President Joe Biden brought up his son Beau Biden’s death to Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Hur, according to a transcript of Biden’s testimony that contradicts the president’s public claims that it was Hur who raised the issue—one of several revelations from the interview in which Biden appeared to forget key dates.
US President Joe Biden speaks about the costs of living during an address at the YMCA Allard Center ... [+]
Biden referenced his son, who died of brain cancer in 2015, while recalling a memoir he published, according to the transcript.
“What month did Beau die? Oh God, May 30th,” Biden said when Hur asked about where Biden kept files for projects he was working on after leaving the vice presidency.
Biden appeared to forget the year Beau Biden died and asked a White House lawyer to clarify, according to the 258-page transcript released ahead of Hur’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
The exchange refutes the president’s claims that Hur callously raised his son’s death—an allegation Biden lobbed in response to Hur’s description of Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” in a report detailing why his office chose not to bring criminal charges against Biden for his handling of classified documents after leaving office.
The transcript also revealed Biden appeared to forget key dates about his tenure as vice president, at one point asking White House lawyers who were in the room “in 2009, am I still vice president?” and later asking “when did I stop being vice president?” (Biden served as vice president from 2009-2017).
Biden, defending his handling of classified documents after leaving office, repeatedly told Justice Department investigators he wasn’t aware that classified documents were located in his personal residence in Delaware and private office in Washington, describing himself as unorganized and claiming he left it to his staff to deal with his files.
Hur is set to testify about the interview before the House Judiciary Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Hur will defend his description of the president’s mental state in his testimony before the committee, calling it “necessary and accurate and fair,” according to prepared remarks of his opening statement, in which he plans to argue “the president himself put his memory squarely at issue” during the interview. Hur will also state that he felt the need to provide “rigorous, detailed and thorough analysis” of his decision to close the investigation. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly,” the remarks state.
Biden, defending himself against Hur’s description of his memory, previously attacked the special counsel, claiming he inappropriately raised Beau Biden’s death. “How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden told reporters in February, adding “frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn’t any of their damn business.” The transcript corroborates previously reported accounts from sources who also said it was Biden, not Hur, who brought up Beau Biden during the five-hour interview that took place in October. Hur released a report last month explaining why Biden would not face criminal charges in the probe into his handling of classified documents after Justice Department investigators discovered dozens of classified documents from Biden’s time as a senator and vice president at his residence and office in late 2022 and early 2023. Hur provided a damning description of Biden’s mental state, describing him as a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” that a jury would be hard-pressed to convict. The description has exacerbated concerns about the 81-year-old president’s age—a key concern for voters in the 2024 election.