Special Counsel Hur’s report described Biden as « a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory » — and numerous political analysts said that was the impression that the president left on viewers of the debate.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report described President Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” — and numerous political analysts said that was exactly the impression that the president left on viewers of the debate on Thursday.
In the February report, which noted that Biden’s “memory also appeared to have significant limitations,” Hur said he would bring no criminal charges against the president after a months-long investigation into his improper retention of classified documents related to national security.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,” the report stated. “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
During and after Biden’s debate against former President Donald Trump this week, several political analysts took to social media to suggest that Hur, who faced criticism from Democrats and liberal media figures over the report’s comments about Biden’s memory and judgment, had been “vindicated” and “deserves an apology.”
“You know who’s looking really vindicated tonight? Special counsel Robert Hur,” Jim Geraghty, National Review’s senior political correspondent and a contributing columnist, said amid Biden’s performance.
