Biden ‘gets how he’s viewed’, White House spokeswoman says as she downplays president’s misspeaking – live

Democrats and Joe Biden’s administration spent the day downplaying and dismissing concerns about the president’s age raised in a report by special counsel Robert Hur, which found that Biden had willfully retained classified documents – but shouldn’t be charged, in part given that a jury could find him too old and doddering to be culpable. Here’s what happened at a glance:

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• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has defended Joe Biden’s fitness to serve and ability to remember details. She said: “This is a president that … has had relationships with world leaders for more than 40 years,” after Biden yesterday evening mixed up the names of the presidents of Mexico and Egypt. “Has he misspoken, as many of us [have] ?” She added: “He gets it. He gets how he’s viewed. He gets what people see and what’s written about him and what the American people also see. But there are other things to know.”

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• Ian Sams, the White House spokesman for investigations, blamed Republicans’ attacks on prosecutors for the special counsel’s report. He noted that Hur’s comments came after months of attacks on the justice department and prosecutors elsewhere by the GOP. He said: “For the past few years, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have been attacking prosecutors who aren’t doing what Republicans want politically. … That reality creates a ton of pressure.”

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• Former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer called the report a “partisan hit job.” “I fear – and I hope I am wrong – that unlike most of the marginalia that excites political junkies, the Special Counsel’s descriptions of Biden will break through to the public at large,” wrote Pfeiffer in his newsletter.

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• Vice President Kamala Harris weighed in, too, saying the special counsel’s comments were “politically motivated” and blasting Hur’s comments as “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate.”

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• The spectacle is playing out in the states, too: Wisconsin Democrats joined in to defend the president, brushing aside concerns about Biden’s memory and instead praising his policy record. “Everyone knows we have two older Americans running for president,” congressman Mark Pocan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The difference is one has accomplished much with that life experience and got things done for the American people.”

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The White House is fighting back against special counsel Robert Hur’s comments that Joe Biden struggled to remember details of his life and career in an interview for his investigation into his possession of classified documents. Kamala Harris accused Hur, who said Biden should not face charges, of being “politically motivated”, while spokesman Ian Samsblamed Republican attacks on the justice department for putting pressure on the special counsel. He also noted that the White House was considering releasing the transcript of Biden’s interview, but has not decided yet.

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Here’s what else has happened today:

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• The contest for the Senategot spicier, when relatively popular Republican Larry Hogan jumped into the contest for deep-blue Maryland’s open seat, and Matt Rosendale filed to unseat Democrat Jon Tester in red state Montana, despite losing to him in 2018.

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• John Cornyn, an influential Republican senator, said he would support legislation to fund Israel and Ukraine’s military, even if it does not include strict immigration provisions.

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• ‘I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing’, Biden told reporters in a surprise speech yesterday evening, after Hur’s report was released.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has defended to reporters Joe Biden’s fitness to serve and ability to remember details, after comments from special counsel Robert Hur and instances of the president mixing up the names of world leaders.

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“This is a president that … has had relationships with world leaders for more than 40 years,” Jean-Pierre said, after Biden yesterday evening mixed up the names of the presidents of Mexico and Egypt. “Has he misspoken, as many of us [have] ?”

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She also said Biden, 81, understands that voters are aware of his advanced age.

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“He gets it. He gets how he’s viewed. He gets what people see and what’s written about him and what the American people also see. But there are other things to know,” Jean-Pierre said, referring to reports that former Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy considered the president a sharp negotiator.

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The White House spokesman Ian Sams noted his disagreement with the special counsel Robert Hur’s description’s of Joe Biden’s ability to recall details.

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“I dispute that the characterizations about his memory in the report are accurate, because they’re not. And I think the president spoke very clearly about how his mind was on other things. I mean, he was dealing with a huge international crisis of great global consequence,” Sams said, referencing Biden’s argument that he was preoccupied with the fallout from Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.

