‘Politically motivated’: Kamala Harris slams Special Counsel Hur's report on Biden's age and memory
US Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Donald Trump-appointed Robert Hur for making “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate” remarks against Joe Biden.
As Republicans rush to call for Joe Biden’s Department of Justice Special Counsel's report, Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday slammed Donald Trump-appointed Robert Hur for making “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate” remarks against the US President. She called his report on Biden's handling of classified documents “clearly politically motivated”.
“As a former prosecutor, the comments that were made by that prosecutor: gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate,” Harris, who is the running mate of Biden in 2024 presidential elections, said while speaking to repoters. "The way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts, and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous."
"And so I will say, that 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," she added.
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White House official blames Republicans for 'pressurised' Hur's report
During a press briefing, White House Counsel spokesperson Ian Sams attempted to refute the conclusions of the alarming special counsel report that raised questions about Biden's age and mental health. Citing "a pressurised political environment", he said Republicans have "made up claims of a two-tiered system of justice between Republicans and Democrats".
"When the inevitable conclusion is that the facts and the evidence don't support any charges, you're left to wonder why this report spends time making gratuitous and inappropriate criticisms of the president," Sams stated.
Sams disputed the claims about Biden's memory loss, claiming that the evidence was incoherent. He mentioned page 233 of the report, which states that "we expect the evidence of Mr. Biden's state of mind to be compelling − clear, forceful testimony that he did, in fact, believe he was allowed” to keep notebooks containing classified information in the event that a case against him goes to trial.
"I can't explain why the report veers all over the place on this issue," he stated.
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Special counsel’s assessment of Biden’s mental fitness sparks debate
Hur delivered a report on Thursday after an inquiry into Biden's handling of sensitive papers found at his Delaware home and the Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C.
In the report, he stated that there was insufficient evidence "to establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," but the report did not recommend filing any charges against Biden. It did, however, mention that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed," classified documents during his tenure as former President Barack Obama's vice president.
"Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," the report said.
The report also highlights that Biden, during interviews with the Special Counsel, "did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended," and that "he did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died."
As the report sparked debate around Biden's memory loss and mental fitness to continue to run the office, Republican legislators called for his resignation, stating that he is “unfit” to hold office.
They contended that the 25th Amendment, which is meant to render the president incapable of holding office, should now be put into effect.