Special counsel Robert Hur’s alarming report outlining President Joe Biden‘s memory lapses has parallels to former FBI director James Comey‘s investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election cycle.

Hur’s report could be a key factor that weakens Biden’s reelection bid, similar to the way Comey’s actions kneecapped Clinton.

The monthslong investigation from the special counsel was originally over Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. But Hur’s 345-page report released Thursday detailed bombshell allegations that Biden could not remember the date of his late son Beau Biden’s death or the years he served as vice president under President Barack Obama.

Although Hur declined to press charges against Biden, he indicated that a jury would judge Biden “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

The potential political damage from the report infuriated Democrats, who claimed the report was comparable to Comey’s actions in 2016 and prompted Republicans to question once again Biden’s ability to serve another four years in the White House.

“This certainly is a parallel in the sense that it comes in a political election year,” GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak said. “No. 2, it’s a situation where the person who’s been targeted, the candidate who’s facing the investigation, is ultimately not going to face criminal charges, which is exactly what happened with Hillary.”

On Oct. 28, 2016, Comey announced a surprise decision to reopen an investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. The news came less than two weeks before Election Day, which Clinton and other Democrats claimed helped lead to her defeat to former President Donald Trump. It also followed a July 2016 assessment from Comey, in which he slammed Clinton for being “extremely careless” but did not recommend charges.

The October surprise did not ultimately result in any new charges against Clinton. The embattled FBI director later apologized for the incident in a memoir he wrote in April 2018.

But other members of the Department of Justice also have become enmeshed in the presidential cycles after Comey’s actions.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s collusion with Russian officials in 2019 did not lead to charges, but it was one step toward his eventual impeachment later that year. Special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump in two separate cases for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has been indicted but has managed to wear those criminal charges as a badge of honor and improve his standing in the GOP polls.

Yet Biden’s “Comey moment” could be just as threatening to his reelection campaign in a similar vein to how Trump’s legal drama enhances the former president’s vulnerability.

“It’s a real problem because it raises the issue of the president’s age again, and national polling has shown that that’s a major issue for him,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said of Biden.

An NBC News poll released on Tuesday showed 76% of voters have major or moderate concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health to serve a second term. In comparison, 48% said they had the same concerns about Trump.

Bannon also suggested that the timing could not be more “unfortunate” for Biden after Republicans on Capitol Hill failed to pass a bipartisan border deal this week, and the economy appears to be improving.

“The timing is unfortunate for the president because there’s starting to be signs that the economy is picking up,” Bannon said. “The Republicans the other day helped Biden diffuse the border issue by blocking consideration of the bipartisan immigration reform bill. Those were two of the biggest liabilities facing the president: the border and the economy. And you know, he’s in a better shape on both those things.”

Winning Republican Strategies President Aaron Evans told the Washington Examiner in a statement that Hur’s report proves GOP complaints over a two-tiered justice system.

“If any lower-level member of official staff or our armed forces were found guilty of mishandling classified documents, they would be facing massive prison time, and no one would care about their mental cognizance,” Evans said before claiming the report was damning for Biden.

“The scariest part about this report is the fact that the leader of the free world could effectively plead a mental case that would hold up in court while he controls our nuclear codes,” Evans continued. “This is disturbing, at the very least, and not only damages President Biden but proves he should not be running for reelection.”

The president attempted to defend himself against the Hur report during an impromptu address late Thursday night. In a lashing speech, Biden questioned Hur’s allegations.

“How in the hell dare he raise that,” Biden said. “Frankly, when I was asked that question, I thought to myself, ‘Wasn’t any of their damn business.’”

Campaign surrogates also defended Biden in a press call to reporters on Friday morning. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) claimed Biden was “absolutely in full control.”

Vice President Kamala Harris called the report “gratuitous, inaccurate, and inappropriate.” Former Attorney General Eric Holder posted on X that Hur’s report “contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long-standing DOJ traditions.”

Political experts also cautioned that because the report was released nine months before the November election, much could change in the interim, unlike the Comey report.

“We’re a lot farther out right now,” said Jeffrey Lazarus, a political scientist at Georgia State University. “So it’s not likely that this report is going to have the same effect just because other things will come up. This will fade.”

Lazarus also cautioned that it was normal for politicians to have verbal flubs sometimes.

“He flubbed some words here and there, but we all do things like that,” Lazarus said of Biden. “It’s not a sign of mental decline. It’s a short-term memory glitch.”

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However, GOP strategists, including Mackowiak, pointed to voter concerns over Biden’s mental capabilities as signs the matter will not disappear.

“Biden has the weakest job approval, reelect numbers of any president in the modern era, worse than Trump’s at this time in three years in for him,” Mackowiak said. “Those conversations are happening whether people believe it or not. Or whether people want to believe it or not.”