House Democrats believe special counsel Robert Hur’s testimony brought House Republicans’ agenda to a “dead end” on Tuesday despite Hur’s report calling President Joe Biden an “elderly man with a poor memory.”

Hur testified for hours before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on his investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. Republicans sought to use Hur’s comments about Biden’s memory loss to their advantage, while Democrats focused on the fact that Hur did not bring any criminal charges against the president.

During and after the hearing, Democrats walked away with a sense of finality of the case closed. One reason Hur said he did not recommend charges was because Biden’s memory was “significantly limited” and he would come across to a potential jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity have been among the top worries of voters heading into the 2024 election, with Republicans capitalizing on Biden’s numerous gaffes, missteps, and mixups as evidence he is too old to serve as president. However, Democrats believe Hur’s testimony, and the president’s recent State of the Union address, put all those fears to rest.

“I think it’s helpful [to Biden,] especially from the standpoint of the fact that he cleared of criminal charges,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said to the Washington Examiner about the testimony. “There’s all this stuff about whether he’s, you know, they’re trying to stretch it — what’s his name was saying ‘senile’ and all that. There’s no evidence of that.”

“And I think in the wake of the State of the Union speech, I don’t think any of that stuff’s still on the table,” Ivey said.

One aspect of the testimony included questions from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on the White House asking Hur to remove or edit portions of his report that dealt with Biden’s memory loss. Hur had declined to remove those sections that touched on the issue in his report, and Ivey said he thought the requests were “irrelevant.”

“You could understand why the White House disagreed with those comments and why they would want them out,” Ivey said. “But the fact that he didn’t exhibit any undue influence because he didn’t change the report, I think … makes it a dead-end issue for the Republicans.”

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), who also is a member of the committee, said in an interview that she thought Hur’s testimony was very strong regarding his recommendation not to pursue criminal charges, and she was a “little bit confused” about what her Republican colleagues were going for during their questioning of Hur.

“Because on one hand, they seem to treat him like a partisan hack,” Balint said. “And on the other hand, you know, they were trying to nitpick on things. And so I feel in the end, he came off as a credible witness, and I’m feeling good about how the day’s going.”

Floating over the hearing on Tuesday is the House GOP’s continued impeachment inquiry into Biden over an alleged criminal scheme on behalf of the Biden family. Despite feeling assured from Hur’s testimony, Balint said Republicans would “absolutely” bring up Hur’s report and testimony in further impeachment proceedings.

“This is all part of this fraudulent push for impeachment,” Balint said. “So you know, again, I don’t know why they decided to spend all of this time because [Hur] came forward, clearly a credible witness, we were able to take him through piece by piece by piece. 

“I don’t know what case they were trying to make today,” Balint added.

However, House Republicans like Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) took away from the testimony that there is a clear sense of a “double standard” of justice regarding former President Donald Trump and Biden’s classified documents cases. Roy noted an instance where Hur found evidence that Biden kept classified documents for an $8 million book deal, but Biden said in his interview with Hur he could not recall specifics.

“I think the American people saw through all that right here that the sitting president is essentially getting a pass for breaking the law knowingly,” Roy said.

Roy claimed Biden ignored rules on retention of classified documents for his own “personal gain.”

“There were documents in the garage, there were documents in the den, there were documents at the University of Delaware, there were documents at the Penn-Biden Center, there was documents everywhere,” the Texas congressman told Fox News.

“He knew exactly what the rules were with classified information,” Roy added. “He ignored it. … That’s what happened. We saw it in full display today.”

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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that Hur “made it clear” Biden “willfully retained” classified documents and the White House officials have “refused” to answer questions about “why so many White House employees were concerned with retrieving boxes they believed only contained personal documents and materials.”

“We’ve subpoenaed former White House counsel Dana Remus to appear for a deposition to provide information to our committee, but the White House is seeking to block her testimony as well as the testimony of other White House staff,” Comer said. “We will continue to fight the White House’s obstruction to provide the transparency owed to the American people.”