Democrats fret over special counsel’s Biden report ahead of November – By Mike Lillis (The Hill) / Feb 11, 2024
A bombshell report raising questions about President Biden’s mental acuity has sparked new anxieties among House Democrats, who fear the focus on the president’s age could hamstring their efforts to flip control of the lower chamber in November’s elections.
The Democrats are quick to emphasize that they disagree strongly with the assessments of special counsel Robert Hur, whose report into Biden’s handling of classified documents painted the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Many Democrats are furious with the portrayal, accusing Hur of overstepping his charge with political smears.
But the Democrats also acknowledge that, fairly or not, the report has provided new ammunition for an old GOP attack line: That the 81-year-old Biden is suffering the frailties of age in ways that make him unfit to hold the office — a narrative that’s emerged as a chief vulnerability for the president and his party heading into November.
“Democrats are going to say that [Hur] put a lot of stuff in there that he shouldn’t have. His job was not to analyze whether [Biden] is old or not, his job was: Did he commit a crime or not?” said a former Democratic aide who maintains close contact with Capitol Hill.
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