OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A new survey spells more bad news for President Joe Biden as former President Donald Trump, his likely rival in November, continues to surge.
According to a new NBC News poll, nearly 9 in 10 respondents, or 89 percent, have some concerns about Biden’s mental status.
“The poll published Tuesday — ahead of Biden’s press conference Thursday where he was grilled about his age and mental acuity — found that 62 percent of registered voters nationally have ‘major concerns’ that he does not have ‘the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.’ Another 14 percent have ‘moderate’ worries, while 13 percent expressed ‘minor concerns,'” Breitbart News reported, citing the results.
By comparison, just over 1 in 10 said they had “no concerns” about Biden’s mental state.
The fallout from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s damning report regarding Biden’s mishandling of classified information continued this week after he released his findings, and much of it has to do not with Biden’s documents but with his declined mental state.
Hur’s 388-page report, which took the White House by surprise and sent shockwaves through the administration, documented Biden’s memory loss dating back nearly a decade, which clearly puts him in 25th Amendment territory.
“Mr. Biden will likely present himself to the jury, as he did during his interview with our office, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur wrote in explaining his rationale for refusing prosecution. “…It would be difficult to convince a jury they should convict him – by then a former president who will be at least well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” the report said, adding that Biden also could not recall the years he served as vice president or the year his son, Beau, died of brain cancer.
Per the Washington Examiner, here is a list of references that Hur made regarding Biden’s declining mental capacity and memory; they touch on Biden’s past positions and the president’s work with a ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, for his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose”:
— “Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023.”
— “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
— “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfullness.”
— “Mr. Biden’s memory also appeared to have significant limitations — both at the time he spoke to Zwonitzer in 2017, as evidenced by their recorded conversations, and today, as evidenced by his recorded interview with our office. Mr. Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.”
— “In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘If it was 2013 — when did I stop being vice president?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘In 2009, am I still vice president?’).”
— “He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died.”
— “His memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with Gen. Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally who Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”
