- Written by Anthony Zurcher
- North American correspondent
It was a political grenade disguised as a 345-page report.
The fireworks were delivered Thursday afternoon amid the findings of Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into Joe Biden's handling of classified documents after he resigned as vice president in 2017.
The most important conclusion was that despite evidence that the president “intentionally retained and disclosed classified material while a civilian,” he would not be criminally charged for his actions.
The end result was far more harmful. The reason Mr. was. ”.
Questions about Joe Biden's age and ability to serve another four years have been smoldering for much of Biden's time in the White House, so this latest discovery provided fuel for Republican attacks, with some It will fuel fears among Democrats that the president could become president. It falls short of its mission.
Chris Borick, director of Muhlenberg College's Public Opinion Institute, said this is a narrative the Biden campaign is desperately trying to confront.
“In polling, we keep seeing data points that suggest his biggest liability in this election is that voters think he's simply too old to run.” he says.
It's no wonder, then, that the White House launched a fierce counterattack after hearing Huh's report, with the president holding an impromptu press conference in which he claimed that Huh's memory was “absolutely fine.”
“I know what I'm doing,” he said.
Video: Biden responds to special counsel: 'I'm old and I know what I'm doing'
Additionally, the Special Counsel provided concrete evidence to support this contention. He wrote that during two days of interviews, Biden often had trouble remembering details related to the investigation. More than that, Heo said, he had a hard time remembering the years he served as vice president and when his eldest son, Beau Biden, died of cancer.
It was this last claim that prompted an angry response from the president during a White House press conference Thursday night.
“How in the world does he dare say that?'' said the president.
But the press conference itself could add further fuel to the attack on Biden, as the president responded to a question about the Gaza war by referring to Egyptian President Mohamed al-Sisi as the Mexican president.
The stumble, along with other rants by Biden in recent days, highlight the scope of the challenges facing his re-election effort. The best way for a president to address age concerns is to run a vigorous campaign and increase public exposure. However, any attempt carries the risk of creating activity or evidence that aggravates existing concerns.
The White House has also made other efforts to soften the Hur report. Biden's personal lawyer, Richard Sauber, tried to persuade the special counsel to drop references to Biden's mental acuity or insanity, writing in a letter that such language was “neither accurate nor appropriate.” mentioned in.
Biden also noted that he gave two days of testimony to the special counsel immediately after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, “in the midst of dealing with an international crisis.”
Other Biden supporters have objected to Hur's impartiality, pointing to the fact that he was appointed to the U.S. attorney's office by President Donald Trump in 2017. However, it was Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland who selected Mr. Hur as special counsel.
Biden's team was also quick to pounce on gaffes from Donald Trump, 77, his likely opponent in November. The former president recently confused his main opponent, Nikki Haley, with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the leader of Turkey.
The best case scenario for the White House may be that this particular grenade detonated in February, a full nine months after Election Day.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said concerns about Biden's age were already inherently baked into the campaign, and the report was damaging but not fatal.
The public “will look at that and raise one eyebrow, but not both,” he says. “Because in some ways people already knew this. Even if you casually watched his speech for five minutes, you already knew that,” he says.
When U.S. voters finally head to the polls, the allegations contained in the special counsel's report, which ultimately did not find Biden criminally responsible, will matter less than issues like the economy and abortion. right.
Meanwhile, the worst-case scenario is that this is just the beginning of a cavalcade of evidence that undermines one of the president's weakest attributes. And the arrow of time only points in one direction.
The president is not getting any younger.
