Biden on special counsel report: My memory is fine

WASHINGTON (AP) – The longstanding concerns about US President Joe Biden’s age and memory intensified on Thursday after the release of a special counsel’s report investigating his possession of classified documents.

The report described the 81-year-old Democrat’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.”It noted that Biden could not recall defining milestones in his own life such as when his son Beau died or when he served as vice president.

“My memory is fine,” Biden responded Thursday night from the White House, where he grew visibly angry as he denied forgetting when his son died. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

While Biden will not face charges for mishandling classified documents, the report’s assertions about his memory could undermine Biden’s message to voters that he can manage the government and safeguard the country.

Voters are already going into this year’s election with severe misgivings about Biden’s age, having scrutinized his gaffes, his coughing, his slow walking and even a tumble off his bicycle.

In ruling out prosecution of Biden over his retention of highly classified materials as a private citizen, the report from special counsel Robert Hur suggested he would seem too feeble to prosecute: “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Biden said the report’s descriptions of his memory and his son’s death were “extraneous commentary” that “had no place in this report.”