WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's Democratic allies are launching an aggressive defense against a special counsel's explosive claims that the 81-year-old president couldn't remember major milestones in his life, trying to diminish the significance of the prosecutor's allegations that Biden was too forgetful to be charged for mishandling classified material.
Biden set the angry tone hours after special counsel Robert Hur's report was released, dismissing the report's conclusions about his memory and insisting he hadn't forgotten the year his son Beau died, as Hur claimed. He angrily lashed out at reporters and confused the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.
Biden aides say they do not expect the president or his campaign to take on the age question more directly. They can’t make Biden any younger, and note that attacks on the president over his age were also persistent four years ago, when Trump labeled him “Sleepy Joe.”
Messina compared the special counsel's report to the announcement in October 2016 by then- FBI Director James Comey that he was further investigating Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's handling of classified emails when she was secretary of state. Comey's announcement, which came 11 days before the election, has been blamed for helping Trump beat Clinton.
In this case, this week's report comes nine months before Election Day, Nov. 5
“There’s just so much time to get through all this,” Messina said. “Trump has all the trials coming up. I’d be surprised if this was an issue in a month.”
Still, Trump's allies were emboldened this week.
Beyond celebrating the release of the special counsel's embarrassing descriptions of Biden, Trump won a new trove of delegates in Nevada's caucuses, where he ran unopposed.
“We all already know that Joe Biden is senile. What’s being lost is that Joe Biden is a criminal who put American national security at risk,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote in one of many messages highlighting the new report.
Barry Goodman, a Biden fundraiser from Michigan, said he’s had some donors “take a wait and see approach” about supporting Biden, even before the special counsel’s announcement.
“They wanted to see if someone else would get in or whether Trump would drop out — but no one else is getting in,” Goodman said. “Of everyone I talk to, some are more excited than others.”
Trav Robertson, a former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman, described the report as an obvious political liability for Biden. But he directed blame squarely at Attorney General Merrick Garland for allowing the report to include comments about the president's age, memory and cognitive function.