BIDEN’S MENTAL FITNESS QUESTIONED
Yesterday, the special counsel probing President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, Robert Hur, released his report detailing the findings of his 13-month investigation.
The 388-page report concluded that Biden would not face criminal charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents—despite finding that the president had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”
But what captured the greatest attention within the report was the special counsel’s depiction of the president’s mental fitness.
In declining to pursue charges against the president, Hur cited a lack of sufficient evidence to establish the president’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” and how he would appear to a jury.
“At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” the special counsel wrote.
“It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his 80s—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Here are some examples of Biden’s poor memory are listed in the report.
- Biden exhibited a “significantly limited” memory in interviews with investigators and with Mark Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter behind two of his books.
“Mr. Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries,” the report states.
- During his 2023 interview with the special counsel’s office, Biden “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?’).”
- Biden could not remember, “even within several years,” when his son Beau died, or aspects of the Afghanistan debate “that was so important to him.”
Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Washington. In recent years, the president has frequently misstated the timing and circumstances of his son’s death, often claiming that he died in Iraq, where he served in the Delaware Army National Guard.
After the report’s release, Biden responded to these allegations at an evening press conference called at short notice.Biden angrily defended himself amid questions about his cognitive ability.
“My memory is fine,” he said amidst intense questioning from the press.
“I’m well-meaning; I’m an older man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden said “I’ve been president, and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”
The findings came as the president was already facing scrutiny for mixing the names of world leaders.
During an earlier press briefing yesterday, the White House was questioned several times about why Biden said he talked to dead European leaders during a summit in 2021.
Biden, in a speech on Sunday, confused French President Emmanuel Macron with deceased French leader François Mitterrand. He also mixed up former Chancellor Angela Merkel with deceased German leader Helmut Kohl on Wednesday.
In response, the White House press secretary said that people occasionally misspeak.
During the press conference defending his memory, Biden mixed up the leaders of Mexico and Egypt, referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”
—Jackson Richman, Samantha Flom, and Emel Akan
SCOTUS SKEPTICAL OF TRUMP BALLOT REMOVAL
Supreme Court justices seemed mostly skeptical of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that President Donald Trump was disqualified from appearing on the state’s primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Trump had appealed the decision, arguing that the Colorado court and the voters who brought the suit failed to clear many legal hurdles needed to remove him.
Oral argument yesterday tended to focus on the scope of state power and whether Trump was the type of “officer of the United States” that could be disqualified under Section 3.
Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson seemed to offer the most critical comments regarding the officer language, pressing the voters’ attorney, Jason Murray, on how it would make sense that the 14th Amendment’s framers intended to include the president in Section 3 without explicitly mentioning him.
Bold comments from the justices suggested they thought that Murray was attempting to give states too much power. “Why should a single state get to decide who gets to be the President of the United States?” Justice Elena Kagan asked at one point.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor seemed to be the most sympathetic to the Colorado decision. She told Jonathan Mitchell, who represented Trump, that he was trying to use an unconventional definition for “self-enforcing,” or the idea that courts can enforce Section 3 without prior Congressional action.
The ruling could take an untold number of paths but oral argument indicated the justices would focus on either the balance between state and federal power under Section 3 or whether Trump served as “an officer of the United States.” Other legal questions include whether Trump engaged in an insurrection as outlined under Section 3.
Insurrection or not, the events of Jan. 6 didn’t seem to factor much in the justices’ comments during oral argument. Multiple justices worried about a lack of uniformity in states’ decision-making on how Section 3 applied to particular candidates.
Mitchell centered his case on a prior ruling known as Griffin’s case, in which the D.C. Circuit ruled that Congress must provide legislation to enforce Section 3. Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to agree, telling Murray that granting states enforcement authority was “at war with the whole thrust of the Fourteenth Amendment and very ahistorical.”
Due process concerns also arose with Justice Bret Kavanaugh quoting from Colorado Justice Carlos Samour’s dissent, which described the lower court litigation as “woefully short of what due process demands.”
–Sam Dorman
MCCONNELL LIKELY TO REMAIN LEADER
Republicans say Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) job is probably safe despite a rising chorus of criticism of the Kentucky Republican.
On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and several other Republicans during a press conference called on McConnell to step down from his leadership role after the failure of a border deal that had been in the works for months.
When asked by reporters whether it’s time for McConnell to go, Cruz said, “I think it is.”
When he was asked about this during a weekly press conference on Tuesday, McConnell quipped self-assuredly, “I think we can all agree that Senator Cruz isn’t a fan.”
Cruz isn’t the only one openly calling for McConnell to be replaced.
In a post to X, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote, “WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP—NOW!”
McConnell has also faced criticism from Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and others.
But Republicans, even those who opposed McConnell at the start of the 118th Congress, are skeptical that he'll be ousted before the next session.
“We have a leadership election once a Congress,“ Vance told reporters. ”We'll see if we have another one. I’m skeptical.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was demure when asked whether McConnell would be ousted, but indicated he was dubious.
At the same time, Hawley said “Gosh, I hope not,” when asked whether he thought Mr. McConnell would be reelected as leader in the 119th Congress. Hawley’s been openly critical of McConnell’s leadership for some time.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) also discussed the issue with reporters.
Asked whether he thought McConnell was vulnerable, he answered “Yes.”
“There have been some that have said that [McConnell is vulnerable] publicly,“ Braun said. ”I think what it all boils down to, I read the tea leaves of what principals tell me and what my constituents do. And I think more are coming along to see that the old way of thinking is not working.”
A Senate aide familiar with the wrangling told The Epoch Times that much of the discontent comes down to blowing off steam and is unlikely to go anywhere in the near future. But like others, he did imply that the fiasco has left McConnell weaker than he’s ever been.
“This is more about conservatives flexing and knowing Mitch won’t be around long enough to punish them, and emboldening other offices to defy leadership (as we saw earlier this week!),“ the aide said. ”For however long Mitch has left as emperor, he has no clothes.”
Though McConnell is unlikely to be ousted from his leadership role any time soon, the fallout of the recent border deal collapse has once again ignited the lingering Senate divisions between the old guard and younger lawmakers.
McConnell’s health has also been a concern after two instances where he froze while speaking.
In view of these criticisms, it’s unclear if McConnell will be able to retain his current job during the next Congress.
—Joseph Lord
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Biden hosts German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for a bilateral meeting at the White House.
- Trump will address NRA members as the keynote speaker at the NRA Presidential Forum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Critics are raising the alarm about a proposed WHO treaty as it nears completion, The Epoch Times’ Kevin Stocklin reports. The treaty will not be considered in the Senate and critics warn that it could pose a fundamental threat to U.S. sovereignty and freedoms.
The MAGA movement has matured substantially since Trump came to office in 2017. The Epoch Times’ Nathan Worcester and Janice Hisle interviewed veterans of the first Trump administration and those helping to form the 2025 road map to find out what a second Trump term would look like—and what opposition it would face.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced Army chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi in the biggest leadership shake-up since Russia’s invasion two years ago. The Epoch Times’ Ella Kietlinska reports.
