While there's a lot to unpack in Special Counsel Robert Hur's 388-page report on President Joe Biden's mishandling of classified documents, a few passages documenting Biden's mental state as assessed by investigators is a bombshell set to become a significant new pain point for the White House as it struggles to insist Biden is fit to be president and serve another term.
In the special counsel's reasoning for why charges wouldn't be brought against the former president for mishandling classified documents, it turns out they just don't think a jury could be convinced to convict someone as hapless and elderly as Joe Biden.
"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. 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," the report states (emphasis added). "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. 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," the report added.
Special Counsel's report describes Joe Biden, the President of the United States currently running for a second term, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." pic.twitter.com/2k7eV8vYum
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) February 8, 2024
Ah. So when there are questions about Joe Biden's demonstrated inability to navigate his way off a stage following remarks, his rampant misstatements about his own life and with whom he's had conversations, they're brushed aside as common occurrences that everyone has to deal with. But when there's a question of criminal culpability for mishandling classified documents after leaving office, Joe Biden is simply too old and gone-in-the-head to be found guilty.
By admitting that it would be a struggle to convince Americans that Biden possesses a "mental state of willfulness," they're admitting he's too far gone to be the President of the United States.
Even worse, the special counsel's recounting of the interviews with Biden found even more staggering lapses in the president's memory (emphasis added):
In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended ("if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?"), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ("in 2009, am I still Vice President?"). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he "had a real difference" of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Eiden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.
While it remains to be seen the full fallout of the special counsel's report, it's safe to assume the 25th Amendment will become a topic of discussion in the coming days, as well as Biden's future as Democrats' 2024 nominee.
The President of the United States doesn't know which years he was vice president or when his son Beau died. pic.twitter.com/RIORBth5EM
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) February 8, 2024
This is a developing story and may be updated.