Multiple media outlets have reported that special counsel Robert Hur may have lied in his report that he issued about President Joe Biden, which portrayed him as a frail old man with memory issues.
When that report was issued, many people jumped all over it, saying that it’s proof that Biden isn’t fit to serve as president for another four years.
But, after reviewing the report in much more detail, The Washington Post wrote this week that the five-hour interview that Biden gave to Hur’s investigators “paints a more nuanced portrait” of the president’s memory that what was written in the actual report.
The Associated Press further reported that the transcript of that interview “could raise questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having ‘significant limitations’ on his memory.”
In issuing his report — which was compiled as part of a months-long investigation into Biden having classified documents at his Delaware home and a former office in Washington, D.C. — Hur declined to bring any criminal charges.
Part of his reasoning for not doing so, he wrote, is that it might be challenging to get a jury to convict Biden, considering he had a memory that was described as “poor” and “faulty.” Hur wrote that there were times when Biden couldn’t recall the death of his son Beau or his time serving as vice president.
The actual transcript of the interview shows a different picture than that cut-and-dry one, though.
In the interview, Biden was asked when exactly his son died. He replied:
“What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30.”
Two others who were present in the interview then asked what year it happened, and the president replied:
“Was it 2015 when he died?”
Hur then suggested that a break should be taken for the interview, but Biden rejected that suggestion and then gave a long explanation of his son’s death. He said:
“Let me just keep going to get it done.”
After Hur’s report was released, Biden himself denied that he was absent-minded when it came to when Beau died. During a press conference that was held in February, Biden said:
“Frankly, when I was asked the question (about Beau’s death), I thought to myself, was it any of their damn business?”
The Post reported that the full transcript of the Biden interview reveals that the president joked repeatedly with prosecutors “in a setting that seemed more chummy than antagonistic.”
Throughout the interview, Biden continued to insist that he didn’t have much involvement in either packing or then moving the boxes that ended up including classified documents. All of this took place during the final time of the Obama administration, when Biden was vice president.
For his part, Hur gave testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this week, denying that he “disparage[d] the president unfairly.” He also said “the evidence and the president himself put his memory squarely at issue.”
