Congressional Democrats are being forced to reckon with revived concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and acuity after being accused of severe memory lapses in special counsel Robert Hur’s report on his handling of classified materials. 

Hur’s report included examples of the president’s memory lapses during his interview with investigators, which were featured while explaining the rationale for not prosecuting Biden. The report stated that the president could not remember, “even within several years,” when his son Beau Biden died, among other important dates. 

“Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interview with the ghostwriter in 2017 and in his interview with our officer in 2023,” Hur wrote.

Democrats have tried various ways to defend Biden in the aftermath of the report, challenging Hur’s ability to assess a president’s mental state and questioning his political motivations.

“I suspect that that comment was a gratuitous and unnecessary remark, perhaps going to the question of intent,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters on Thursday of Hur’s comments on Biden’s mental state. “I don’t know what they meant by it, but it’s certainly no crime being a well-meaning, elderly man.”

Blumenthal, who served as Connecticut’s attorney general for two decades, suggested that investigators were out of bounds for referencing concerns about Biden’s memory.

“I’m a former prosecutor. I’m sorry. I’m not a judge of mental issues and never would pretend to be. I don’t know where they are claiming their medical expertise is, but the American people can judge pretty clearly that Joe Biden has no issues with memory,” he said. 

Biden, White House counsel, and the president’s personal attorney criticized Hur’s assertions on the lapses, with the lawyers saying in a joint statement: “We do not believe that the report’s treatment of President Biden’s memory is accurate or appropriate.”

The president himself also forcefully pushed back on the claims at a Thursday night press conference from the White House.

“There’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare do they raise that?” Biden told the nation from the State Dining Room. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, ‘Was it any of his damn business?’ I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away.”

“I’m well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing,” he added.

Democrats have been quick to defend Biden as up to the job, with many criticizing Hur for including such characterizations of the president in his final report. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, the former attorney general of California, said on Friday the report was “politically motivated” and that she disputed Hur’s description of Biden’s demeanor on the days he was interviewed by Hur last October.

“The way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly, politically motivated, gratuitous,” Harris said. “When it comes to the role and responsibility of a prosecutor in a situation like that, we should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw.”

“I am a little puzzled why the special counsel chose to make statements that he had no business making,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told MSNBC on Thursday. “The president’s attorneys obviously had a response to that. But again, you know, the president was cleared of wrongdoing, and he, unlike Donald Trump, was completely cooperative with respect to the seriousness of his retention of classified information.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) defended Biden and suggested the report was part of the politics of the 2024 election cycle.

“It was just a smear and cheap shots and just taking things out of context, or even just inventing any of them, too,” Fetterman said. “So, clearly, there is an agenda there.”

House Democrats spent their time this week at their annual issues conference defending Biden’s mental fitness, with several members describing their recent interactions with the president as “sharp.”

“I sat with the president for an hour [last week] … He was completely sharp,” Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) told the Washington Examiner. “I had no doubts in my mind. We covered all the range of topics.”

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) also cited a conversation he had with Biden over the weekend, noting that “the president is very well-suited to be our commander in chief.”

Republicans have also long pointed to Biden’s age and mental acuity as attacks on the campaign trail, pointing to the president’s legacy as the oldest sitting president in U.S. history. Those attacks have ramped up in recent weeks after Biden made repeated mentions of talks with world leaders who died several years prior. The Hur report only furthered the discussion among Republicans. 

“I didn’t know what y’all were talking about ’til I read the special counsel report. You know, the whole world is going to read that thing,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters on Thursday evening. 

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“The statement by the special counsel about his condition was unnerving, and people all over the world are going to read that,” he added. “I have not gone there on the president. I know him. I consider him a friend, but this is a report from the special counsel laying out pretty clearly a compromised person. I don’t know what to do.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said he looks at the situation “as a pretty sad commentary on the capabilities of the president of the United States now, and I’m not one who gets personal. But when it’s so profound that you have a prosecutor take note of it, I think it’s something to pay attention to.”