Joe Biden could not remember when his son Beau died and was often confused by the dates he served as vice president and about how classified documents ended up in his home, according to the shocking transcript of his testimony to former Special Counsel Robert Hur.
According to the transcript of the two-day interview reviewed by DailyMail.com ahead of Hur’s highly-anticipated congressional testimony, Biden brought up Beau’s death in the context of a book he wrote published in 2017.
‘What month did Beau die?’ Biden asked to himself during the hours-long sit down on October 8, 2022.
‘Oh God, May 30th,’ he seemingly responded. But the president had to be reminded about the year in which his oldest son died because he could not remember.
A White House attorney stepped in to state that the year of Beau’s death was 2015.
‘Was it 2015 he died?’ Biden again questioned out loud. The president then went on to ask if Donald Trump was elected in 2017, to which another White House attorney jumped in to correct him that it was 2016.
The mix-up of Beau’s death date during the interview directly contradicts Biden’s fiery denial that it ever occurred.
Hours after Hur put out his scathing report on February 9, Biden engaged in a furious tirade from the White House saying ‘I know what the hell I am doing!’ and insisting that ‘my memory is fine.’
Biden with his son Beau, who served as Attorney General of Delaware, at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008
An image from the Biden classified documents report showing a damaged box where classified documents were found in the garage of President Biden in 2022
Former special counsel Robert Hur will give high-stakes testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday on his devastating classified documents report
‘How in the hell dare he raise that?’ Biden fumed during the spontaneous press conference when asked about how Beau’s death came up. ‘Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself: it wasn’t any of their damn business.’
But the transcript reveals that it was, in fact, Biden who brought up Beau in the first place – not Hur.
In addition, the transcript shows that Biden could not recall many details of where the classified documents found at his home were stored or what the contents were.
Hur asked the president about a ‘second tranche’ of boxes found behind a rocking chair.
‘I have no goddamn idea. I didn’t even bother to go through them,’ responded the president.
He also could not recall multiple instances where he allegedly pulled out classified documents to discuss with staff.
‘I don’t recall doing that,’ insisted Biden when asked about pulling out information from a binder and sharing with his team.
He also told Hur that he could not remember ‘finding any classified stuff downstairs,’ despite what he told the ghostwriter of his book, Mark Zwonitzer.
‘The only thing I can remember is I wanted to be clear to him that I didn’t want what he just heard me say…I didn’t want any of that mentioned, it was confidential,’ said Biden during the interview.
In addition, Hur asked how classified materials got into the box found in his Delaware garage.
‘No, I don’t remember how it got…I don’t remember how a beat-up box got into the garage,’ Biden replied during the interview.
According to the transcript, Biden went down multiple long-winded tangents while making jokes and riffs during the sprawling interview.
He joked around about the FBI’s raid of his homes to find classified information, saying: I just hope you didn’t find any risqué pictures of my wife in a bathing suit.’
‘Which you probably did. She’s beautiful,’ he added.
He also riffed that the ‘FBI knows my house better than I do,’ when being asked about the details of classified materials found scattered around his home.
Former special counsel Robert Hur will give high-stakes testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday on his devastating classified documents report that painted President Joe Biden as ‘elderly’ and ‘forgetful’ and with ‘diminished faculties’.
Hur was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2022 to investigate the president’s handling of classified files based on a range of areas including Afghanistan.
Hur left the Justice Department on Monday and will testify before the House Judiciary Committee as a private citizen, a DOJ spokesperson confirmed to DailyMail.com.
Special counsel Robert Hur will give his high-stakes testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday after his bombshell report that painted President Biden as ‘elderly’ and ‘forgetful’
After a year of silence he released the explosive report in February that drew questions about his decision not to prosecute the president, Biden’s cognitive fitness for office and how the commander-in-chief ‘wilfully’ retained the documents.
In interviews with investigators, Biden became muddled about the dates he was vice president and could not even remember the year in which his son Beau died.
And it said his cavalier attitude to classified documents, such as his habit of reading sensitive files to a ghostwriter, posed a significant national security risk.
One of the reasons they decided not to press charges was because ‘at 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’.
Now the Judiciary Committee will try to get clarity on his 338-page report, and Hur is set to double down on his criticism of Biden’s memory, according to the opening statement obtained by DailyMail.com.
He will argue: ‘I understood that my explanation about this case had to include rigorous, detailed, and thorough analysis.
‘In other words, I needed to show my work,’ he will say. ‘I knew that for my decision to be credible, I could not simply announce that I recommended no criminal charges and leave it at that. I needed to explain why.’
Hur will add that he had to call Biden’s memory into question and could not make a charging decision without assessing the ‘President’s state of mind’.
‘For that reason, I had to consider the President’s memory and overall mental state, and how a jury likely would perceive his memory and mental state in a criminal trial,’ he’ll say.
‘Because these issues were important to my ultimate decision, I had to include a discussion of them in my report.
Hur is set to double down on his criticism of Biden’s memory, according to the opening statement obtained by DailyMail.com
‘I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the President unfairly.
‘I explained to the Attorney General my decision and the reasons for it. That’s what I was required to do’.
A source familiar with the planned questioning told DailyMail.com it will likely be ’80/20 focused on the merits of the decision not to charge’ the president for mishandling documents.
House Republicans have demanded the Department of Justice (DOJ) turn over all transcripts and audio related to an interview Hur did with the president in his probe of Biden’s handling of classified documents, but so far they’ve been unsatisfied with what the department has handed over.
Hur’s report, summarizing his probe of Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, contains a multitude of examples of Biden’s ‘hazy’ memory, including one point where Biden appeared to forget when his son Beau died.
Hur insisted that Biden was not fit for prosecution over his mishandling of documents because he was a ‘well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’
The special counsel noted Biden had ‘diminished faculties’ and at points ‘did not remember when he was vice president.’
The box circled in the foreground contained documents about Afghanistan. The picture was taken in December 2022 in Biden’s garage, with other household items
President Joe Biden will not be criminally charged with stashing classified documents in his garage and private office
Republicans jumped on the material, saying it proves Biden isn’t fit to run the country.
One particularly damaging passage that Hur included said: ‘In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’),’ according to the report.
‘He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him.’
Biden erupted at that passage in a defiant press conference where he said his memory is ‘fine.’
The report is crammed with pictures of documents recovered from Biden’s home or an office he used when he was vice president
The report details lapses in Biden’s memory, both in conversations with his ghostwriter and with investigators. The conclusion is that jurors may have though he made an innocent mistake
‘There’s even reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that? I don’t need anyone, I don’t need anyone, to remind me of when he passed away,’ the president told reporters.
‘Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, wasn’t any of their damned business.’
He also said reports about his ‘willful’ retention of documents were ‘misleading.’
At one point he yelled: ‘I did not share classified information! I did not!’
Biden then took a question about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In doing so he botched the identification of a world leader, calling Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He said: ‘I think as you know initially, the president of Mexico, El-Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate.’
The president went on to blame his staff for sensitive documents from his time as vice president being found at his home, garage and office.
He blamed subordinates for some of the decisions that got him in trouble and precipitated the year-long probe that is already providing fodder for President Donald Trump’s campaign.
‘I take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff was doing,’ he said.