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Sams also described interviews by prosecutors as uniquely intense experiences:

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I think there’s something important that people should remember about the way that, sort of, interviews like this happen. God forbid, you know, one of you guys ever have to get interviewed by a prosecutor … Witnesses are told, as I mentioned, by special counsel to do the best they can to recall or remember things, and they’re not supposed to speculate. They want facts. They want facts and evidence. And so, you know, I think probably in almost every prosecutorial interview, you can imagine that people have said that they don’t recall things because that’s what they’re instructed to do. So I think that’s just important context.

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Ian Sams, the White House spokesman for investigations, noted that Republican special counsel Robert Hur’s comments about Joe Biden’s memory and age came after months of attacks on the justice department and prosecutors elsewhere by the GOP:

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We also need to talk about the environment that we are in. For the past few years, Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have been attacking prosecutors who aren’t doing what Republicans want politically. They have made up claims of a two-tiered system of justice between Republicans and Democrats. They have denigrated the rule of law for political purposes. That reality creates a ton of pressure and in that pressurized political environment, when the inevitable conclusion is that the facts and the evidence don’t support any charges, you’re left to wonder why this report spends time making gratuitous and inappropriate criticisms of the president.

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Kamala Harris has condemned special counsel Robert Hur’s comments about Joe Biden’s age and memory as “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate”, and noted that the president’s interview was conducted in the “intense” aftermath of the 7 October terrorist attack in Israel.

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The vice-president’s comments were a strong denunciation of the language used by Hur, a Republican former US attorney appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate the discovery of classified documents at Biden’s personal residences. Hur determined no charges were warranted, but repeatedly noted that Biden could not remember aspects of his life and career in their interview.

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Here are Harris’s full remarks:

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There have been a couple of interesting developments today in the contest to determine whether Democrats can maintain their slim hold on the Senate in November’s election.

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Popular former Republican governor Larry Hoganjumped into the race for Maryland’s open seat. While his election would be an upset in a state Joe Biden won with 65% of the vote in 2020, Hogan has proven his ability to win statewide elections in Maryland before, and his candidacy will probably force Democrats to spend money there that they otherwise could have used elsewhere. Here are some thoughts on Hogan’s candidacy, from University of Virginia analyst Kyle Kondik:

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Democrats received slightly better news in Montana, a red state where the party is fighting to get senator Jon Tester elected again. Republican congressman Matt Rosendale today made his much-expected bid for Congress’s upper chamber official – but the GOP isn’t particularly happy about it, since Tester beat Rosendale in 2018.

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Steve Daines, Montana’s junior senator and the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had this to say about Rosendale’s entry:

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It’s unfortunate that rather than building seniority for our great state in the House, Matt is choosing to abandon his seat and create a divisive primary. Tim Sheehy has my full support because he is the best candidate to take on Jon Tester. Whichever party wins the Montana Senate seat will control the United States Senate in 2024, and Republicans cannot risk nominating a candidate who gave Jon Tester the biggest victory of his career.

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John Cornyn, a high-ranking Senate Republican representing Texas, indicated this morning that he would vote for legislation to provide military assistance to Ukraine and Israel even if it does not include policy changes to keep migrants out:

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The Senate yesterday took an initial vote to approve the $95bn measure, after the collapse of a deal to pair the funding for two of America’s national security priorities with hardline immigration policies Republicans had demanded.

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Cornyn, along with several other Republicans, voted to move forward with the legislation, while demanding that the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer allow votes on amendments. If that happens, the GOP is expected to try to insert some border security provisions in the bill, but the bigger unanswered question is whether Republican House speaker Mike Johnson will allow it to be put up for a vote in his chamber.

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To former Barack Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer, special counsel Robert Hur’s comments about Joe Biden’s memory amount to “a partisan hit job”. But he still worries that they could do real damage to the president’s standing with the public.

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“Based on the text messages I have received from reporters and fellow Democrats, this report will be a big deal,” Pfeiffer writes in his newsletter.

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He continues:

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Republicans will use this to drive their chosen narrative. Reporters will raise questions about why the President doesn’t do more interviews. And Democrats will publicly deal with anxiety about the role Biden’s age will play in the campaign. I fear – and I hope I am wrong – that unlike most of the marginalia that excites political junkies, the Special Counsel’s descriptions of Biden will break through to the public at large.

