Special counsel report referenced Biden as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory’; unclear if foreign aid bill has votes to pass
- Biden defends his memory in surprise speech after special counsel report
- Six key takeaways from Biden special counsel report
Another point from Dan Pfeiffer: Joe Biden often interacts with Republicans who would like to see him exit the White House as quickly as possible.
Why haven’t they mentioned the memory problems Robert Hur repeatedly pointed out in his report, Pfeiffer asks? It would be to their benefit:
Rumor and innuendo are the official currency in political Washington. Beltway types love to dial up reporters and give them the latest dish. There are few secrets in that town, and if Joe Biden acted like Hur says, we would all know. Biden meets with dozens of people daily – staffers, members of Congress, CEOs, labor officials, foreign leaders, and military and intelligence officials. Many of these people are not even Biden supporters. Some are Republicans who will pull the lever for Trump in November. If Biden was regularly misremembering obvious pieces of information or making other mistakes that suggested he was not up to the job, it would be in the press. Washington is not capable of keeping something like that secret.
Republicans will use this to drive their chosen narrative. Reporters will raise questions about why the President doesn’t do more interviews. And Democrats will publicly deal with anxiety about the role Biden’s age will play in the campaign. I fear – and I hope I am wrong – that unlike most of the marginalia that excites political junkies, the Special Counsel’s descriptions of Biden will break through to the public at large.
I want to stipulate that the report is very bad and poses some real political peril for Biden. I don’t want to sugarcoat it. Biden’s age is his biggest impediment to reelection and this description could be very damaging.
Robert Hur is described in press reports as a ‘well-respected U.S. attorney,’ and maybe he once was, but this report is a partisan hit job. He swerves out of his lane to drive a negative narrative about Biden, the same message the Republican Party uses against Biden. In the report, Hur generously describes memory lapses from others but hammers Biden for the same.
It’s hard to read the report and not think that, without the ability to charge Biden with a crime, Hur wanted to damage him politically.
Continue reading…
