The White House said “gratuitous remarks” about Joe Biden’s memory were “false and inaccurate” after a report questioned the president’s mental capacity.
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, fired back after special counsel Robert Hur’s ruling on the president’s handling of classified documents described his memory as “significantly limited”.
Vice President Kamala Harris also criticized the findings, telling reporters Friday: “The way the president’s behavior has been characterized in this report could not be more wrong on the facts and (is) clearly politically motivated.” .”
This comes after the 400-page report repeatedly referred to the president’s “fuzzy” and “poor” memory, and claimed he could not remember in interviews when he was vice president. -president or the death of his son, Beau Biden.
While Justice Department official Mr. Hur chose not to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Biden, his comments prompted the 81-year-old to hold an eventful press conference the same evening.
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Mr. Sams was asked if anything was being done to address concerns about the president. He replied: “I have a lot of problems with the content of this question.
“Unfortunately, the gratuitous remarks… have naturally received the attention of the newspapers and your full attention. They are false and inaccurate.”
Photo: AP
He added: “On page five of the report… it says, ‘Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited’… But elsewhere in the report it says, ‘we await evidence of That of Mr. Biden convincing state of mind”, emphasizing that he had provided, I quote, “clear” and “powerful” testimony.
“These are his comments about his state of mind later in the report. So I think it’s important to take the report in its entirety.”
Mr Sams also accused Mr Hur of “going all over the place”. He added: “I can just say that as you heard from the vice president, you heard yesterday from the members of Congress speaking, but their recent interactions with the president…
“We just reject that it’s true. I think it raises questions about free and why it’s there.”
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“Lack of evidence”
The White House spokesperson also noted that on page two “the report asserts that the President deliberately withheld (classified) documents.”
He said: “But buried much further down, on page 215, the report says, and I quote, ‘there is, in fact, a lack of evidence on these points.’ Two hundred pages later.
“Simply put, this case is closed because the facts and evidence do not support the theories presented here.”
Mr. Sams also announced that Biden would appoint a task force to examine the handling of classified materials during the transition of power between presidential administrations, and added that “every administration over the last half century” has had problems with file transfer.
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Mr. Hur’s report follows a series of gaffes made in recent days by Mr. Biden.
Monday he confused French President Emmanuel Macron with François Mitterranddied in 1996, and on Tuesday he appeared to forget the name Hamas while discussing the war in Gaza.
Mr. Biden also confused former Chancellor Angela Merkel with one of her predecessors Helmut Kohl Wednesday. A White House spokesperson later said: “Many people, elected officials… can sometimes get their language wrong. »
