaign trail.
On Saturday, noted Democratic political strategist James Carville raised concerns about Biden skipping Super Bowl Sunday interviews for the second year in a row.
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“It’s the biggest television audience, not even close, and you get a chance to do a 20, 25-minute interview that day,” Carville told CNN’s “Smerconish” Saturday.
“And you didn’t do it? That’s a sign that the staff or yourself don’t have much faith in you,” Carville continued. “There is no other way to read this.”
The Super Bowl Sunday interview with the commander in chief was started by former President Barack Obama in 2009. Last year, the Super Bowl attracted 115 million views.
“And he won’t do the debate,” Carville later added. “He’s old, I know what that is because I’m almost his age, and it’s not going to get any better.”
White House officials protested that Americans were eager to watch the San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs, rather than thinking about politics.
An ABC News/Ipsos news poll found that 86% of Americans think Biden is too old to serve a second term.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
