Robert Hur, the special counsel who investigated US President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, in his testimony before a congressional committee has defended the remarks.
Appearing before the committee, Hur said that his assessment about the relevance of the president’s memory was “necessary and accurate and fair.’’ Hur added that he did not sanitise his explanation or “disparage the president unfairly.”
As expected, the testimony before a congressional committee quickly turned into a partisan affair with Democrats backing Biden and Republicans batting for Trump.
The Republicans have focused on Hur’s comments in a bid to reignate the age issue for Biden, who at 81 is seeking a second term in office against a 77-year-old Trump.
The report was released in February and Hur declined to recommend criminal charges against Biden. He described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
“My task was to determine whether the president retained or disclosed national defence information ‘wilfully’ – meaning, knowingly and with the intent to do something the law forbids,” Hur told the House Judiciary Committee.
“For that reason, I had to consider the president’s memory and overall mental state. My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair,” Hur added.
Most of the democrat lawmakers accused Hur, a registered Republican, of making unkind remarks about Biden’s memory and injecting himself into the presidential campaign.
Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California said, “You cannot tell me you’re so naive as to think your words would not have created a political firestorm?”
Hur categorically denied the role of partisan politics in his report. Biden has time and again defended his memory and said that his memory still remains fine and has not worsened. The president was furious over the report’s claim that he was unable to remember even the date of his son Beau’s death in 2015.
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