United States President, Joe Biden, has suffered a gaffe while speaking on an investigation that found he mishandled top secret files and struggled to recall key life events.
81-year-old Biden was reacting to new claims by Department of Justice special counsel, Robert Hur, that he “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” as a private citizen, and that he had exhibited poor memory during an interview about that material.
Hur said Biden improperly kept classified documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan after serving as Vice President.
Biden served as the 47th Vice President of U.S. from 2009 to 2017 under former President Barack Obama.
The scathing 345-page report, released on Thursday, said the president’s memory had “significant limitations”.
Speaking in a nationally televised address at the White House hours after Hur released the report on Thursday, President Biden said: “My memory has not gotten worse. My memory is fine.
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“I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing.
“I’ve been president and I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”
But minutes later, Biden, who was sought to rebut reporters’ questions about his age and mental acuity, inadvertently referred to Egypt’s President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, as the “president of Mexico”.
Asked to comment on the latest in the Israel-Gaza war, he said: “I think as you know initially, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in.”
Biden was visibly angry at Hur’s claim that he could not remember the year his son, Beau Biden, died which the special counsel cited among other examples of evidence that the president’s memory “appeared hazy” during interviews with investigators.
The president, when he was asked a question about the year Beau died, said: “I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.
“How in the hell dare he raise that. I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”
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