Biden lawyer calls special counsel Hur’s report ‘off the rails’

Katie Hawkinson,Mike Bedigan,Joe Sommerlad and Oliver O'Connell

Joe Biden’s lawyer called special counsel Robert Hur’s report commenting in part on the president’s age and health “off the rails” and “shabby” on Sunday.

An angry and animated Joe Biden previously hit back at the Republican prosecutor’s claim that his memory is faulty during a last-minute and at-times chaotic press conference on Thursday.

The president hit out at parts of the report released earlier in the day by Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur into his handling of classified documents and became infuriated at a suggestion that he did not remember the year his late son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer.

On Friday, Kamala Harris joined the White House fight back, slamming the report as “politically motivated”, and saying she found details in it “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate”.

She said she has been “privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States” under Mr Biden, and said Mr Hur’s remarks on Mr Biden’s age and memory were “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate”.

Mr Hur’s report concluded that Mr Biden will not face charges for “willfully” holding onto documents after he left office as Barack Obama’s vice president in January 2017.

The report, which was delivered to Congress after many months of investigation and preparation, recommended no criminal charges for the incumbent president, even were he not protected by immunity from prosecution due to his current stature.

However, the investigators painted a picture of a senile president with severe memory issues whose innocence was less clear than his supporters would have hoped, while not necessarily coming across to a potential jury as malicious or criminal.

It stated that the materials included files on military policy in Afghanistan and handwritten notes on national security, also suggesting that Mr Biden would look like an “elderly man with a poor memory” to a jury if he were to be hit with criminal charges.

Key Points

Watch: White House doesn’t rule out releasing transcripts of Biden’s special counsel interview

Friday 9 February 2024 19:10 , Oliver O'Connell

Watch: White House says DOJ staffers say report gratuitous and inconsistent with policy

Friday 9 February 2024 19:28 , Oliver O'Connell

Democrats use Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe to take heat off Biden

Friday 9 February 2024 19:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Democrats are rushing to defend President Joe Biden after he appeared to confuse Mexico with Egypt during a press conference called to refute claims about his poor memory.

Following the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Thursday – which claimed Mr Biden’s memory was “significantly limited” – Democratic lawmakers pointed to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s own gaffe, where he confused Iran with Israel last week.

Martha McHardy has the story:

Democrats share Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe in bid to take heat off Biden

Friday 9 February 2024 19:37 , Oliver O'Connell

Biden launching task force to prevent classified doc mishaps

Friday 9 February 2024 19:45 , Oliver O'Connell

President Biden will soon name a high-level task force to recommend procedures that will prevent classified materials from being mishandled or inadvertantly lost during presidential transitions in the future, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said on Friday.

Mr Sams, who serves as a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, was addressing reporters at the daily White House press briefing following the release of a report from Special Counsel Robert Hur in which Mr Hur, a Republican who served in the Trump administration, assailed Mr Biden’s memory while declining to charge him with any crime stemming from the discovery of classified materials at his Wilmington, Delaware home.

He told reporters that the National Archives has found that the misfiling of classified materials during transitions has been a common occurrence which Mr Biden believes should be fixed.

Andrew Feinberg reports:

Biden launches task force to prevent future classified document mishaps

Analysis: Biden just denied he was mentally unfit – then made things even worse

Friday 9 February 2024 20:00 , Oliver O'Connell

John Bowden writes:

Joe Biden tried to brush off concerns about his mental fitness and memory on Thursday at an impromptu press conference – but he made a glaring mistake that undermined his indignant defence of his abilities.

In isolation, it was perhaps just another relatively minor moment of misspeaking for the president, but it came at exactly the wrong moment.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden just tried to deny he was mentally unfit – but he made a glaring mistake

Watch: What do Democrats do now?

Friday 9 February 2024 20:15 , Oliver O'Connell

Harris launches into fiery defence of Biden as she slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Friday 9 February 2024 20:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Andrew Feinberg, our White House correspondent, filed this report:

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday came out swinging with a full-throated defence of President Joe Biden in the wake of an unflattering report on his conduct by a Republican special prosecutor.

Ms Harris was speaking in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at an event hosted by the White House’s gun violence prevention office when she addressed the matter of Mr Hur’s report, which critics have assailed as including gratuitous attacks on the president even as it announced that he will not face any criminal charges stemming from the discovery of classified documents at his Delaware home.

