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Washington: US President Joe Biden has angrily criticised an investigation that found he mishandled top secret files and said he struggled to recall key life events.<\/p>\n
In a surprise news briefing on Thursday evening, Mr Biden insisted: \u201cMy memory is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
He slammed a claim that he could not recollect when his son died, saying: \u201cHow the hell dare he raise that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquiry found Mr Biden \u201cwilfully retained and disclosed\u201d classified files, but decided not to charge him.<\/p>\n
Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur determined Mr Biden had improperly kept classified documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan after serving as vice-president.<\/p>\n
The scathing 345-page report, released earlier in the day, said the president\u2019s memory had \u201csignificant limitations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Hur interviewed the 81-year-old president over five hours as part of the inquiry.<\/p>\n
The special counsel, a Republican appointed to the role by Biden attorney general Merrick Garland, said Mr Biden could not recall when he was vice-president (from 2009-2017), or \u201ceven within several years, when his son Beau died\u201d (2015).<\/p>\n
At Thursday night\u2019s news conference, an emotional Mr Biden lashed out at the passages casting doubt on his recollection of events.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself, was none of their damn business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need anyone to remind me when he [Beau Biden] passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he was \u201cvery occupied\u2026 in the middle of handling an international crisis\u201d when he was interviewed by the special counsel from 8-9 October last year \u2013 just as the Israel-Gaza war erupted.<\/p>\n
The inquiry also said Mr Biden had shared some of the sensitive material from hand-written notebooks with a ghostwriter for his memoir, a finding that the president denied from the podium.<\/p>\n
The special counsel concluded it would be difficult to convict the president of improper handling of files because \u201cat trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory\u201d.<\/p>\n
Opinion polls indicate the president\u2019s age is a concern for US voters ahead of November\u2019s White House election. But Mr Biden told reporters on Thursday he was the most qualified candidate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am well-meaning,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd am elderly. I know what the hell I\u2019m doing. I put this country back on its feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need his recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n
However even as he sought to rebut reporters\u2019 questions about his age and mental acuity, he inadvertently referred Egyptian leader Abdul Fattah al-Sisi as the \u201cpresident of Mexico\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked to comment on the latest in the Israel-Gaza war, he said: \u201cI think as you know initially, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he took responsibility for having classified documents in his home, Mr Biden blamed his staff.<\/p>\n
He said he didn\u2019t know they had put sensitive memos in his garage, where the special counsel says they were located next to a dog bed.<\/p>\n
A BBC reporter at the White House\u2019s Diplomatic Reception Room described the atmosphere as tense.<\/p>\n
When one journalist said the American people were concerned about his age, Mr Biden raised his voice in reply: \u201cThat is your judgement, that is your judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n
He insisted that his memory is \u201cfine\u201d and \u201chas not gotten worse\u201d during his presidency.<\/p>\n
Mr Biden\u2019s legal team also criticised the special counsel\u2019s remarks about Mr Biden\u2019s apparent memory lapses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events,\u201d wrote White House lawyer Richard Sauber in a letter attached to the report.<\/p>\n
The top secret files were found at Mr Biden\u2019s house in Wilmington, Delaware, and former private office from 2022-23.<\/p>\n
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[ad_1] \u00a0 Washington: US President Joe Biden has angrily criticised an investigation that found he mishandled top secret files and said he struggled to recall key life events. In a surprise news briefing on Thursday evening, Mr Biden insisted: \u201cMy memory is fine.\u201d He slammed a claim that he could not recollect when his son […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20616,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20614\/revisions\/20616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}