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I want to stipulate that the report is very bad and poses some real political peril for Biden. I don’t want to sugarcoat it. Biden’s age is his biggest impediment to reelection and this description could be very damaging.

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Pfeiffer also does not spare Hur, a Republican appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland to investigate if Biden broke the law by keeping classified documents from his time as vice-president and earlier in his personal residence:

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Robert Hur is described in press reports as a ‘well-respected U.S. attorney,’ and maybe he once was, but this report is a partisan hit job. He swerves out of his lane to drive a negative narrative about Biden, the same message the Republican Party uses against Biden. In the report, Hur generously describes memory lapses from others but hammers Biden for the same.

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It’s hard to read the report and not think that, without the ability to charge Biden with a crime, Hur wanted to damage him politically.

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White House reporters, the Guardian’s David Smith included, were caught by surprise last night, when Joe Biden made an unscheduled speech to address special counsel Robert Hur’s report into his possession of classified documents, and the comments it contained about his memory.

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The speech was a fiery riposte to Hur’s insinuations that the president’s memory was faltering – up until the point Biden misspoke. Here’s what happened:

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It came out of the blue. The White House announced that Joe Biden would deliver remarks at 7.45pm – giving the press just 23 minutes to prepare. What the sudden speech would be about, no one knew. The element of surprise and uncertainty was reminiscent of the Donald Trump era.

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As it happened, many White House correspondents were at a meeting near the Watergate building about a mile and a half way. The Guardian was among four who jumped in a car, raced across town and sprinted up sedate Pennsylvania Avenue, greeting the Secret Service in a breathless and disheveled state.

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Perhaps the press were about to witness history. Was Biden set to announce peace in the Middle East or Ukraine? Was this his Bin Laden moment, a military strike that killed a top terrorist leader? Or after a devastating justice department report said his memory is shot due to old age, was he about to do a Lyndon B Johnson and announce he is not seeking re-election?

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Reporters and TV and radio crews gathered in the Diplomatic Reception Room, the site of Franklin Roosevelt’s radio addresses known as “fireside chats”. Above the fireplace was a portrait of George Washington and thick hardback books bearing the names of recent past presidents. The posh, old-fashioned room comes with panoramic French wallpaper showing vistas of America.

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After all the hush and hype, Biden emerged at the lectern and did not resign. Far from it; he was in a fighting mood. Biden was responding to the special counsel’s report, welcoming its conclusion that no charges should be brought against him for mishandling classified information. But the president was also combative, emotional and then – not for the first time – took one question too many and paid the price.

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Good morning, US politics blog readers. Yesterday was a doozy for Joe Biden. The president received what should have been good news when special counsel Robert Hur announced no charges were warranted after investigating the classified documents found at his residence last year. But Hur contained in his lengthy report several references to Biden not being able to remember things, and said one reason why he would not recommend prosecuting the president is because jurors would see him as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. At 81 years old, Biden’s age is expected to be a major factor on voters’ minds as he campaigns for re-election, and in an unscheduled late-night speech, he hit back at Hur’s claims, saying “my memory is fine,” but also mixed up the presidents of Egypt and Mexico.

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Meanwhile, we may hear more from Congress today on the chances of passing aid to Israel and Ukraine, one of the Biden’s priorities. The Senate took an initial step to approving the legislation yesterday, but it’s unclear if it has the votes to pass the chamber, and whether the GOP will insert hardline immigration policies (which the party had, bizarrely, rejected earlier this week). Even if the legislation does make it through, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson has not said that he will put it up for a vote.

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Here’s what else is going on today:

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• German chancellor Olaf Scholz is in Washington DC, and will meet with Biden at 3pm ET.

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• Now we wait for the supreme court’s decision on Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility, after the justices yesterday signaled they were skeptical of arguments to disqualify him for his involvement in January 6.

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• White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will take reporters’ question at 1pm.

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