She said she has been “privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States” under Mr Biden, and said Mr Hur’s remarks on Mr Biden’s age and memory were “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate”.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris gives fiery defence of Biden and slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Biden: Failure of Congress to not support Ukraine is ‘criminal neglect’ and ‘outrageous'

Friday 9 February 2024 20:38 , Oliver O'Connell

Key takeaways from the report into Biden’s classified documents

Friday 9 February 2024 21:00 , John Bowden

A report on the Justice Department’s investigation into Joe Biden’s unauthorised retention of classified materials was made public on Thursday – and it was as troubling for the president and his public image as it was vindicating for those who argued he had committed no crimes.

The report was authored by Robert Hur, a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump and later elevated to the rank of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Delivered to Congress this week after many months of investigation and preparation, it recommended no criminal charges for the incumbent president, even were he not protected by immunity from prosecution due to his current stature.

It did, however, contain much that will concern many Americans and was overall far from complimentary of the incumbent president.

The investigators painted a picture of a senile president with severe memory issues whose innocence was less clear than his supporters would have hoped, while not necessarily coming across to a potential jury as malicious or criminal.

Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from Mr Hur’s report:

Classified documents kept by dog bed and memory troubles: Takeaways from Biden report

Watch: ‘That part of the report does not live in reality'

Friday 9 February 2024 21:30 , Oliver O'Connell

ICYMI: Biden mixes up Mexico and Egypt at surprise presser

Friday 9 February 2024 22:00 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden appeared to confuse Mexico with Egypt, in a press conference on Thursday called to refute allegations of his poor memory.

The president made reference to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, saying: “The president of Mexico did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced to open the gate.

“I talked to Bibi [Benjamin Netenyahu] to open the gate on the Israeli side. I’ve been pushing really hard, really hard to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

“There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, innocent people or in trouble and die, and it’s got to stop, number one.

“Number two... I’m the guy that made the case that we have to do much more to increase the amount of material going in, including fuel, including other items. I’ve been on the phone with Qataris. I’ve been on the phone with the Egyptians.”

Mike Bedigan reports:

Biden mixes up Mexico and Egypt at surprise presser to address claims of memory loss

Watch: White House press secretary asserts ‘The president of the United States runs the country'

Friday 9 February 2024 22:30 , Oliver O'Connell

Recap: Biden comes out fighting over claims about his memory

Friday 9 February 2024 23:00 , Oliver O'Connell

An angry and animated President Joe Biden on Thursday hit back at a Republican prosecutor’s claim that his memory is faulty in last-minute remarks to reporters on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the Department of Justice released a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur, the former Maryland US Attorney who Attorney General Merrick Garland charged with probing how classified documents ended up at Mr Biden’s home in Delaware and former office in Washington.

Mr Hur did not recommend that Mr Biden face criminal charges, citing what he described as significant “mitigating factors” which led him to state that charges were not warranted and would not have been warranted even if Mr Biden were not president and barred from being prosecuted by Department of Justice policy.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC:

Biden comes out fighting over claims about his memory at surprise press conference

Could the race for George Santos’ congressional seat offer clues to how suburbs will vote in November?

Friday 9 February 2024 23:30 , AP

A special election in the suburbs of New York to replace disgraced former Rep. George Santos could offer clues about the mindset of suburban voters everywhere as 2024 election contests ramp up across the country.

The Tuesday contest for the House seat held by Santos until his recent expulsion is shaping up to be a bellwether in the fight for control of Congress, as candidates test political messages their parties hope will appeal to suburban voters in the fall. It not only could subtract one more vote from Republicans’ narrow majority in the short run but will be monitored carefully for any signals it sends about what suburban voters elsewhere may be thinking entering the highly volatile 2024 election year.

Continue reading...

Might George Santos’ ex-congressional seat offer clues for the presidential election?

Biden’s age is now under scrutiny. His campaign needs to respond with careful candor

Saturday 10 February 2024 00:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Eric Garcia writes:

President Joe Biden probably hoped that the 388-page report from special counsel would put a lingering question — the one of his handling of classified documents — to bed.

And indeed, while Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report said that Biden “willfully” held onto classified materials at his home in Delaware and the office of a think tank, it also said it would not recommend crimiminal charges for the president.

The good news ended there for the president. It should be noted that Attorney General Merrick Garland nominated Hur, a Republican whom Trump nominated to serve as the US Attorney for Maryland. Garland did so after Trump sought to use the entire department as his personal legal defense arm. It was supposed to be a show of impartiality toward the current president.

