President Biden attempted to defend his mental acuity in a press conference Thursday night that a large number of media outlets are calling politically damaging to the president.
The president delivered a brief address to the nation from the White House on Thursday night, where he answered a series of questions from reporters about concerns about his age and memory. The latest developments emerged from special counsel Robert Hur's report on Biden's handling of classified documents. Shortly after insisting that his memory was “fine,” Biden proceeded to refer to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”
Biden also appeared visibly angry when responding to claims in Hur's report that Biden did not remember when his son Beau died.
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President Biden attempted to defend his mental acuity in a press conference Thursday night that a large number of media outlets are calling politically damaging to the president. (Reuters)
The New York Times called the event a “political disaster.”
Axios wrote that Biden's performance Thursday night was a nightmare for his staff.
“For years, President Biden's advisers have carefully choreographed his every move to avoid what was on display for six hours Thursday: a vivid display of an elderly, irritable man struggling on a public stage,” Axios reported.
The outlet also called Biden's press conference “shaky” and interviewed lawmakers who agreed that the president's recent mistakes call into question his ability to win re-election.
“A House Democrat called Biden's verbal gaffes 'horrible' and questioned why the president's staff allowed him to hold a press conference (and then reporters shouted questions) 'so late at night after a full day,' instead of Friday morning, when it would be 'cool,'” Axios reported.
A former Biden White House official told Axios that the president's press conference was “[b]route.”
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The Guardian reported that Biden was “combative, emotional and then, not for the first time, answered one question too many and paid the price.” (Screenshot/Biden speech)
The Guardian reported that Biden was “combative, emotional and then, not for the first time, answered one question too many and paid the price.”
“That's when, after having protested that his memory is good and his age is not a problem, Biden screwed up again, mistakenly referring to Egypt's leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as 'the president of Mexico.' This followed his claims that in recent days he met with François Mitterrand of France and Helmut Kohl of Germany when both were already dead.”
Business Insider summarized the press conference as a “bad night for a furious Biden.”
The Washington Post described Biden's performance as filled with “fury” as he spoke about the death of his son Beau, which was referenced in Hur's report.
The report revealed that Biden had a “hazy” recollection of when he was previously in office and when his son Beau died. “In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse,” the report states. “He didn't remember when he was vice president, he forgot on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it were 2013, when did I stop being vice president?”), and he forgot on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still vice president?').”
Politico reacted to Hur's report, calling it a “withering assessment of Joe Biden's mental acuity.”
Fox News' Lindsay Kornick and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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