(Washington) – An angry Joe Biden defended himself forcefully Thursday after a damning report exonerated him in an investigation into the withholding of classified documents, but described him as “an old man with a bad memory.”
“I mean well, I'm an old man and I know what I'm doing, damn it. I don't have memory problems,” Biden, 81, defended during a televised speech.
A few hours ago, the special prosecutor in charge of investigating his handling of confidential documents issued a 388-page report, in which he did not recommend bringing charges against him, but identified his main weakness, his age, and found that “his memory had deteriorated.”
Special prosecutor Robert Hoare said Joe Biden “could not remember when he was vice president” or the exact year his eldest son, Beau, died.
“How the hell dare he?” ,” Joe Biden echoed on the subject, sounding very emotional and with a defiant tone.
The special prosecutor, appointed in January 2023 by Attorney General Merrick Garland, concluded that the president “knowingly maintained and disclosed classified documents after serving as Vice President when he was a private citizen.”
But he considered that “conviction would not be justified,” arguing in particular that the jury would give the benefit of the doubt to “a sympathetic, well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.”
This expected decision dispels potential legal troubles for the Democratic president, who is preparing to face his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, in November in a rematch of the 2020 elections, but it once again puts him in a bad position facing his political rivals, who did not fail to comment on the report’s conclusions.
Especially since it comes after he mixed up in recent days between French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and their late predecessors François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl.
On Thursday evening, when asked about the conflict in the Gaza Strip, he mentioned discussions about humanitarian aid with “President Sisi of Mexico,” meaning the head of state of Egypt.
“Inappropriate comments”
After the report was published, Joe Biden confirmed in a press release that he fully cooperated with the investigation, including during a five-hour interview over two days with the special prosecutor and his team in October 2023, at the beginning of the investigation. An “international crisis” sparked by the unprecedented attack launched by the Palestinian Hamas movement in Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Photo: Rebecca Blackwelly, The Associated Press
Former US President Donald Trump
He insisted on the difference between his position in this case and the position of Donald Trump (77 years old), who is being criminally tried because he took hundreds of secret documents after leaving the White House and who is accused of “obstructing justice” in this case.
Donald Trump responded to the report by denouncing the “two-tiered justice system.” “The Biden documents case is different from my case and 100 times more serious. He confirmed that I had done nothing wrong and cooperated much more with the investigators.
However, in his report, the special prosecutor noted the “inconsistency” between the two men’s positions in their case, stressing that according to the indictment, Mr. Trump ordered “third parties to destroy evidence and lie.”
Republican staff in the House of Representatives, including its Speaker, Mike Johnson, considered this “deeply disturbing” report to show that the president is “unqualified” to carry out his duties.
White House counsel Richard Sauber, as well as Mr. Biden's personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, in a letter attached to the report welcomed the special prosecutor's decision not to initiate proceedings, but expressed regret for the “inappropriate comments” that had “no connection” in a Justice Department report. “.
The appointment of Mr. Hoare as Special Prosecutor follows the discovery in December 2022 and January 2023 of classified documents dating back to the time when Joe Biden was Vice President (2009-2017), particularly regarding the US military commitment in Afghanistan, in Custody. Residence in Wilmington, Delaware, as well as in a previous office.
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