Biden's fury over the special counsel report
Post Reports
The Washington Post
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🗓️ 9 February 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
A special counsel report on President Biden concluded that he would not be charged for mishandling sensitive documents. Yet the report painted a scathing picture of the president’s memory, refueling attacks on his mental agility as he faces reelection.
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On Thursday evening, President Biden gave an emotional and angry response to a report issued by special counsel Robert K. Hur. While the report found that criminal charges were not merited for Biden’s handling of classified documents, it detailed moments when Biden appeared hazy on specific critical dates and years during his interviews with Hur, a Republican appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel.
One line from Hur’s report suggested that Biden did not recall the year in which his son Beau had passed away. Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015, when his father was vice president. The president said he remembers his son’s death every day.
Biden also highlighted a separate investigation into former president Donald Trump’s own handling of classified documents, and the differences between them.
The president, who is 81, has been fighting off voters’ concerns about his age as he prepares to seek reelection – likely against Trump.
Today’s show was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon with help from Arjun Singh. It was edited by Monica Campbell.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Thursday night reporters rushed to the White House after they got just a 20 |
| 0:11.0 | minute heads up that President Biden will be delivering remarks. |
| 0:15.0 | Which is quite unusual. |
| 0:16.0 | Usually we have an advance notice of what the president is going to be doing. |
| 0:20.2 | This was clearly a scramble to have him address the nation from the diplomatic room at the White House. |
| 0:27.0 | Matt Vizer is a White House reporter for the post. |
| 0:32.0 | He's been covering a special counsel |
| 0:34.0 | investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents and this |
| 0:38.5 | investigation concluded with the release of a report. |
| 0:42.8 | As you know, the Special Counsel releases findings a day |
| 0:46.5 | about they're looking to my handling of classified documents. |
| 0:49.8 | So this came several hours after the Special counsel report that cleared him in some sense of, you know, not he's not going to be prosecuted for his classified documents, but it was a pretty damning document in terms of taking on his memory and his cognitive abilities. |
| 1:06.6 | My memory is not coming. My memory is fine. My memory, take a look at what I've done since I've become president. |
| 1:12.4 | None of you thought I could pass any of the things I got. memory, take a look at what I've done since I've become present. |
| 1:13.0 | None of you thought I could pass any of the things I got passed. |
| 1:15.8 | How did that happen? |
| 1:17.0 | He was angry and defensive and tried to rebut many of the things |
| 1:21.6 | that the special counsel had in his report. |
| 1:24.0 | He got quite emotional in particular talking about his son, Bo, who died in 2015. |
| 1:31.0 | One of the allegations in the report was that Biden had trouble remembering the year in which |
| 1:36.7 | Bo died. |
| 1:37.7 | There's even reference that I don't remember when my son died. |
... |
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