Democrats downplay Hur testimony after declaring Biden age concerns ‘debunked’

Published March 12, 2024 6:22am ET



Democrats are giving little weight to the idea that special counsel Robert Hur’s testimony before Congress will dredge up concerns about President Joe Biden‘s mental acuity.

Instead, Democrats are largely declaring that Bide’s State of the Union speech last week put age and memory questions to rest. Hur’s report on Biden’s handling of classified documents concluded that the president shouldn’t be indicted in part because he’d be perceived by a jury as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

“After the president’s strong State of the Union performance, Republicans complained that he was too strident and too angry, but not that he was too old. I think he put that to rest, and Hur won’t resurrect that,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee.

Democrats roundly attacked both the report and Hur’s role in it upon its release, calling the remarks “gratuitous” in the lengthy fallout. Now, ahead of the hearing, Democrats are saying that Biden’s fiery address to Congress finally put concerns about the president’s age behind them.

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