Enlarge image

Joe Biden on February 8th

Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP

Joe Biden appeared in front of the press at short notice, visibly upset. Reason: the report of the special investigator in the documents affair. In it, Robert Hur comes to the conclusion that Biden does not have to expect any further legal action. However, the paper also assumes that the US President has problems with his mental state.

In his appearance before the press, Biden rejected this assessment in clear terms. The Democrat was particularly clear on one point: when it came to his late son Beau. He succumbed to cancer on May 30, 2015.

At one point the report states that Biden could not remember when his son died. “How the hell dare he bring that up?” Biden complained about the special counsel. When the question about his son came up during the interviews, he thought it was none of the special investigator's business, the Democrat continued. That has no place in this report.

Beau Biden's death at just 46 was a tragedy in Joe Biden's life - but not the only one. In 1972, his wife and a daughter were killed in a car accident. His two sons, Hunter and Beau, survived with serious injuries. Biden, who had only recently been elected to the Senate, took his oath of office at the bedside of his two sons.

Biden vehemently defends himself against the investigator's assessment

In addition to the very personal detail about his dead son, Joe Biden also rejected the general assessment of the report during his appearance on Thursday evening (local time).

“My memory is good,” Biden said at the press conference that was scheduled at short notice. The president criticized Special Investigator Hur, who is now 81 years old, sharply and at times angrily. He seemed like a "well-meaning, older man with a bad memory."

Biden pointed out that he had been asked about the documents affair shortly after the war between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas began on October 7th. At the time, he was busy dealing with an “international crisis.”

In his report, special prosecutor Hur concluded that Biden had not committed a criminal offense because of the retention of confidential documents from his time as vice president. However, the unflattering assessments of Biden's memory made headlines.

jok/dpa