White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says it was President Joe Biden’s idea to deliver and evening press conference defending his mental faculties.
On Tuesday, a reporter noted Biden delivered a press conference the previous week aimed at defending his cognitive state.
“I just want to clear it up, was it the president’s idea?” he asked.
Jean-Pierre responded, “It was the president’s idea, yes. It was his idea.”
When asked if Biden was “forceful” about giving the press conference at night, Jean-Pierre said, “You saw the president make a statement, take questions from all of you because he wanted to do it.”
Watch the video below:
Karine Jean-Pierre says it was Biden's idea to deliver incoherent, angry remarks immediately after the special counsel's report noting his diminished mental fitness pic.twitter.com/Pugrc771XO
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 13, 2024
On Thursday, Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report on his investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
He declined to recommend charges against the president, even though investigators “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.”
Still, the report included several damaging sections. One portion labeled Biden a “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur’s report also claimed Biden “did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”
Hours later, Biden delivered a press conference where he insisted he knew when his son died — though he did not say when and he seemed to forget the name of the church Beau Biden got a rosary from.
He also yelled at a reporter who asked about polls showing Americans are concerned about his age that it was “your judgment!” and it is “not the judgment of the press” — it appeared he meant “people” instead of “the press.”
And then he mixed up Mexico and Egypt and he claimed to have spoken to the Mexican president to help get aid into the Gaza Strip.