But nominating Hur might have given Republicans their most potent weapon yet. It forced a conversation on Biden’s age and whether it makes him fit to be the president for another term into the foreground. The report became the equivalent of a rubber hose beating: it may not be fatal, but it will bruise him up a bit.

Continue reading the full article...

Saturday 10 February 2024 01:00 , Oliver O'Connell

In pictures: Classified documents found in Biden’s garage and home

Democrats use Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe to take heat off Biden

Saturday 10 February 2024 02:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Democrats are rushing to defend President Joe Biden after he appeared to confuse Mexico with Egypt during a press conference called to refute claims about his poor memory.

Following the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Thursday – which claimed Mr Biden’s memory was “significantly limited” – Democratic lawmakers pointed to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s own gaffe, where he confused Iran with Israel last week.

Martha McHardy has the story:

Democrats share Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe in bid to take heat off Biden

Special counsel: Biden ‘wilfully’ held on to classified material

Saturday 10 February 2024 03:00 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden “wilfully” held on to classified materials that were discovered at his home in Delaware and the office of a think tank in Washington DC, but should not face criminal charges for doing so, a special prosecutor appointed by the attorney general found in a report released on Thursday.

The special counsel, former Trump appointee and ex-Maryland US Attorney Robert Hur, did not recommend that Mr Biden face criminal charges, citing what he described as significant “mitigating factors” which led him to state that charges were not warranted and would not have been warranted even if Mr Biden were not president and barred from being prosecuted by Department of Justice policy.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC:

Special counsel says Joe Biden ‘wilfully’ held on to classified material

Harris launches into fiery defence of Biden as she slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Saturday 10 February 2024 04:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Andrew Feinberg, our White House correspondent, filed this report:

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday came out swinging with a full-throated defence of President Joe Biden in the wake of an unflattering report on his conduct by a Republican special prosecutor.

Ms Harris was speaking in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at an event hosted by the White House’s gun violence prevention office when she addressed the matter of Mr Hur’s report, which critics have assailed as including gratuitous attacks on the president even as it announced that he will not face any criminal charges stemming from the discovery of classified documents at his Delaware home.

She said she has been “privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States” under Mr Biden, and said Mr Hur’s remarks on Mr Biden’s age and memory were “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate”.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris gives fiery defence of Biden and slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Saturday 10 February 2024 05:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Biden reacts angrily over special counsel claim he couldn’t remember son Beau’s death

Biden is ‘elderly man with poor memory’, says special counsel

Saturday 10 February 2024 07:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Special Counsel Robert Hur revealed in his report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents that the president has a poor memory and at times could not recall when he was vice president or when his son, Beau Biden, died.

In his report, released on Thursday, Mr Hur declined to prosecute Mr Biden for his mishandling of classified documents – saying that though the president retained documents containing sensitive information, he was not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Mr Hur also included that if Mr Biden were to appear in front of a jury he would seem like a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

Ariana Baio has the story:

Special counsel says Biden has ‘poor memory’ and can’t recall when son died

Why is Trump charged over his classified documents and Biden isn’t?

Saturday 10 February 2024 09:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Why Trump’s being charged over classified papers and Biden is not

Read the full special counsel report

Saturday 10 February 2024 11:00 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden will not face charges for “willfully” holding onto classified documents after he left office as vice president, according to the final report released by Special counsel Robert Hur.

On Thursday, Mr Hur released the findings from his investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified Obama-era materials, which were found at two locations tied to the president.

In the 388-page report, Mr Hur said that Mr Biden had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen”.

Read the special counsel’s report in full here:

Read the special counsel’s report into Biden classified documents in full

Key takeaways from the report into Biden’s classified documents

Saturday 10 February 2024 13:00 , John Bowden

A report on the Justice Department’s investigation into Joe Biden’s unauthorised retention of classified materials was made public on Thursday – and it was as troubling for the president and his public image as it was vindicating for those who argued he had committed no crimes.

The report was authored by Robert Hur, a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump and later elevated to the rank of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Delivered to Congress this week after many months of investigation and preparation, it recommended no criminal charges for the incumbent president, even were he not protected by immunity from prosecution due to his current stature.

It did, however, contain much that will concern many Americans and was overall far from complimentary of the incumbent president.

