‘Cheap shots’: Democrats go into damage control for embattled Biden

Washington: Democrats have rallied behind embattled US President Joe Biden, accusing the prosecutor who investigated his handling of classified documents of being politically motivated, gratuitous and wrong.

After a damning report by Special Counsel Robert Hur raised fresh concerns about Biden’s mental acuity, the White House, Congress members and the Democrats’ organisational wing spent the day in damage control, trying to address what has become a festering political headache for the president as he seeks re-election in November.

US Vice President Kamala Harris led the charge, hitting out at Hur’s integrity and questioning the emphasis he placed on Biden’s memory when the investigation legally exonerated the former president from criminal charges.

The Special Counsel, who is a Republican, had described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and claimed that he could not even remember when he was vice president, or when his son died.

“The way that the president’s demeanour in that report was characterised could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly, politically motivated and gratuitous,” Harris, a former San Francisco prosecutor, said during an event at the White House.

“When it comes to the role and responsibility of a prosecutor in a situation like that, we should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris.Credit: AP

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who has also faced questions about his mental fitness after a stroke in 2022 resulted in ongoing speech difficulties, described the report as “smear and cheap shots”.

He also noted that Hur was appointed by the Trump administration into his former role as US attorney for the District of Maryland.

“But it comes back to that very core choice that we have with our nation,” Fetterman said, trying to contrast Biden to Donald Trump.

“Do we want order over chaos? Do we want the truth over lying? Do we want virtue against just corruption and sleaze?”

Democratic Senator John Fetterman leapt to Biden’s defence.Credit: Bloomberg

Gun-control advocate Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z member to be elected to the US Congress, also defended Biden, highlighting his first-term achievements such as bipartisan gun reform and an uptick in the economy.

“Yes, okay, we know President Biden is old; it doesn’t sound like breaking news to me,” said the former March For Our Lives director who, at 27, is 54 years younger than the president.

“But what sounds like news to me is number one: 15 million jobs being created; wages being up; inflation coming down. That sounds like news.”

Hur’s report sent shockwaves through Washington when it was handed down on Thursday afternoon (Friday AEDT), giving Republicans fresh ammunition to claim Biden was not fit for office.

Gun control advocate Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z-er elected to US Congress.Credit: Orlando Sentinel

It revealed that Biden had wilfully retained and disclosed classified material, but that his age and hazy memory would be unlikely to result in any court conviction beyond reasonable doubt.

Biden sought to defend himself in a hastily convened press conference later on Thursday (Friday AEDT), only to undercut his insistence that “my memory is fine” by confusing the presidents of Mexico and Egypt when answering a question about the Israel-Hamas war.

The special counsel report is contentious because polls have long suggested that many Americans believe that Biden, who at 81 is already the oldest person to occupy the White House, should not be running for another term.

Trump is 77 and also known to make gaffes, but does not suffer the same poor polling numbers when it comes to his health and vigour.

In a warning sign for Democrats, his popularity has also continued to rise every time he has been indicted on criminal charges, as he seeks to portray himself as the victim of a “witch hunt”.

Republicans immediately seized on Hur’s report, with some even demanding that Attorney-General Merrick Garland invoke the 25th Amendment, which sets out the procedures to replace a president in the event of death, resignation, removal or incapacitation.

However, the White House branded the idea a stunt and suggested the inappropriate references to Biden’s memory may have come about because Hur did not want to upset Republicans for not charging the president.

Another attorney appointed under Trump, David Weiss, faced a backlash last year for not going harder against Biden’s son Hunter, during a Special Counsel investigation into his tax filings.

“The environment that we are in generates a ton of pressure because you have congressional Republicans and other Republicans attacking prosecutors that they don’t like,” said Ian Sams, the spokesperson for the White House counsel’s office.

Biden is not the only person to face scrutiny over his handling of classified documents. Trump has also been investigated for retaining and disclosing classified material that was found during a raid at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. He is now awaiting trial.

Former vice president Mike Pence was also investigated over material found at his Indiana home, but the probe closed last June with a one-page letter and no charges filed.

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