Questions dog Biden over ability to serve another term
The White House knew it had a political problem on its hands when a special counsel report questioned President Joe Biden’s memory last month, but Biden saw a much more personal affront as well.
Robert Hur, who had been appointed to investigate whether Biden mishandled classified documents, wrote that the president couldn’t recall in an interview with prosecutors the date when his adult son, Beau, died of cancer. It was a shocking contention about a keystone event in Biden’s life, and it fed into questions about whether the 81-year-old president is fit to serve another term.
“How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden angrily declared during a hastily arranged news conference after the report was released. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
The reality of the situation, however, isn’t as clear as either Biden or Hur portrayed, according to a transcript of the interview released on Tuesday before the former special counsel testified on Capitol Hill.
Hur didn’t ask the president about his son’s death; Biden brought it up himself during a discussion about how he stored documents at a rental home in Virginia after leaving the vice president’s office in 2017.
And Biden recalled the specific date that Beau died, although he briefly wondered aloud about the year as the conversation toggled between various events.
“What month did Beau die?” Biden mused. “Oh, God, May 30th.”
A White House lawyer interjected by saying, “2015.”
“Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden asked. When someone responded affirmatively, the president added, “It was 2015.”
Biden aides defended the president’s inaccurate characterization of the interview during his news conference last month, describing his response as visceral and emotional. And they said his exchange with Hur showed how Biden believed it was important to reflect on how his son’s death had affected his decision making over subsequent years.
Hur, in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, said his report’s discussion of Biden’s memory was “necessary and accurate and fair” because his state of mind was an important part of evaluating whether he committed a crime.
“I did not sanitize my explanation nor did I disparage the president unfairly,” he said.
Asked why Biden angrily accused Hur of raising his son’s death when the transcript shows otherwise, White House spokesman Ian Sams responded that the president was being asked about Beau generally, including the book that the president wrote about his death and his cancer initiative that Beau inspired.
“He thought it was outrageous and inappropriate for that report to include such an inappropriate and extraneous comment like that, especially when it’s clear that he says the day his son died,” Sams said. “So I think that you saw the anger and emotional reaction of a father who still experiences the pain of that loss every single day.”
The transcript released on Tuesday sheds new light on one of the most politically and personally sensitive episodes in Biden’s term. Although the special counsel’s investigation found no basis to bring criminal charges against Biden — unlike Donald Trump, who was indicted for refusing to return classified records to the federal government — the references to his memory threatened the president’s ability to assure voters that he can keep doing his job until he turns 86.