The investigators painted a picture of a senile president with severe memory issues whose innocence was less clear than his supporters would have hoped, while not necessarily coming across to a potential jury as malicious or criminal.

Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from Mr Hur’s report:

Classified documents kept by dog bed and memory troubles: Takeaways from Biden report

Biden’s age is now under scrutiny. His campaign needs to respond with careful candor

Saturday 10 February 2024 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Eric Garcia writes:

President Joe Biden probably hoped that the 388-page report from special counsel would put a lingering question — the one of his handling of classified documents — to bed.

And indeed, while Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report said that Biden “willfully” held onto classified materials at his home in Delaware and the office of a think tank, it also said it would not recommend crimiminal charges for the president.

The good news ended there for the president. It should be noted that Attorney General Merrick Garland nominated Hur, a Republican whom Trump nominated to serve as the US Attorney for Maryland. Garland did so after Trump sought to use the entire department as his personal legal defense arm. It was supposed to be a show of impartiality toward the current president.

But nominating Hur might have given Republicans their most potent weapon yet. It forced a conversation on Biden’s age and whether it makes him fit to be the president for another term into the foreground. The report became the equivalent of a rubber hose beating: it may not be fatal, but it will bruise him up a bit.

Continue reading...

Biden’s age is now under scrutiny. His campaign needs to respond with careful candor

Saturday 10 February 2024 15:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Biden shouts at reporters as he defends mental competence: ‘My memory is fine’

Democrats use Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe to take heat off Biden

Saturday 10 February 2024 16:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Democrats are rushing to defend President Joe Biden after he appeared to confuse Mexico with Egypt during a press conference called to refute claims about his poor memory.

Following the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Thursday – which claimed Mr Biden’s memory was “significantly limited” – Democratic lawmakers pointed to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s own gaffe, where he confused Iran with Israel last week.

Martha McHardy has the story:

Democrats share Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe in bid to take heat off Biden

Verbal gaffe or sign of trouble? Mixing up names like Biden and Trump have done is pretty common

Saturday 10 February 2024 16:35 , Graig Graziosi

Any parent who’s ever called one of their children by the other’s name — or even the family pet’s name — likely could empathize when President Joe Biden mixed up the names of French leaders Macron and Mitterrand.

The human brain has trouble pulling names out of stuffed memory banks on cue. But when are those and other verbal stumbles normal, and when might they be a sign of cognitive trouble?

“When I see somebody make a flub on TV, I’m really not all that concerned,” said well-known aging researcher S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago. “What science will tell you about flubs is that they’re perfectly normal, and they are exacerbated by stress for sure.”

READ MORE

Verbal gaffe or sign of trouble? Mixing up names like Biden and Trump have done is pretty common

Harris launches into fiery defence of Biden as she slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Saturday 10 February 2024 17:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Andrew Feinberg, our White House correspondent, filed this report:

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday came out swinging with a full-throated defence of President Joe Biden in the wake of an unflattering report on his conduct by a Republican special prosecutor.

Ms Harris was speaking in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at an event hosted by the White House’s gun violence prevention office when she addressed the matter of Mr Hur’s report, which critics have assailed as including gratuitous attacks on the president even as it announced that he will not face any criminal charges stemming from the discovery of classified documents at his Delaware home.

She said she has been “privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States” under Mr Biden, and said Mr Hur’s remarks on Mr Biden’s age and memory were “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate”.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris gives fiery defence of Biden and slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Watch: '

Saturday 10 February 2024 19:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Failed Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy claims Dems will run Michelle Obama instead of Joe Biden in November

Saturday 10 February 2024 20:20 , Graig Graziosi

Vivek Ramaswamy, a right-wing businessman who launched a doomed presidential primary and has since become a mainstay on conservative media, has claimed that Democrats will run Michelle Obama instead of Joe Biden in November.

Mr Ramaswamy made the claims during a Fox News appaearance.

According to Mr Ramaswamy, Democrats want to use a report issued by special counsel Robert Hur concerning Mr Biden’s possession of classified government documents following his vice presidency as a way to justify the replacement.

Mr Hur’s report claims charges won’t be brought against Mr Biden in part because he will be viewed as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,” by a jury.

Mr Ramaswamy said the natural backup pick for replacing Mr Biden is Vice President Kamala Harris, but he claims due to her poor primary performance in 2020 they instead will opt for Ms Obama.

