Former President Joe Biden early last year dismissed Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report that sparked additional concern about his mental acuity, just months after he was interviewed about his mishandling of classified documents.
Axios on Friday released audio from Biden’s October 2023 interviews with Hur. In the recordings, Biden seemed to struggle to remember when his son Beau died, when he left office as vice president, what year President Donald Trump was elected to his first term, or why he had classified documents that should not have been in his possession.
The recordings not only showed Biden’s memory lapses, but also slurring his words and muttering when speaking to Hur. Transcripts of the interviews — conducted on Oct. 8 and 9 of 2023 — were released on March 12, 2024.
In February 2024, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy was the first to question Biden about Hur’s report on his mental fitness.
‘Something the special counsel said in his report is that one of the reasons you were not charged is because, in his description, you are a ‘well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Doocy said to Biden at a press conference on Feb. 8, 2024.
Biden responded: ‘I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation—’
Doocy then asked Biden how bad his memory was and if he could continue as president.
‘My memory is so bad I let you speak,’ Biden told him.
Hur, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents, said he declined to bring charges against him, in part, because a jury would find him to be a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,’ despite the acknowledgment that the documents were ‘willfully’ obtained by Biden during his time as vice president and as a senator.
The special counsel’s report, in addition to gaffes seen during Biden’s public appearances, amplified pressure from Republicans who said he lacked the mental fitness needed to serve as president.
Democrats and Biden’s White House initially criticized Hur for his report, repeatedly insisting he was ‘sharp’ and that the special counsel was politically motivated.
Later in 2024, amid Biden’s re-election campaign, Democrats called on him to drop his candidacy over his performance in the June presidential debate against Trump, citing his age and mental acuity. Biden, now 82, ended his presidential campaign in July but finished his term, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, was defeated by Trump in November’s general election.