Joe Biden reacts sharply to the findings from the special counsel

WASHINGTON: In response to a special counsel’s investigation on his handling of secret materials, President Joe Biden reacted aggressively on Thursday, claiming that he purposefully held onto records that he was not legally allowed to have and maintaining that “my memory is fine” in the face of inquiries from the prosecution.

During a hastily scheduled televised appearance at the White House at night, a defiant Biden fiercely defended his actions and his ability to lead the nation, hoping to allay fears that would hurt his chances of winning reelection at a time when most voters believe he is too old.He was described in the report as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” a description that obviously irritated the president.
“I know what the hell I’m doing, and I’m an elderly man with good intentions,” Biden said to a reporter from Fox News who questioned him over the article after his remarks. “My memory is so bad I let you speak.”
The special counsel’s suggestion that the president was unable to recall the year his older son, Beau, passed away from cancer—a topic that particularly hurt Biden—infuriated him greatly. “How in the hell dare he raise that?” With a touch of emotion, Biden said.
He made the exact type of error that his staff presumably hoped he would avoid at a time when his mental acuity is being questioned, confusing the presidents of Mexico and Egypt in response to a question about negotiations to release hostages held by Hamas, even as he attempted to refute suggestions that he might not be fit for the position.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” Biden said. “I think that as you know, initially, the president of Mexico, el-Sissi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in.” It seems that he was speaking about Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, rather than Mexico’s president.
The statements from the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room were made just hours after special counsel Robert Hur, who had previously cleared him of all criminal charges related to handling classified documents, harshly criticized him for his actions and hinted that his memory problems may have been a factor in his inability to face charges.
Hur said in an embarrassing report spanning more than 300 pages that Biden had taken secret information about Afghanistan with him when he left the White House as vice president, as well as notebooks containing handwritten notes “implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods” that were stolen from White House briefings. Hur took issue with Biden for disclosing part of the notebook material to a ghostwriter who assisted him in writing his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad,” even though he was aware that some of it was secret.
Hur, a former employee of the Trump Justice Department who was tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 to oversee the investigation after secret documents were discovered in the living and garage areas of Biden’s Delaware home and his former office in Washington, stated that the evidence “does not establish Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Although the president and his staff were relieved that no criminal charges would be filed, they were obviously concerned that Biden’s mental state would be negatively portrayed in the report. Biden would be 86 years old by the conclusion of a second term, making him the oldest president in American history at 81.
The 77-year-old former president, who has raised concerns about his own mental state with his cryptic remarks at political events, faces 40 felony counts for carrying secret documents out of the White House and trying to evade authorities who were trying to obtain them. On Thursday, he angrily lamented that Biden was not prosecuted.
Trump claimed on social media, “I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more,” omitting to address his attempts to obstruct investigators and his reluctance to turn over records that had been subpoenaed. “What Biden did is outrageously criminal.”
Hur described the president as forgetting important dates from his tenure in the White House under President Barack Obama, based on his account of his talks with the president. “Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur said. “A former president well into his 80s” would be hard to persuade a jury of a criminal that “requires a mental state of willfulness,” Hur said.
Biden addressed the matter immediately during his speech at night. Hur’s conclusion that he “willfully” kept materials, he claimed, was “misleading” and “just plain wrong,” and he denied giving his ghostwriter access to sensitive material. He said that a shared memo he sent to Obama on Afghanistan ought to have been regarded as “private.”
He said that Trump’s actions and his document retention were not comparable. He said, “It wasn’t out in like in Mar-a-Lago, in a public place,” alluding to Trump’s mansion and private club in Florida. Furthermore, he accepted responsibility for any errors made by his team in handling secret material, declaring, “I take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff was doing.”
More than anything, however, Biden took offense at inquiries about his age. He angrily said, “That is your judgment,” to a reporter. When asked why he shouldn’t give way to a younger candidate for president, Biden said that he should “finish the job that I started” since he was the best qualified candidate in the nation.