“If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden. And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem, somebody who checks the boxes that they need to have checked per their own ideology, while also selecting an alternative to Biden that they may view as more palatable in a general election . . . it’s looking increasingly like it’s not going to be Biden as the nominee. And I think that it should not be shocking to see someone like Michelle Obama take the role of the nomination,” he said.

There is no evidence that Democrats are planning on running anyone other than Mr Biden in November.

Biden launching task force to prevent classified doc mishaps

Saturday 10 February 2024 21:00 , Oliver O'Connell

President Biden will soon name a high-level task force to recommend procedures that will prevent classified materials from being mishandled or inadvertantly lost during presidential transitions in the future, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said on Friday.

Mr Sams, who serves as a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, was addressing reporters at the daily White House press briefing following the release of a report from Special Counsel Robert Hur in which Mr Hur, a Republican who served in the Trump administration, assailed Mr Biden’s memory while declining to charge him with any crime stemming from the discovery of classified materials at his Wilmington, Delaware home.

He told reporters that the National Archives has found that the misfiling of classified materials during transitions has been a common occurrence which Mr Biden believes should be fixed.

Andrew Feinberg reports:

Biden launches task force to prevent future classified document mishaps

Recap: Biden comes out fighting over claims about his memory

Saturday 10 February 2024 22:30 , Graig Graziosi

An angry and animated President Joe Biden on Thursday hit back at a Republican prosecutor’s claim that his memory is faulty in last-minute remarks to reporters on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the Department of Justice released a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur, the former Maryland US Attorney who Attorney General Merrick Garland charged with probing how classified documents ended up at Mr Biden’s home in Delaware and former office in Washington.

Mr Hur did not recommend that Mr Biden face criminal charges, citing what he described as significant “mitigating factors” which led him to state that charges were not warranted and would not have been warranted even if Mr Biden were not president and barred from being prosecuted by Department of Justice policy.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC:

Biden comes out fighting over claims about his memory at surprise press conference

Saturday 10 February 2024 23:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Biden wants to use border deal collapse as campaign weapon against Trump

Sunday 11 February 2024 03:00 , AP

How it began: President Joe Biden was urgently seeking more money from Congress to aid Ukraine and Israel. He took a gamble by seizing on GOP demands to simultaneously address one of his biggest political liabilities — illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

How it ended: Biden came close to succeeding, before it all fell apart spectacularly. Now the president is trying to make the best of it after a major congressional deal was scuttled once Republican front-runner Donald Trump got involved. And Biden is intent on showing that the former president and his “Make America Great Again” Republican acolytes in Congress aren’t really interested in solutions.

In between: There is a story of a president willing to anger his own party’s activist class in an election year, rare hope for bipartisan progress on one of the third rails of American politics, and a sudden, stunning collapse publicly engineered by Trump that Biden’s team now sees as a political gift.

Continue reading...

Biden determined to use Trump-backed border deal collapse as weapon in 2024 campaign

Sunday 11 February 2024 07:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Special counsel: Biden ‘wilfully’ held on to classified material

Sunday 11 February 2024 11:00 , Oliver O'Connell

President Joe Biden “wilfully” held on to classified materials that were discovered at his home in Delaware and the office of a think tank in Washington DC, but should not face criminal charges for doing so, a special prosecutor appointed by the attorney general found in a report released on Thursday.

The special counsel, former Trump appointee and ex-Maryland US Attorney Robert Hur, did not recommend that Mr Biden face criminal charges, citing what he described as significant “mitigating factors” which led him to state that charges were not warranted and would not have been warranted even if Mr Biden were not president and barred from being prosecuted by Department of Justice policy.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC:

Special counsel says Joe Biden ‘wilfully’ held on to classified material

Recap: Biden comes out fighting over claims about his memory

Sunday 11 February 2024 14:00 , Oliver O'Connell

An angry and animated President Joe Biden on Thursday hit back at a Republican prosecutor’s claim that his memory is faulty in last-minute remarks to reporters on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the Department of Justice released a report by Special Counsel Robert Hur, the former Maryland US Attorney who Attorney General Merrick Garland charged with probing how classified documents ended up at Mr Biden’s home in Delaware and former office in Washington.

Mr Hur did not recommend that Mr Biden face criminal charges, citing what he described as significant “mitigating factors” which led him to state that charges were not warranted and would not have been warranted even if Mr Biden were not president and barred from being prosecuted by Department of Justice policy.

