First lady Jill Biden offered his first public defense of the president on Saturday Joe Bidenage and mental acuity since special counsel Robert Hur detailed what Hur called notable gaps in the president’s memory, prompting a closer look at his age and stamina.
In a fundraising appeal to her supporters, Jill Biden criticized Hur’s report, released Thursday, calling it “inaccurate and personal political attacks,” focusing on Hur’s assertion that Joe Biden could not remember “after several years” the death of her son Beau.
Although Hur’s report said Joe Biden “deliberately retained” classified documents while in office — something the president disputes — Hur could not recommend filing charges because, he wrote, ” the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview, as an elderly, friendly, well-meaning man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote.
Jill Biden fought back this weekend.
“Believe me, like anyone who has lost a child, Beau and his death never leave him,” she wrote in the donor’s email. “I hope you can imagine what it felt like to read this attack – not just as Joe’s wife, but as Beau’s mother.”
Like Joe Biden, Jill Biden too invoked potential partisanship. Joe Biden called Hur a “Republican adviser,” referring to his experience as a U.S. attorney in the Trump administration. (A spokesperson for Hur previously declined to comment to ABC News on the president’s reaction to the report.)
“We should extend clemency to everyone, and I can’t imagine anyone trying to use our son’s death to score political points,” Jill Biden wrote in the email Saturday. “If you’ve experienced a loss like this, you know it’s not measured in years, but in heartbreak.”
The day Beau Biden died of brain cancer, May 30, 2015, “is a day forever etched in our hearts. It broke me, it broke our family,” the first lady wrote.
She also addressed the president’s age head-on, insisting that “Joe is 81, true, but he does more in an hour than most people do in a day.”
U.S. First Lady Jill Biden listens to President Joe Biden’s speech from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, May 24, 2022, in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, FILE
In a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday, 86% of Americans said they think the president is too old to serve a second term, while 62% think the same of his rival. Donald Trumpwho is 77 years old.
At a hastily arranged event Thursday evening in which Joe Biden defended himself against Special Advisor Hur’s report, the president also falsely referred to the Egyptian president as the president of Mexico.
“He (Biden) had a 12-minute press conference where he was focused, engaged, determined, and all you’re focused on is that minute at the end,” said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a key ally, on ABC. This week,” Sunday. “That’s not what sets him apart from his opponents.”
Egyptian-American Ahmed Ceif told ABC News on Saturday at a Trump rally in Conway, South Carolina, that former President Trump was sharper than Joe Biden’s “fading” memory.
“You need to be more aware of what’s going on,” Ceif said. “You can’t let the guy who runs the strongest country in the world get into a situation where he doesn’t know which president is which.”
Coco Farrow, a 19-year-old student at Coastal Carolina University, told ABC News at that same rally that with Joe Biden’s age comes “experience.”
“There’s a lot to be said for both sides. But I think it depends on the experience each person brings to the table and the time they’ve spent in office,” Farrow said.
Republican Candidate 2024 Nikki Haleywho is running against Trump for his party’s nomination, spoke candidly about Joe Biden’s problems.
“I wish Joe Biden well, I really do. But the Democrats, in the best interest of their party in our country, need to find a new candidate,” she said Sunday in an interview with ABC News’ Alex Presha .
“I mean, look, you can watch the news and see, everyone is very concerned at this point. Everyone is concerned,” Haley said.
But just as the president and his aides – both on the campaign trail and at the White House – have argued, the first lady wrote Saturday that “his age, along with his experience and expertise, is an incredible asset and he proves every time.” day.”
“Joe is the most resilient person I have ever known,” she wrote. “When he gets knocked down, he gets back up and gets back to work. That’s what he does.”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, Jeremy Edwards, Nicholas Kerr and Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.
