On Oct. 8-9, 2023, Joe Biden sat down for an interview with Special Prosecutor Robert Hur.
Hur was in charge of the investigation into Joe Biden's stealing of thousands of top-secret documents from the White House. The interview with Biden was the wrap-up to that investigation.
Robert Hur must have been shocked at the cognitively disabled man sitting across from him. He must have thought, "This is the president of the United States?"
There is nothing in this video or the audio tape that is surprising. What is shocking is the extent of Biden's disability. I have a feeling that when the Jake Tapper-Alex Thompson blockbuster book, "Original Sin," is released on Tuesday, many Democrats will be in full mea culpa mode.
They certainly have a lot of explaining to do after their hysterical denunciations of Hur and Republicans who repeated his observation that Biden was a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" who shouldn't be prosecuted.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.):
FLASHBACK: Jamie Raskin calls Robert Hur’s accurate assessment of Biden’s cognitive issues “ridiculous cheap shots” —
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 16, 2025
— then goes on to defend Biden’s mental sharpness. pic.twitter.com/7dyjHc0mUG
The newly released recordings of Biden having trouble recalling such details — while occasionally slurring words and muttering — shed light on why his White House refused to release the recordings last year, as questions mounted about his mental acuity.
The audio also appears to validate Hur's assertion that jurors in a trial likely would have viewed Biden as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Partly based on that determination, Hur decided not to prosecute Biden for improper possession of classified documents, angering Republicans because Trump was facing charges in his own classified document scandal then.
Biden's White House and the Democrats engaged in a full-court press to try to discredit Hur's report. The White House sent a letter to the White House Correspondents' Association asking them to soft-pedal Biden's infirmities revealed in the transcript, and several Democrats who would have been aware of Biden's mental state rushed to tell the country Biden was fine; it's Republicans and Hur that are the problem.
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine told Politico, “What you have is a grandstander, not a prosecutor."
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith said, “It is outrageous the way he disrespected and maligned the president,” adding, “What he said about the president not remembering the death of his beloved son is just so despicable.”
The released audio clearly shows Biden not remembering when his son, Beau, died. Denying reality was not a good idea.
Before Hur released the report, the Biden White House attempted to pressure him into editing parts of it focusing on Biden’s age. Attorney General Merrick Garland later dismissed critics who argued that he should have intervened to water down Hur’s report.
After a lengthy process of trying to obtain the audio, House Republicans voted in June 2024 to hold Garland in contempt of Congress following the Biden administration’s decision to withhold the tapes under the guise of executive privilege. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Garland on contempt charges after the House GOP’s vote.
A coalition of news organizations and conservative groups also pursued the audio through the Freedom of Information Act. The Justice Department argued that Biden’s audio could be manipulated by artificial intelligence and downplayed the public’s interest in the audio throughout the litigation.
The extent of Biden's decline was almost certainly known to China and Russia, as well as other nations. Close allies who met with Biden and had to know of his mental disability should be held accountable by voters in their own countries. What if a serious international crisis had arisen? Would they have stood behind an America led by someone mentally incapable of managing it?
Thankfully, we didn't have to face that prospect.
Republicans have a ready-made, rock 'em, sock 'em campaign issue to run on in 2026. All I can say to Republicans is, as the great philosopher Han Solo said to Luke Skywalker, "Don't get cocky."
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