A recently released transcript of the conversation between President Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur substantiates Biden’s falsehood regarding an interaction concerning his son Beau during a contentious press conference following the publication of Hur’s report last month.
Hur’s report, which delineated the president’s management of classified materials, highlighted Biden’s lapses in memory, including his inability to recall the date of his son’s passing, as well as the duration of his vice presidency.
Shortly after the report’s release in February, Biden conducted an impromptu and brief press briefing, expressing dissatisfaction with Hur for probing into his late son’s demise. However, the newly disclosed transcript verifies that it was Biden who initially broached the topic of his son’s death date.
This is a much-discussed portion of Robert Hur's interview with Joe Biden in which Biden piles on the misstatements. Biden stumbles on the year Donald Trump was elected president. He suggests he, Biden, was leaving the Senate in 2017 when in fact he was leaving the vice… pic.twitter.com/bnf4YilQtf
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 12, 2024
Hur didn’t press Biden regarding the date of his son’s passing; instead, he inquired about the whereabouts of work-related documents after the conclusion of Biden’s vice presidency in January 2017.
“Well, um … I, I, I, I, I don’t know. This is, what, 2017, 2018, that area?” Biden hesitated.
“Yes, sir,” Hur acknowledged.
“In this time frame, my son was either deployed or passing away, and so it was — and by the way, there were still many people at the time, when I left the Senate, who were urging me to consider running during this period, except the president. It’s not a mean thing to say; he simply believed she had a better chance of winning the presidency than I did,” Biden explained. “So, at this point — even though I’m at Penn, I hadn’t entirely abandoned the idea of potentially seeking office again. But if I did, it would be for the presidency. And, so what was happening, though — when did Beau pass away? Oh, God, May 30 —”
“2015,” Rachel Cotton, a White House lawyer, interjected.
“2015,” an unidentified male affirmed.
“Was it 2015 when he passed?” Biden questioned.
“It was May of 2015,” an unidentified male reiterated.
“It was 2015,” Biden confirmed.
“Or — I’m not entirely certain of the month, sir, but I believe that was the year,” Robert Bauer, the president’s personal lawyer, added.
President Biden said at a press conference that the special counsel raised the issue of Beau’s death.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) March 12, 2024
“Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, was it any of their damn business?
According to the transcript, Biden first brought up the issue. Per WaPo: pic.twitter.com/fyiBURrbzT
During the press conference, Biden asserted that Hur broached the topic of Beau’s passing, questioning, “How in the hell dare he raise that?”
Addressing reporters, Biden remarked, “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
Later in the interview, the president inquired about the timing of former President Donald Trump’s election, speculating if it was in November 2017. Unidentified speakers reminded the president that he concluded his vice presidency in January 2017, hence the confusion with the year.
“OK, yeah,” Biden acknowledged. “And in 2017, Beau had passed and — this is personal…” the president continued, seemingly forgetting the precise year of his late son’s demise once more.
Hur’s report highlighted Biden’s intentional retention of classified documents but controversially opted against pressing charges. He rationalized his decision by pointing out Biden’s memory lapses, suggesting that a jury might view Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden consistently shifted blame onto his staff for the issues, as he did during the post-report press conference, refusing to accept responsibility for mishandling classified materials.
“I don’t want to hold them responsible or get them in trouble, but I believe they were the ones who were packing up…and were deciding, you know, where, where things were going, to the best of my knowledge,” Biden remarked about his staff. He added that he had “no goddamn idea” about the contents of one set of files delivered to his house.
Furthermore, at various points in the interview, Hur requested that Biden remain focused on the topic at hand, rather than digressing into unrelated matters. Biden disregarded Hur’s attempts to steer the conversation back on track, instead delving into an explanation of how torque works in electric cars, complete with sound effects.
“You step your foot on the accelerator all the way down until it gets about six, seven grand,” Biden detailed. “Then all of a sudden it will say ‘launch.’ All you do is take your foot off the brake.”
Biden then imitated the sound of a car engine and chuckled, according to the transcript.
Joe Biden literally said "My Corvette go BRRRRR" while Robert Hur pleaded with him to answer actual questions pic.twitter.com/7dSk53VG3Y
— Dylan Housman (@Dylan_Housman) March 12, 2024
