CNN
—
Donald Trump had his best day of 2024 so far…
► The former president was handed a political gift. An independent special counsel poured kerosene on concerns about Joe Biden’s age with pointed language about the president’s poor memory after concluding Biden had willfully mishandled classified documents – and that his failing memory makes him impossible to convict. Biden was on defense at a hastily called White House news conference. “My memory is fine,” Biden said.
► He is on a glide path to the Republican nomination. Trump romped in the Nevada and US Virgin Island caucuses Thursday night, continuing his unbeaten streak and making Nikki Haley’s campaign feel futile.
► He appears poised for a win at the Supreme Court. Justices expressed deep skepticism that Colorado could declare him an insurrectionist and bar him from their election ballots.
It’s a one-two-three combo that should have Trump feeling solid about his political future, at least for a moment.
In concluding Biden should not be prosecuted, Special Counsel Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed US Attorney in Maryland, offered a political indictment of the president’s fitness. Hur described the leader of the free world as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” that would make him impossible to prosecute.
The odd assessment in a justice department document created an instant feeding frenzy among Biden’s opponents and will last much longer in the public consciousness than any of the other news.
“Is this a joke?” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis wrote on social media, reposting quotes from Hur’s report.
“A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office,” House Republican leaders said in a quickly released joint statement, seizing on the special counsel’s description of Biden in the report.
In a statement, Biden pointed out his cooperation with the special counsel probe and said he was pleased with the outcome, arguing the matter is now closed.
Hardly. Questions about his age already existed and are now sure to grow, especially with Republicans primed to pounce on any misstep or verbal mistake, such as when he mixed up dead European leaders this week.
In stern comments acknowledging the outcry, Biden reprimanded Hur for questioning his memory of his son.
“How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden said. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, ‘Wasn’t any of their damn business.’”
He pulled at a rosary of Beau’s that he wears and added, “I don’t need anyone to remind me of when he passed away.”
Hur said Biden could not remember key details during his meeting with authorities and forgot key dates, including the year his son Beau died and the years when he was vice president.
The White House immediately disputed the accounts.
“The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events,” White House counsel Richard Sauber and Biden personal attorney Bob Bauer said in a five-page letter to Hur.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, tried to deflect concerns about Biden’s age, calling them “ridiculous cheap shots,” and noted Trump has also had some gaffes caught on tape in recent weeks.
“I just spent an hour with president Biden and the entire Democratic caucus,…
This article was originally published by a www.cnn.com . Read the Original article here. .