Andrew Feinberg filed this report from Washington, DC:

Biden comes out fighting over claims about his memory at surprise press conference

Harris launches into fiery defence of Biden as she slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Sunday 11 February 2024 17:00 , Oliver O'Connell

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday came out swinging with a full-throated defence of President Joe Biden in the wake of an unflattering report on his conduct by a Republican special prosecutor.

Ms Harris was speaking in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at an event hosted by the White House’s gun violence prevention office when she addressed the matter of Mr Hur’s report, which critics have assailed as including gratuitous attacks on the president even as it announced that he will not face any criminal charges stemming from the discovery of classified documents at his Delaware home.

She said she has been “privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States” under Mr Biden, and said Mr Hur’s remarks on Mr Biden’s age and memory were “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate”.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris gives fiery defence of Biden and slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Biden calls on Netanyahu to hold off on Rafa invasion

Sunday 11 February 2024 18:29 , Graig Graziosi

Joe Biden has reportedly advised Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to invade Rafah, where 1.4m Palestinians have been forced to seek shelter from Isreali bombardment, until he has a credible plan for doing so without causing massive civilian casualties.

Mr Biden reportedly said “a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there”, according to a White House synopsis of a call between the two men.

Biden urges Netanyahu not to advance into Rafah without a plan to avoid massive civilian casualties

Sunday 11 February 2024 21:01 , Graig Graziosi

Joe Biden has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off invading Rafah until a plan is in place that would prevent massive civilian casualties.

Gazans fleeing Israel’s bombardment and military advances have sought shelter in Rafah, a city in the south of the Gaza Strip. An estimated 1.4m Palestinians are currently in the region after being displaced by Israel’s campaign against Hamas.

The White House released a synopsis of a call between Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu on Sunday.

Mr Biden reportedly “raffirmed his view that a military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety and support for the more than one million people sheltering there,” according to the White House report.

READ MORE:

Biden urges Netanyahu not to advance into Rafah, citing risk to civlians

Biden lawyer says special counsel report was ‘off the rails’ and ‘shabby'

Sunday 11 February 2024 22:00 , Graig Graziosi

Bob Bauer, Joe Biden’s personal lawyer, said a report issued by special counsel Robert Hur that sparked concerns over the president’s age was “off the rails.”

“This is a report that went off the rails,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “A shabby work product.”

The report cleared Mr Biden of criminal wrongdoing in handling classified documents after leaving the Obama administration, but included comments on the president’s age and mental acuity.

It described Mr Biden as “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and said he had “diminished faculties in advancing age.”

Mr Hur noted that a jury might be unwillig to convict Mr Biden because his age and “diminished faculties” could potentially make him sympathetic.

Mr Biden responded by saying there was nothing wrong with his memory, and Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have gone on the offensive to defend the president in the media.

Why is Trump charged over his classified documents and Biden isn’t?

Sunday 11 February 2024 23:00 , Graig Graziosi

Why Trump’s being charged over classified papers and Biden is not

Read the full special counsel report

01:00 , Graig Graziosi

President Joe Biden will not face charges for “willfully” holding onto classified documents after he left office as vice president, according to the final report released by Special counsel Robert Hur.

On Thursday, Mr Hur released the findings from his investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified Obama-era materials, which were found at two locations tied to the president.

In the 388-page report, Mr Hur said that Mr Biden had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen”.

Read the special counsel’s report in full here:

Read the special counsel’s report into Biden classified documents in full

Key takeaways from the report into Biden’s classified documents

03:00 , Graig Graziosi

A report on the Justice Department’s investigation into Joe Biden’s unauthorised retention of classified materials was made public on Thursday – and it was as troubling for the president and his public image as it was vindicating for those who argued he had committed no crimes.

The report was authored by Robert Hur, a former US attorney appointed by Donald Trump and later elevated to the rank of special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Delivered to Congress this week after many months of investigation and preparation, it recommended no criminal charges for the incumbent president, even were he not protected by immunity from prosecution due to his current stature.

It did, however, contain much that will concern many Americans and was overall far from complimentary of the incumbent president.

The investigators painted a picture of a senile president with severe memory issues whose innocence was less clear than his supporters would have hoped, while not necessarily coming across to a potential jury as malicious or criminal.

Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from Mr Hur’s report:

Biden’s age is now under scrutiny. His campaign needs to respond with careful candor

04:59 , Graig Graziosi

Eric Garcia writes:

President Joe Biden probably hoped that the 388-page report from special counsel would put a lingering question — the one of his handling of classified documents — to bed.

