President Biden addressed the nation Thursday evening, saying his memory is “fine” and defended his re-election marketing campaign, saying he’s the “most qualified person in this country to be president.”
Biden’s tackle to the nation from the White Home Thursday evening comes simply hours after Special Counsel Robert Hur launched his report, which didn’t advocate felony fees in opposition to the president for mishandling categorised paperwork. These data included categorised paperwork about army and overseas coverage in Afghanistan, amongst different data associated to nationwide safety and overseas coverage which Hur mentioned implicated “sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”
Hur, although, described Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur, all through the greater than 300-page report, mentioned “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him” of a severe felony “that requires a mental state of willfulness,” and mentioned he could be “well into his eighties.”
Biden, on Thursday evening, mentioned he agreed.
US President Joe Biden solutions questions on Israel after talking concerning the Particular Counsel report within the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White Home in Washington, DC, on February 8, 2024 in a shock last-minute addition to his schedule for the day. (Picture by MANDEL NGAN/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden mentioned. “I’ve been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”
Biden added: “My memory is fine.”
Throughout his tackle, Biden additionally fired again at Particular Counsel Robert Hur for suggesting he didn’t keep in mind when his son Beau died.
“How dare he raise that?” Biden mentioned. “Frankly, when I was asked a question, I thought to myself, what’s that any of your damn business?”
“Let me tell you something…I swear, since the day he died, every single day…I wear the rosary he got from Our Lady—” Biden stopped, seemingly forgetting the place the rosary was from.
Biden grew to become visibly emotional, and declared: “I don’t need anyone—I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away or passed away.”
Moments later, although, Biden transitioned to debate the battle within the Center East. Biden referred to Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the president of Egypt, as “the president of Mexico.”
However the president took a barrage of questions from the White Home press corps, with some shouting and urgent him on whether or not he’s match to run for re-election.
“I’m the most qualified person in this country to be president of the United States,” Biden mentioned, including that he has to “finish the job I started.”
In the meantime, Hur, within the report, mentioned Biden, throughout his interview with the particular counsel’s workforce, couldn’t keep in mind key particulars, resembling when he was vp.
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” the report states. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).”
“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” the report continued. “And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”
“In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall,” the report mentioned.
This picture from Particular Council Robert Hur’s investigation launched by the Division of Justice on Thursday, February 8, 2024 exhibits a field with paperwork in November 2022. (U.S. Division of Justice)
As for Biden’s reminiscence, previous to the discharge of the report, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday defended Biden when requested a couple of gaffe by which the president mentioned he spoke in 2021 with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl — who truly died 4 years earlier — arguing that misspeaking “happens to all of us, and it is common.”
That gaffe was much like the one Biden made on Sunday when he claimed he spoke with François Mitterrand, a French president who died in 1996, on the similar G7 assembly.
However Hur additionally mentioned his investigation “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”
The supplies included “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.”
This picture from Particular Council Robert Hur’s investigation launched by the Division of Justice on Thursday, February 8, 2024 exhibits Joe Biden’s storage storage closet in his Delaware house on December 21, 2022. (U.S. Division of Justice)
Hur mentioned FBI brokers recovered the supplies from “the garages, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home.”
However Biden fired again, citing sections within the report that said he didn’t willfully retain the paperwork. Biden additionally mentioned he was “especially pleased to see special counsel make clear the stark distinction in difference between this case and Mr. Trump’s case,” saying he cooperated and sat for a 5 hour-long interview.
Trump, then again, was charged out of Particular Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation associated to his retention of categorised supplies. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony fees out of Smith’s probe. The costs embrace willful retention of nationwide protection info, conspiracy to hinder justice and false statements.
Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was then charged with a further three counts as a part of a superseding indictment out of Smith’s investigation — a further rely of willful retention of nationwide protection info and two further obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not responsible.
NO CHARGES FOR BIDEN AFTER SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE INTO IMPROPER HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
That trial is about to start on Might 20.
“They should immediately drop the case against me,” Trump advised Fox Information Digital on Thursday. “I am covered by the Presidential Records Act — he wasn’t. He had many, many times more documents — totally unguarded. Mine were always surrounded by Secret Service and in locked rooms.”
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“Deranged Jack Smith should drop the case immediately against us.”
Trump added: “It is election interference…. I did absolutely nothing wrong.”
