Biden’s attempt to address memory issue backfires
President Joe Biden forcefully — and at times angrily — sought to combat suggestions his acuity was declining in a hastily-arranged press conference Thursday night.
But the 81-year-old leader may have made his biggest electionyear liability worse.
The president summoned reporters at the White House to insist that his memory was “fine” and emphasize he was insulted by the portrait of an “elderly man with a poor memory” painted by a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump — his likely 2024 opponent — in an investigation into his handling of classified documents.
Yet a press conference that saw the president express righteous anger over the invoking of his son’s death and offer a comprehensive overlook at the conflict in the Middle East was undercut by another high-profile gaffe involving a foreign leader.
Toward the end of his remarks, Biden mistakenly referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the leader of Mexico. The misstep threatened to undermine his entire effort, and was immediately seized on by his political opponents as further evidence Biden was unfit to serve.
White House allies expressed anger and frustration, saying the focus on Biden’s late slip merely validated their belief that the news media was driven by spectacle over substance and unfairly held Biden to a higher standard than Trump, who himself has repeatedly fumbled names, dates and facts.
Still, the irony of Biden’s gaffe seemed to eliminate any hope of reversing the drumbeat of concern over his age and ability that had grown over the week, after repeatedly confusing the names of European leaders on the campaign trail and declining the opportunity to sit for a traditional pregame interview before the Super Bowl.
That alarm reached new heights on Thursday afternoon, when a scathing Justice Department report on his handling of classified material cited the president’s “diminished faculties and faulty memory” even as it concluded criminal charges were not warranted.
Biden rejected the characterization presented in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report.
“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president, and I’ve put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation,” Biden told reporters in the Diplomatic Room.
The president also disputed conclusions within the report, including that he disclosed classified information to his ghostwriter. He said a memo on Afghanistan he wrote to President Barack Obama that he shared should have been considered “private” and not classified. Biden also said any assertion he willfully kept classified material was “plain wrong.”