And indeed, while Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report said that Biden “willfully” held onto classified materials at his home in Delaware and the office of a think tank, it also said it would not recommend crimiminal charges for the president.

The good news ended there for the president. It should be noted that Attorney General Merrick Garland nominated Hur, a Republican whom Trump nominated to serve as the US Attorney for Maryland. Garland did so after Trump sought to use the entire department as his personal legal defense arm. It was supposed to be a show of impartiality toward the current president.

But nominating Hur might have given Republicans their most potent weapon yet. It forced a conversation on Biden’s age and whether it makes him fit to be the president for another term into the foreground. The report became the equivalent of a rubber hose beating: it may not be fatal, but it will bruise him up a bit.

Continue reading...

Biden’s age is now under scrutiny. His campaign needs to respond with careful candor

Biden shouts at reporters that his memory is fine

07:00 , Graig Graziosi

Biden shouts at reporters as he defends mental competence: ‘My memory is fine’

Democrats use Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe to take heat off Biden

09:00 , Graig Graziosi

Democrats are rushing to defend President Joe Biden after he appeared to confuse Mexico with Egypt during a press conference called to refute claims about his poor memory.

Following the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Thursday – which claimed Mr Biden’s memory was “significantly limited” – Democratic lawmakers pointed to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s own gaffe, where he confused Iran with Israel last week.

Martha McHardy has the story:

Democrats share Mike Johnson’s Iran-Israel gaffe in bid to take heat off Biden

Verbal gaffe or sign of trouble? Mixing up names like Biden and Trump have done is pretty common

11:00 , Graig Graziosi

Any parent who’s ever called one of their children by the other’s name — or even the family pet’s name — likely could empathize when President Joe Biden mixed up the names of French leaders Macron and Mitterrand.

The human brain has trouble pulling names out of stuffed memory banks on cue. But when are those and other verbal stumbles normal, and when might they be a sign of cognitive trouble?

“When I see somebody make a flub on TV, I’m really not all that concerned,” said well-known aging researcher S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago. “What science will tell you about flubs is that they’re perfectly normal, and they are exacerbated by stress for sure.”

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Verbal gaffe or sign of trouble? Mixing up names like Biden and Trump have done is pretty common

Harris launches into fiery defence of Biden as she slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

13:00 , Graig Graziosi

Andrew Feinberg, our White House correspondent, filed this report:

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday came out swinging with a full-throated defence of President Joe Biden in the wake of an unflattering report on his conduct by a Republican special prosecutor.

Ms Harris was speaking in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at an event hosted by the White House’s gun violence prevention office when she addressed the matter of Mr Hur’s report, which critics have assailed as including gratuitous attacks on the president even as it announced that he will not face any criminal charges stemming from the discovery of classified documents at his Delaware home.

She said she has been “privileged and proud to serve as vice president of the United States” under Mr Biden, and said Mr Hur’s remarks on Mr Biden’s age and memory were “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate”.

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Kamala Harris gives fiery defence of Biden and slams ‘integrity’ of special counsel

Failed Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy claims Dems will run Michelle Obama instead of Joe Biden in November

14:00 , Graig Graziosi

Vivek Ramaswamy, a right-wing businessman who launched a doomed presidential primary and has since become a mainstay on conservative media, has claimed that Democrats will run Michelle Obama instead of Joe Biden in November.

Mr Ramaswamy made the claims during a Fox News appaearance.

According to Mr Ramaswamy, Democrats want to use a report issued by special counsel Robert Hur concerning Mr Biden’s possession of classified government documents following his vice presidency as a way to justify the replacement.

Mr Hur’s report claims charges won’t be brought against Mr Biden in part because he will be viewed as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,” by a jury.

Mr Ramaswamy said the natural backup pick for replacing Mr Biden is Vice President Kamala Harris, but he claims due to her poor primary performance in 2020 they instead will opt for Ms Obama.

“If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden. And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem, somebody who checks the boxes that they need to have checked per their own ideology, while also selecting an alternative to Biden that they may view as more palatable in a general election . . . it’s looking increasingly like it’s not going to be Biden as the nominee. And I think that it should not be shocking to see someone like Michelle Obama take the role of the nomination,” he said.

There is no evidence that Democrats are planning on running anyone other than Mr Biden in November.

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