Thomas Kika
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on Sunday against the characterization of President Joe Biden in special counsel Robert Hur's recent report, calling him "very clear and very focused."
The Context:
On Thursday, Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Robert Hur released his report about the Biden classified documents case, which emerged after materials from his time as vice president under President Barack Obama were found at his home in Delaware and his Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C., in November 2022 and January 2023. Hur declined to pursue charges against the president, exonerating him for the retention of the materials, but nevertheless kicked up a political firestorm with brief passages detailing interactions with Biden, with the special counsel characterizing him as an "elderly" man with a fading memory.
This characterization played into the prevailing sentiment surrounding Biden that he, as the oldest individual to ever hold the presidency, is too old for the job and has declining mental faculties. The president himself and numerous members of his administration strongly denounced this aspect of the report as inaccurate and an irrelevant overstep on Hur's part. Some observers also accused Hur, a Republican appointed by Donald Trump, of acting in a politically motivated manner to hurt Biden's reelection odds. Hur was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the DOJ's investigation in an effort to ensure a non-partisan investigation.
Since the report's publication, numerous other lawmakers and officials have come forward to attest to Biden's mental acuity, including the likes of Netanyahu, a foreign leader whom the president has been in frequent contact with in recent months.
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023. Netanyahu pushed back against the characterization of Biden in special counsel Robert Hur's recent report, calling him "very.
What We Know:
Netanyahu's comments on Sunday came during an appearance on ABC News's This Week, when host Jonathan Karl pressed the Israeli leader for his take on Hur's characterization of Biden. The prime minister claimed that, across their many interactions over the years, Biden has always been "very focused."
"I've had more than a dozen phone conversations, extended phone conversations with President Biden," Netanyahu said. "He also came on a visit to Israel during wartime, which is a historic first, and I found him very clear and very focused. We managed to agree on the war aims and on many things. Sometimes we had disagreements, but they weren't borne of a lack of understanding on his part or my part. So that's what I can tell you."
Views:
While speaking with HuffPost on Friday, outgoing Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and former presidential nominee, had a similar outlook on Biden based on their interactions, also highlighting the numerous slip-ups of Trump, the likely GOP presidential nominee, who is close to Biden in age, ultimately conceding the age will be a "huge issue" for voters in November.
"I've worked with the president [Biden], and I haven't seen anything that's abnormal before," Romney said. "It was like President Trump saying Nikki Haley three times instead of Nancy Pelosi. Sometimes you say the wrong word. The late 80s is kind of a tough time of thinking of running the country. And Donald Trump is not a lot younger."
What's Next?
Based on current polling and electoral trajectories, the general election will see Biden and Trump face off for the presidency once again in November.
Recent polls have generally shown the race as a toss-up between the two candidates, with some giving an edge to Trump, and others, like a recent Quinnipiac University poll, giving the edge to Biden. Other polls have shown that voters have considerable concern over age for both candidates, though are more likely to be more concerned about the issue for Biden than for Trump.
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