CNN host suggests Robert Hur 'undersold' extent of Biden memory lapses during special counsel interview

CNN host Abby Phillip suggested on Friday that former Special Counsel Robert Hur "undersold" the extent of former President Biden's decline after his interview with the former president in the February 2023 classified documents probe. The CNN host argued that Hur threw the former president and the Democratic Party "a lifeline." 

"In a way, Robert Hur kind of undersold this," Phillip said. "He kind of threw Joe Biden a lifeline. It was an opportunity, actually, for Democrats to take it seriously, maybe change gears at that point, maybe give a potential nominee more time."

The audio, obtained by Axios, contains clips from several interviews between the former president and Hur related to an investigation into his handling of classified documents when he was vice president.

The transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur was released last year, and confirmed the president’s frequent memory lapses. Hur's written report described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

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Joe Borelli, a former Republican leader on the New York City Council, argued that no one was surprised by the Hur-Biden audio.

"I would count the number at zero. The number is zero, of people that heard the Hur tape and were surprised. And this is why there’s so much distrust in media. Because you‘re right, maybe in 2020 it wasn‘t obvious, but 2022, 2023, right, now, everyone saw this person first with the notes of who to ask questions, with the questions pre-handed out, pre-answered, right. Then there was the guy who couldn‘t get up the stairs, he couldn‘t get up a single flight of stairs without falling. He fell off his bike. He would struggle for every answer," Borelli said.

"We all saw that, and most of us were able to identify the fact that the White House, and allies in media, were lying night after night after night, and then suddenly the script flipped. Joe Biden was cast aside, and suddenly now we could talk about that as though we all should have known, or we all should saw it. We all made mistakes that maybe we should apologize for. But it was clear as day to anybody," Borelli continued.

Pete Seat, former spokesperson for President George W. Bush, highlighted a specific portion of the audio when Biden admits that he held onto documents related to Afghanistan for "posterity." Biden first said he didn’t recall why he had the document when asked about it by Hur, who told him it was found in the library of his lake house. 

"I don’t know that I knew," that he had the document, Biden answered, "but it wasn’t something I would have stopped to think about."

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Biden then said, "I guess I wanted to hang on to it for posterity’s sake. I mean, this was my position on Afghanistan. I’ve been of the view from a historical standpoint that there are certain points in history, world history, where fundamental things change using technology."

"So he was admitting what the White House was telling us was just inadvertent, that all these documents were in boxes in his garage in Delaware, inadvertently. Here’s the president admitting that he knowingly kept the document. But then his attorney interjects, Bob Bauer. And he‘s like, ‘no, no, no, no, no, he doesn‘t remember. We can‘t speculate.’ So, in private, they were leaning into his forgetfulness. They were trying to use that to protect him from a criminal charge. Yet, to the public, they were telling us, ‘Oh, he’s sharp, and he’s lucid, and he can recite the periodic table by memory,'" Seat said.

Ahmed Baba, journalist and columnist for the Independent, pushed back on the notion that it was a media cover-up and argued that the media covered it "pretty ferociously as they could from the outside."

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"I don’t think it was necessarily a media failure because I think they covered it ferociously. I just think now, as we have this context in hindsight, the real key thing was he shouldn‘t have run for reelection," he said.

Maria Cardona, a CNN political commentator, added, "I think at the end of the day, the accountability falls with Joe Biden and, frankly, probably with Jill Biden, too."

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"Yeah, that’s true. But it also falls on the Democratic Party, which ostracized people who said anything about Joe Biden," Phillip added. "Including attacking the media for even raising the issue of his age, when clearly it was an issue. I mean, there’s accountability there, too."