Special Counsel Robert Hur's report on the investigation into Joe Biden's misuse of classified documents continues to rock Democrats, the Biden campaign and the Democratic commentariat.
With two highly notable exceptions.
The first is The New York Times editorial board. The Grey Lady's editorial team writes that the Hur report reiterated already long-standing public concerns about Mr. Biden's mental acuity:
Mr. Biden's performance at his news conference on Thursday night was intended to assure the public that his memory is fine and argue that Mr. Hur was out of line; instead, the president raised more questions about his cognitive sharpness and temperament, as he delivered emotional and snappish retorts in a moment when people were looking for steady, even and capable responses to fair questions about his fitness.
His assurances, in other words, didn't work. He must do better — the stakes in this presidential election are too high for Mr. Biden to hope that he can skate through a campaign with the help of teleprompters and aides and somehow defeat as manifestly unfit an opponent as Donald Trump, who has a very real chance of retaking the White House.
The Times says what Biden needs to do is get outside his carefully crafted bubble and engage the public far more than he has so far in his presidency. Good luck with that. If the New York Post's coverage of the Biden Bubble, coupled with the Axios reporting on Jill Biden's central role in maintaining said Bubble, then Mr. Biden is in no way, shape, or form able to mount a tradition – and grueling – in-person presidential campaign.
Which brings us to the other exception to the shoot-the-messenger tirades emanating from Team Biden and assorted Democratic Party organs.
The Washington Post editorial board wrote:
…there is nothing new about Mr. Biden's memory lapses, malapropisms and rambling, sometimes embroidered anecdotes. This has been an aspect of his political persona since he was a much younger man. And it has plainly not improved with age. “My memory is fine,” the president said at Thursday's news conference — before proceeding to confuse the presidents of Mexico and Egypt. Those condemning Mr. Hur for his “gratuitous” discussion of Mr. Biden's forgetfulness — the word used by the president's legal team — are themselves forgetting that the special counsel mentioned them as part of his explanation, required by regulations, of why he thought the charges could not be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Still, critics are right that Mr. Hur did not need to lay it on quite so thick.
On the contrary. Hur did need to “lay it on thick” because far too many in the press have given Biden a pass on his “memory lapses, malapropisms, and rambling, sometimes embroidered anecdotes.”
Consider it a moment of extreme clarity which strips away the habit of official Washington to shield members of the gerontocracy from criticism…regardless of party or branch of government.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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