Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) bristled at the recent special counsel report questioning President Joe Biden‘s memory and mental faculties, telling reporters Friday that Robert Hur “clearly” had an “agenda” heading into the 2024 election.
On Thursday, Hur published his long-awaited report regarding the investigation of Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. He declined to recommend charges but specifically claimed that Biden, during interviews with the special counsel, appeared to have difficulty recalling facts about his own life, including his tenure in the White House as vice president and the year his late son, Beau Biden, died from cancer.
Biden himself specifically objected Thursday night to Hur’s comments about Beau Biden’s death.
“How in the hell dare he raise that,” Biden said during a previously unscheduled press conference, noting that he wears a rosary that belonged to Beau every day and holds a memorial service for him every year. “Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought to myself, ‘wasn’t any of their damn business.’”
“I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away,” the president concluded.
On Friday, Fetterman, speaking alongside other Biden campaign surrogates on a call criticizing former President Donald Trump’s Friday speech to the NRA, similarly criticized Hur.
“The president was very clear that he is absolutely in full control,” he stated. “You have to remember this too. You have a Trump appointee no that’s — 350 pages just to say that Joe Biden isn’t going to be indicted here.”
“It was just a smear and cheap shots and just taking things out of context, or even just inventing any of them too,” Fetterman continued. “So clearly there is an agenda there. And what it is is that the president is now going to be our guy, and he has done an incredible job, and I — it’s just going to be part of the next cycle.”
Both Fetterman and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who was also on the call, claimed that Biden’s age won’t affect Democratic candidates down the ballot, “who are also elderly.”
“Yes, we know, OK. We know that President Biden is old, OK?” Frost, 27, told reporters. “It doesn’t sound like breaking news to me.”
“You know Trump is going on 78, and the president is 81 years old,” Fetterman added. “Is that meaningful? Of course. It’s the same. They’re older folks, and that’s what this nation wants. We’re going to have it up again.”
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The Pennsylvania senator proceeded to point out Trump’s gaffes of late, such as not knowing “if he’s talking about [Nikki] Haley or [Nancy] Pelosi.”
Despite Fetterman’s claims, polling consistently shows that voters do not want a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024 and that both men continue to hold negative approval ratings.