Biden-special counsel transcript gives mixed clues to US president’s acuity

WASHINGTON – A transcript of United States President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur painted a mixed picture of the president’s mental acuity, an issue Republicans have deployed as a cudgel in the 2024 election.

The roughly 250-page transcript reviewed by Bloomberg News revealed Mr Biden spoke in vivid detail about his work process as vice-president, policy debates at the time, the layout of his Wilmington home and even a historical re-enactment he witnessed in Mongolia.

But Mr Hur’s description of Mr Biden in a report he released in February as “an elderly man with a poor memory”

set off a political firestorm

and, in some ways, overshadowed his decision not to charge the President over his handling of classified documents.

Mr Hur struck a different tone at several points in the interview, according to the transcript.

In one instance, the special counsel said Mr Biden’s description of how he received his daily intelligence briefing as vice-president was “very helpful” and Mr Biden, 81, quipped back: “I’m a young man so it’s not a problem.”

Mr Hur was set to testify on March 12 before the House Judiciary Committee and was likely to face harsh questions from members of both parties unhappy with his report.

According to his prepared opening statement, seen by Politico, Mr Hur would defend both his decision not to charge Mr Biden and his statements on the president’s memory that outraged Democrats.

“I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed and thorough analysis. In other words, I needed to show my work,” Mr Hur was expected to testify.

“I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why.”

Mr Hur was expected to outline that he felt Mr Biden’s state of mind was relevant to his decision.

“I did not sanitise my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly,” he was set to say in his opening statement. “I explained to the attorney-general my decision and the reasons for it.”

The hearing and transcript release comes at a time when the White House is aggressively confronting questions about Mr Biden’s age, which polls show as his biggest liability heading into the November election.

A February Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, which surveyed voters days after Mr Hur’s report was issued, showed swing-state voters across every demographic describe Mr Biden as too old.

Last week, Mr Biden delivered a fiery State of the Union address that included lines nodding at his age, and the president’s campaign released an ad on March 9 taking the issue on as well.

Lapses and sloppy exchanges

There were several lapses and sloppy exchanges throughout the course of the five-hour, two-day interview.

Mr Biden, indeed, misstated the year in which his son Beau died, and the subject was not “raised” by Mr Hur, as the president said during a news conference in February.

The president said he did not know, when asked by Mr Hur, where he kept papers related to his work immediately after leaving office. Mr Biden then asked if this was around 2017 or 2018, and Mr Hur replied that it was.

“In this timeframe, my son is – either been deployed or is dying,” Mr Biden continued, “What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30.”

At that point, an interview participant said 2015 was the year he passed.

On two occasions, Mr Biden stumbled over the term “fax machine”.

When asked about a file at another point, Mr Biden said, “Well, if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice-president?”

Mr Biden repeatedly said he did not knowingly keep classified material and said it was his practice while in office to return those documents once he was done with them.

Yet, Mr Biden could not recall details of how his files were moved to his homes after leaving the White House in 2017, who was responsible and why some classified materials were included in them.

He also said he did not know why he told a ghostwriter he discovered classified material at his Virginia home in 2017.

Mr Biden clarified a remark about a document tucked into a notebook at his Wilmington home that was marked classified. He said “it had little print”, which he said “matters in terms of how important they think it is”.

When the interview continued the following day, Mr Biden said, “I didn’t keep anything that wasn’t – I thought was classified”, and that anything with markings on them, “I gave that back” or “I didn’t see it”.

‘Lot of stuff’

Mr Biden came across as a disorganised pack rat, with reams of documents, photos and mementos from his five decades in Washington scattered throughout his homes.

He said he left it to staff to move out the contents of his office.

Investigators and the President himself described papers haphazardly thrown into drawers and filing cabinets, and that he got rid of little during moves.

“My generic problem was that there was a lot of stuff,” Mr Biden said.

The president told prosecutors that First Lady Jill Biden once suggested that he keep a daily diary to record the events of his career, but he said he was not organised enough to do so.

Mr Biden and his attorneys several times objected to Mr Hur’s inquiries around details about his household storage systems.

The special counsel said he had “clunkily” asked a question when Mr Biden’s lawyer accused him of speculation about a set of files.

The president corrected Mr Hur when he said two different documents might be the same and said he had “no goddamn idea” what was inside old boxes stored in his garage.

At other times, the tone was playful.

Mr Biden said he had “embarrassed the hell out of the leader of Mongolia” during a 2011 visit by hitting a target with a bow and arrow during a show of traditional archery, wrestling and dancing.

He made car sounds when emphasising the power of his prized Corvette, as well as an electric Ford truck he test drove in 2021.

Mr Biden also made an off-colour comment about the search of his home during Mr Hur’s investigation.

“I just hope you didn’t find any risque pictures of my wife in a bathing suit. Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,” he said. BLOOMBERG