Attorney General defends Biden’s mental fitness, expresses ‘complete confidence’
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers Tuesday that President Joe Biden shows no signs of cognitive impairment while defending Biden’s ability to serve as commander in chief.
Garland, appearing before a House committee overseeing funding for the Justice Department, was answering questions on the report from special counsel Robert Hur about Biden’s handling of classified materials. Hur’s report resulted in no charges yet made observations about Biden’s mental state that infuriated the Democratic president.
The attorney general, while stressing he was not commenting on the specifics of Hur’s analysis, said based on his own observations, he has “complete confidence in the president” when it comes to questions about his mental fitness.
“I have seen the president effectively guide the members of the department, of his Cabinet, and his military,” Garland said in response to questions from Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va. The attorney general added: “The president has no impairment.”
As Cline prodded him further, Garland stressed again: “I have complete confidence in the president, and I reject your characterization.”
Hur said in his report, released in February, that prosecutors would likely not be able to prove a criminal case against Biden beyond a reasonable doubt when it came to the president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. In one line from the report, Hur found Biden would “likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”