WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden forcefully defended himself against charges that he suffers from memory loss, delivering remarks Thursday night at the White House in response to special counsel Robert Hur’s report on his handling of classified information.
Hur’s report included characterizations of the president’s mental fitness, saying his memory was “significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.”
The report also said Biden did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.
“How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden said, adding that when he was asked about Beau’s death during the probe, he thought to himself that it “wasn’t any of their damn business.”
Biden’s son Beau died in 2015 from brain cancer.
“I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away,” Biden said Thursday night, reiterating that he wears his late son’s rosary beads and honors him with a service every Memorial Day. The president often talks about Beau in speeches, especially in discussing loss and grief.
Biden also said, “My memory’s fine,” in response to a reporter’s question.
Later in his remarks, Biden mistakenly referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as the president