The special counsel, headed by former US Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur, has released a 345-page report about the investigation into President Biden’s handling of classified information. The counsel ended up not recommending criminal charges—however, its findings still ended up being very damaging for Biden.
The investigation did conclude that he ‘wilfully retained and disclosed classified materials…when he was a private citizen’. However, Hur and his counsel also found that it would be hard to get a conviction because a jury would likely find Joe Biden to be a sympathetic figure, ‘a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,’ as the report states.
President Biden has already faced plenty of scrutiny about his mental state and old age because of his frequent gaffes and confused behaviour in public. This report by his own Department of Justice adds plenty of more fuel to these concerns. It reveals that, during the investigation,
President Biden has failed to recall basic details of his life,
such as when he served as Vice President of the United States or when his son died.
In response, the POTUS has called a special press conference, trying to ease public concerns over his mental well-being. He forcefully asserted that his memory is ‘fine’ and that he is ‘the most qualified person in this country to be president’.
However, during the same conference, he also confused the countries of Egypt and Mexico. He was trying to tout his accomplishment in handling the Hamas-Israeli conflict, and told reporters that he was the one who convinced ‘President El-Sisi of Mexico’ to let refugees into his country. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is the President of Egypt, not Mexico… The incumbent President of Mexico is Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
These unusual developments prompted even members of the White House press corps, generally biased towards the Democratic Party, to ask President Biden if he was considering dropping out of the presidential election race. However, he affirmed that he is in fact determined to run for reelection. On the off chance that he does end up dropping out, he would be only the second president in US history not to run for reelection despite being eligible under the 22nd amendment. President Lyndon B. Johnson, also from the Democratic Party, ended his reelection campaign after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary in 1968, despite winning in a landslide four years prior.
Double Standard Against President Trump?
On top of the damning assessment of the President’s mental acuity, the decision by the special counsel not to charge President Biden also raises suspicions of political bias within the Justice Department. Back in June, Former President Donald Trump was charged with 31 counts of Willful Retention of National Defence Information, as well as seven additional charges of miscellaneous crimes, for conduct virtually identical to what President Biden was investigated for.
Both men were caught storing classified documents within their private properties. In both cases, the documents were from their times in public office. President Trump and his supporters have repeatedly claimed that the current administration is weaponizing the country’s criminal justice system against him, and this development seems to bolster their claims of corruption.
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