Special counsel ends open debate over Biden’s age and memory: ANALYSIS

The legal title – that President Joe Biden will not face prosecution for his handling of classified documents, unlike the former president he is preparing to run against again – is not what the most political weight.

Instead, the special prosecutor’s detailed rationale for why Biden would likely not be convicted is what immediately sparked new questions about the president’s ability to continue doing his job.

THE report of special advisor Robert Hur found that “no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” despite evidence that Biden kept classified documents related to Afghanistan policy from his tenure as vice president, and even shared them with a ghostwriter for the help with his memories.

Things get worse from there in Hur’s accounting, specifically relying on recorded interactions the president had, voluntarily, with the special prosecutor’s office. In interviews last October, the president had “limited accuracy and memory,” according to Hur, who ultimately ruled that a jury would likely view Biden as “a nice, well-meaning older man with a poor memory.”

“Based on our direct interactions with him and our observations, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,” Hur wrote. “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — then a former president over the age of 80 — of a serious crime that requires a mental state of obstinacy.”

Specifically, Hur writes that Biden, now 81, does not remember the beginning or end of his term as vice president; did not remember the date of his son’s death “even after several years”; and had a “fuzzy” memory of key players in the Obama administration’s Afghanistan debate that was “once so important to him” – the subject Biden had kept documents on, to aid in a historical account of his role .

Details supposed to partly explain a lack of criminal responsibility which borders on mockery. The special prosecutor’s report – which includes numerous photographs – flatly states that a cache of Afghan documents Biden kept at his Delaware home was stored “in a badly damaged box in the garage, near a collapsed dog cage, a dog bed, a Zappos”. box, an empty bucket, a broken lamp wrapped in duct tape, potting soil and synthetic firewood.

The president’s legal team fired back with a scathing retort, accusing Hur of using “highly prejudicial language” to describe an understandably hazy memory of events that occurred years ago. The details peppered in the report, they write to Hur, are “superfluous” and fail to take into account that Biden was very busy while he sat with Hur’s team in the days following the terrorist attacks in Hamas against Israel on October 7.

“In fact, your interview contains ample evidence that the President did indeed answer your questions about events that occurred years ago during office hours,” they wrote. “We do not believe the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate.”

Biden himself said Thursday evening that he was pleased that the special prosecutor’s “case is now closed” without any charges being filed.

“I was particularly pleased to see the special prosecutor clearly articulate the stark differences between this case and that of Donald Trump,” the president told a gathering of House Democrats.

But allies of former President Donald Trump pounced on Hur’s decision not to pursue charges as evidence, they say, of a double standard when it comes to criminal prosecutions. They ignored the detailed explanation Hur’s team included as to why Trump’s case — which involves accusations of refusing to turn over classified documents and allegations of obstructing efforts to get them into the National Archives’ possession – is clearly different, and therefore the subject of pending criminal charges.

In the Biden case, the White House emphasized from the start that it would cooperate with investigators, and Biden immediately agreed to turn over the documents as soon as they were found.

But Hur’s depictions of Biden have a different political dimension than even criminal charges might have. The super PAC supporting Trump summed it up in a statement: “If you’re too senile to stand trial, then you’re too senile to be president. »

More recent and more public examples have brought the subject to the forefront. This week, the president appeared to forget the name of Hamas, the terrorist group that launched the attack on Israel, in a roundabout response to a reporter’s question that made little sense.

Twice in recent days he has recounted what he considers to be recent conversations – with long-dead European leaders. The White House’s decision to forgo a Super Bowl Sunday interview — once an easy presidential tradition that promised to reach huge audiences — has raised questions about whether his aides are protecting him from himself.

Polls have long shown considerable voter concern about Biden’s mental abilities. An ABC News/Washington Post survey As of September, three-quarters of Americans think Biden is too old to serve another term as president, while half say the same about Trump, who is less than four years younger.

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips — arguably the most credible Democrat to run against Biden in this year’s presidential primaries — wrote this week on voice the silent part,” circulating clips of the president stumbling. in recent public remarks.

“I admire our president,” Phillips wrote. “But shame on all of you for pretending everything is fine. You’re leading us – and him – into disaster, and you know it very well.”

The public debate over Biden’s mental acuity comes at a delicate moment in the political calendar. The nomination process is well underway, with ballot deadlines passing quickly and Biden floundering. He received 96 percent of the vote in South Carolina and 89 percent in Nevada, against Phillips and other lesser opponents, and even won a registration contest in New Hampshire, where no convention delegates entered. was at stake.

Trump, meanwhile, is heading toward the Republican nomination himself, despite concerns about legal issues that could derail his campaign in several directions. Former Gov. Nikki Haley — the latest Republican to oppose Trump — is questioning the age and abilities of both Trump and Biden in a bid to get back into contention.

“We all know octogenarians who can run circles around us,” Haley wrote on X on Tuesday, “and then we know Trump and Biden.”

The legal quagmire Trump faces is not equivalent to the age questions facing Biden. But politically, both matter, especially in a divided country that does not seem enthusiastic about a rematch between two candidates who topped their respective lists in 2020.

Functionally, Biden will be the Democratic nominee unless he decides to step down — something he has shown no desire to do.

But his long-standing response to those who question his abilities – “look at me” – has been overturned. Part of Biden’s problem now is that he is being watched, with more observers and voters seemingly unconstrained by what they see.