WASHINGTON: Over five hours of interviews, President Joe Biden repeatedly told a special counsel that he never meant to retain classified information after he left the vice presidency, but he was at times fuzzy about dates and said he was unfamiliar with the paper trail for some of the sensitive documents he handled.
A transcript of the Biden interviews was made public Tuesday, just as the special counsel, Robert Hur, went before the House Judiciary Committee to face questions about his investigation of the Democratic president.Hur, in his report, concluded that Biden should not face criminal charges over his mishandling of documents but also impugned the president’s age and competence. The special counsel stood by his assessment of the president’s memory as “accurate and fair”, in testimony to Congress. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
The transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden, conducted last Oct as Biden grappled with the fallout from Hamas’s Oct 7 assault on Israel, showed that the president brought up the issue of his memory first. “I’m a young man, so it’s not a problem,” Biden, 81, said jokingly to Hur when the prosecutor said he’d be asking questions about events that happened years earlier. There were also several lapses and sloppy exchanges throughout the course of the two-day interview. Biden, 81, misstated the year in which his son Beau died, and the subject was not “raised” by Hur, as the president claimed last month. Biden, however, said the correct month and day of his passing. The president said he did not know when asked by Hur where he kept papers related to his work immediately after leaving office. Biden then asked if this was around 2017 or 2018, and Hur replied that it was. “In this time frame, my son is either been deployed or is dying,” 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, Biden stumbled over the term “fax machine.” When asked about a file at another point, Biden said, “well if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice-president?” He made car sounds when emphasizing the power of his prized Corvette, as well as an electric Ford truck he test drove in 2021. Biden also made an off-colour comment about the search of his home during 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.
Hur, 51, began the hearing as a uniquely unifying figure in divided Washington – a man disdained by Democrats and Republicans alike. He is facing withering questioning from both parties as he explains his exoneration of Biden and the barbed prose in his 345-page report. Republican chair of the committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, questioned the fairness of prosecuting former President Donald Trump but not Biden – even though Hur has said Trump’s actions were incomparably worse.
Some Democrats argued that Hur’s assessment of Biden’s memory was unnecessary and inappropriate. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, suggested that Hur was aware his analysis would have a “maximal political impact”.
The statements from the panel members made clear the hearing was something of a proxy battle for the coming presidential contest.
A transcript of the Biden interviews was made public Tuesday, just as the special counsel, Robert Hur, went before the House Judiciary Committee to face questions about his investigation of the Democratic president.Hur, in his report, concluded that Biden should not face criminal charges over his mishandling of documents but also impugned the president’s age and competence. The special counsel stood by his assessment of the president’s memory as “accurate and fair”, in testimony to Congress. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”
The transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden, conducted last Oct as Biden grappled with the fallout from Hamas’s Oct 7 assault on Israel, showed that the president brought up the issue of his memory first. “I’m a young man, so it’s not a problem,” Biden, 81, said jokingly to Hur when the prosecutor said he’d be asking questions about events that happened years earlier. There were also several lapses and sloppy exchanges throughout the course of the two-day interview. Biden, 81, misstated the year in which his son Beau died, and the subject was not “raised” by Hur, as the president claimed last month. Biden, however, said the correct month and day of his passing. The president said he did not know when asked by Hur where he kept papers related to his work immediately after leaving office. Biden then asked if this was around 2017 or 2018, and Hur replied that it was. “In this time frame, my son is either been deployed or is dying,” 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, Biden stumbled over the term “fax machine.” When asked about a file at another point, Biden said, “well if it was 2013, when did I stop being vice-president?” He made car sounds when emphasizing the power of his prized Corvette, as well as an electric Ford truck he test drove in 2021. Biden also made an off-colour comment about the search of his home during 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.
Hur, 51, began the hearing as a uniquely unifying figure in divided Washington – a man disdained by Democrats and Republicans alike. He is facing withering questioning from both parties as he explains his exoneration of Biden and the barbed prose in his 345-page report. Republican chair of the committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, questioned the fairness of prosecuting former President Donald Trump but not Biden – even though Hur has said Trump’s actions were incomparably worse.
Some Democrats argued that Hur’s assessment of Biden’s memory was unnecessary and inappropriate. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, suggested that Hur was aware his analysis would have a “maximal political impact”.
The statements from the panel members made clear the hearing was something of a proxy battle for the coming presidential contest.