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WSJ: Let’s See the Biden-Hur Interview Transcript Did he offer ‘detailed recollections,’ or was he a forgetful old man?

  |   By Polling+ Staff

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Let’s See the Biden-Hur Interview Transcript

Did he offer ‘detailed recollections,’ or was he a forgetful old man?

The demand to see the Hur report goes up. The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes: 

“If President Biden believes that his mental faculties were unfairly maligned by special counsel Robert Hur, there’s an easy way to clear up the record: He could call on the Justice Department to release the transcript of his five-hour interview. House Republicans are already seeking it, along with any recordings, and Mr. Biden’s acquiescence might speed things along. 

Mr. Hur says in his report that Mr. Biden portrayed himself ‘during his interview with our office’ as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ Twice Mr. Biden is quoted as failing to recall which years he was America’s VP. ‘If it was 2013—when did I stop being Vice President?’ And: ‘In 2009, am I still Vice President?’ Mr. Hur also writes that Mr. Biden ‘did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.’ The President angrily denied all this last week. ‘There’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died,’ he said. 

‘How in the hell dare he raise that. Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.’ Mr. Biden’s lawyers, who reviewed a draft of Mr. Hur’s report before its public release, made an even more vigorous defense in a letter that the special counsel appended to his final document.

‘Far from being ‘hazy,’ it argues, ‘the President proceeded to provide often detailed recollections across a wide range of questions, from staff management of paper flow in the West Wing to the events surrounding the creation of the 2009 memorandum on the Afghanistan surge.’ Mr. Biden’s attorneys then assert: ‘The President’s inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual.’

These stories sound mutually exclusive, and reading the transcript could prove one of them right. If the White House is confident in its version of events, it should want the transcript to come out.

The interview might need redactions to protect sensitive or personal details. But the argument playing out about the President’s memory doesn’t implicate the contents of his classified files. The dispute is about how well Mr. Biden performed in answering questions under pressure, which the public rarely gets to see, given how infrequently he conducts press interviews or news conferences.

Mr. Hur’s team spent five hours with the President, and his assessment is shifting the public debate on the wisdom of giving an 81-year-old the nuclear launch codes for another four years. Beltway media types are insisting that the nomination die is already cast, and the Democratic future is Biden or bust. Jonathan Martin, Politico’s hall monitor for conventional wisdom, is leading this Biden protection campaign. But that isn’t inevitable.

If Mr. Biden announced tomorrow a decision to bow out and release his delegates, Democrats would get a real competition. We’ve never argued that such a turn of events is likely. What we’ve said is that it would be good for Democrats and the country. Pardon us for saying that Americans deserve a better choice than Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump.

Donald Trump – WSJ Spotlight Coverage, Recent News

Donald Trump was the 45th president of the U.S. and is running again in 2024 for the Republican presidential nom…

Most of the public is ready to turn the page on both men. Which of them would win in November is hard to predict, but the polls today suggest Mr. Biden would lose. He doesn’t want to admit that. Who would? The question isn’t whether changing Mr. Biden’s mind is likely. It’s whether, if his dismal polling continues, Democratic bigwigs will try.”

This drama of the Biden-state of mine is going to continue in front of television cameras – and when the cameras are not there the inevitable question will be “why?”

Stay tuned.