Hur transcript confirms Biden memory lapses, contradicts president's claim about exchange over son's death
The newly released transcript of Special Counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Biden has confirmed the president's frequent memory lapses, as well as contradicted his claims surrounding their exchange over his son Beau's death, a Fox News Digital review of the transcript has found.
Fox News Digital obtained a copy of the transcript ahead of Hur's Tuesday testimony on Capitol Hill surrounding the probe into Biden's mishandling of classified documents. Hur released his report to the public in February, but did not recommend criminal charges against the president, characterizing him as an "elderly man with a poor memory."
Hur noted in the report that Biden struggled to remember details about when his son died, which drew sharp backlash from the president, who blasted Hur during a press conference.
SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR TO TESTIFY PUBLICLY ON FINDINGS FROM BIDEN CLASSIFIED RECORDS PROBE
"How in the h--- dare he raise that," Biden said. "Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their d--- business."
However, Fox later confirmed it was actually Biden who first brought up Beau's death, a detail also reflected in the transcript.
While discussing his activities post-vice presidency, which included writing a book about Beau's death, Biden referenced the death as a major factor in his decision about whether to run for president. During that portion of the interview, Biden appeared to become confused about when Beau died.
"I hadn't walked away from the idea that I may run for office again. But if I ran again, I'd be running for president," Biden said. "And, and so what was happening though — what month did Beau die? Oh, God, May 30th —"
Biden was reminded by multiple people that Beau died in 2015, but later asked again, "Was it 2015 he had died?"
The transcript also showed Biden asking multiple times when his term as vice president ended while being questioned specifically about some of the classified documents at his home.
"Well, I'm sure, I'm sure there were. I don't know — my problem was I never knew where any of the documents or boxes were specifically coming from or who packed them. Just did I get them delivered to me. And so this is — I'm, at this stage, in 2009, am I still Vice President?" Biden said.
Another instance included Biden being asked about a notebook in his possession related to the war in Afghanistan.
"The date is 4-20-09," Biden said. "Was I still vice president? I was, wasn’t I? Yeah."
Hur began his public testimony at the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning.
Fox News' Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.