In a stunning finding that Democrats described as a “cheap shot” by a Republican-leaning prosecutor, Hoare claimed that although Biden's actions were serious, his age and hazy memory were unlikely to lead to a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.
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After all, the report revealed that Biden couldn't even remember basic details when investigators interviewed him, such as when his eldest son Beau died (which the president has vehemently denied) or when he was Vice President Barack Obama.
“At trial, Mr. Biden will likely present himself to the jury as he did during our interview with him: as a sympathetic, well-meaning old man with a failing memory,” Hoare wrote.
“It would be difficult to convince a jury that he — who was by then a former president in his 80s — should be convicted of a serious felony requiring a mental state of premeditation.”
Such results simply reinforce what opinion polls have long suggested. In fact, an NBC News poll this week found that three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, have concerns about Biden's mental and physical health.
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By comparison, less than half of voters had concerns about the mental and physical health of Trump, 77.
The president is understood to have responded. In a hastily called press conference at the White House around 8 p.m. local time on Thursday, Biden criticized Hoare for unfairly raising questions about his age and memory, noting that he was interviewed for two days in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 insurrection. Attack on Israel.
He reiterated the fact that, unlike Trump, he returned the documents as soon as they were found in his office and at his home in Delaware, and cooperated with investigators.
He sought to reassure the public that he is more than capable of being the leader of the free world, and that he is the best and most qualified person to take on Trump in the general election in November.
“I know what the hell I'm doing,” he declared. “I am the president and I am getting this country back on its feet.”
But the president's insistence that “my memory is good” was undermined when he mistakenly referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as “the president of Mexico” while answering a question about hostage negotiations in the war between Israel and Hamas.
This could have been dismissed as a slip of the tongue, and it is worth noting that Trump himself recently conflated former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with his Republican rival Nikki Haley, accusing Haley of failing to provide adequate security during the riots at the US Capitol.
In October, he mistook Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while praising Orban, viewed by many as a dictator, as “one of the most powerful leaders anywhere in the world.”
Donald Trump has also been caught confusing people.credit: AP
But this gaffe comes in the same week that Biden mistook two living European leaders for dead: first, François Mitterrand, the former French president who died in 1996, and French President Emmanuel Macron; Secondly, when he twice referred to the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl instead of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
None of this bodes well for Biden, who arguably has an excellent pre-election story to tell: of a post-pandemic economic recovery, record investment in infrastructure and strong gains for some of America's most vulnerable communities.
But if questions persist about his age and ability to do his job, will enough voters listen to him come November?
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