Liberal US media downplay president’s memory lapses after bombshell report

LIBERAL media outlets have appeared to downplay concerns about Joe Biden’s memory, after a report revealed he could not remember when he had served as vice-president and when his son died.

A report by Robert Hur, a department of justice special prosecutor, found on Thursday that the president’s memory had “significant limitations” and that bringing a prosecution against him, for failure to correctly store classified information, would be difficult because a jury would view him as a “well-meaning” but “elderly” man.

Mr Biden reacted furiously, giving a press conference from the White House in which he shouted at reporters and insisted he was still capable of running for a second term in November.

Liberal media outlets, including the

New York Times and MSNBC broadcaster, were slower than other publications to report the concerns about Mr Biden’s mental competence.

The New York Times’s official account on X mentioned Mr Hur’s report when it was released shortly after 3pm, but did not mention the issues surrounding his age for more than four hours.

The paper’s Friday front page stressed Mr Biden’s “exoneration” in a headline, while the portion of “news analysis” about the story that appeared on the first page did not mention the claim that Mr Biden had forgotten when he was vice-president.

Meanwhile, MSNBC’s website yesterday contained three headlines about the story, of which two were critical of the report and one pointed out that Mr Biden would not be charged over mishandling the documents.

The main story on the broadcaster’s website referred to comments by Joe Scarborough, an MSNBC host, discrediting Mr Hur.

Chris Hayes, an MSNBC commentator, said on air that Mr Hur was “frustrated and angry” that he “didn’t get more” from the investigation into Mr Biden.

Ari Melber, another host, said that the claims were “ageism snuck into a report clearing the person of any wrongdoing,” adding that the report was “a lot of derogatory stuff ”. Scarborough’s show, Morning

Joe, is a well-known favourite of Mr Biden’s.

Liberal outlets have previously been accused of playing down concerns about the president’s age, while polls show more than three quarters of voters are concerned about his health and ability to run for office again in November.