America cannot afford to be led by someone perceived as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
This is how page five of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report describes President Joe Biden. The report investigated Biden’s purported mishandling of classified documents.
Biden’s mental acuity has long been a major point of contention with Republicans and citizens who doubt his ability to function as leader of the free world, but it is terrifying to see a document written by a Department of Justice official confirm these fears.
The Hur report called Biden’s actual “willfulness” to commit a crime into question due to his advanced age and persistent lapses of memory.
“My memory is fine,” Biden refuted in a press conference on Feb. 8.
In the same speech, he referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the president of Mexico.
Biden implied questions about his memory, including those about the death of his son and his years as vice president, were extra-topical and did not need to be included in the report. The investigation found Biden could not recall the dates of his son’s death nor the years of his vice presidency.
Some of Biden’s other responses to the report were outright lies.
“I did not share classified information,” Biden said when reporters pressed him about his possible mishandling of classified documents.
But according to page 11 of the special counsel report, “at least three times Mr. Biden read from classified entries aloud to his ghostwriter nearly verbatim.”
The document supplements its claims with both the ghostwriter’s audio recordings and transcripts of his meetings with Biden.
“None of it was highly classified,” Biden said. “It didn’t have any of that red stuff around the corners.”
Officials found boxes of classified documents in Biden’s garage in Delaware, the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and the University of Delaware. They were in worn-down boxes and unlocked drawers. These documents included top secret information, which an executive order from former President Barack Obama explained “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security” if disclosed without proper authority.
Biden continued to dodge questions and blunder through the press conference, at one point blaming his staff for placing classified documents in his house.
“I did not know how half the boxes got in my garage until I found out that staff gathered them up, put them together, then took them to the garage,” Biden said.
The staff did take some of Biden’s belongings – his notecards – to the National Archives in adherence to protocol. If Biden’s statement is true, it shows an astounding lack of situational awareness and oversight on his part.
The council report emphasizes that the DOJ decided against prosecuting Biden because of his limited memories, both in 2017 and in 2023. It concluded Biden had mishandled and shared classified documents, but he had not done so with malintent.
If Biden could not be considered willful or liable for prosecution six years ago, how could he be considered competent today?
Biden’s mental state makes a mockery of America’s history and role in the world. As the president meets with antagonistic world leaders, he should represent American interests with strength.
Biden is a worn and weak representation of America to its citizens, allies, and enemies.
