Joe Biden is furious. When in Leesburg he meets the Democratic deputies locked in the annual programmatic conclave he also raises his voice. “But how the hell can you say that I don't remember the date of my son Beau's death,” one of the people who was in the room confesses to us on the condition of anonymity. It's just after 4.30 and the report with which the special prosecutor Robert K. Hur – in charge of investigating the classified documents released from the White House at the time of Biden's vice-president and found in an office in Washington and in his home in Delaware – effectively closes the case. There are no details to continue, he writes in the almost 400 pages of the report.
What is highlighted is the carelessness, the lack of control, the lack of security in storing the documents, and also that the current president at the time kept and voluntarily disclosed highly classified materials but should not be indicted because it would be difficult to convince a jury to convict him. In one trial, we read, Biden presented himself as an “empathetic, well-intentioned elderly man with a poor memory.” Precisely the same characteristics that he “showed in the depositions before the investigators”.
The case seems to be closed here. But this last sentence and other passages of the report light up the American political day.
Under accusation or used as a driving force by rivals to demonstrate Biden's inability to be president – this is the position taken by Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House – is Hur's account of the president's interrogations. They took place over two days, October 8 and 9, and Biden we read “does not remember when he was vice president”. He asks “if it was 2013” when the mandate expired. “His memory seems cloudy when he talks about the Afghanistan debate.” The reference is to the withdrawal discussed with Obama with which he had different positions. Biden – underlines the prosecutor – “does not remember within a few years when his son Beau died”. He died in 2015 from cancer.
Meanwhile, Biden is traveling from Washington to Leesburg, Virginia. In front of reporters and deputies he repeats parts of the statement that the White House issued “rejoicing” that the investigation ended without charges, highlighting the difference between him “who cooperated with the authorities and handed over everything” and “Donald Trump who hidden the evidence.” But it's when the doors close that he lets off steam with a small circle.
It is on the way back – at 5.30 – to Washington that the staff ponders the blitz of a speech from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. With 20 minutes' notice the journalists were invited to show up, and at 7.30 the president spoke. He is angry, he raises his voice. “How dare you say I don't know when my son died?” “Frankly when I was asked the question, I thought this was none of their business. I don't need anyone to remind me when he died.”
To Hur who says he has a poor memory, he replies, “I'm well-intentioned, and I'm an old man and I know what the hell I'm doing.” He quickly recalls his successes as president and shows them as proof of his acumen, of his being strong. It's a quick back and forth with the reporters, Biden is angry and resorts to sarcasm.
In the afternoon, his lawyers had asked Hur to modify the report because the reference to the memory and the reconstruction of what happened is not considered truthful.
However, the damage is done, the Republicans go on the attack and find an unexpected electoral weapon.
Yesterday, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre was bombarded with questions during the briefing about whether Biden had confused Helmut Kohl with Angela Merkel on Wednesday evening during a reception in New York. Biden had spoken of a meeting with the G7 in 2021 and reported that “German Chancellor Kohl” had asked him a question. Kohl died in 2017. A few hours earlier the exchange of persons had involved Mitterrand and Macron. Karine Jean-Pierre limited herself to saying that “everyone gets names confused.” And last night while you were answering a question about Israel, the president defined Al Sisi as “president of Mexico” rather than Egypt. All ammunition, in light of Hur's report, now in the hands of the Republicans.
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