Documented: Biden’s memory loss dates to 2015, 25th Amendment territory

President Joe Biden has apparently been suffering substantial memory loss for nearly a decade, a new report from special prosecutor Robert Hur has documented.

In his report about the president mishandling classified information, Hur gave repeated examples of the president’s forgetfulness, even on some of the most significant episodes in his life.

For example, he said that Biden in interviews could not recall when he was vice president, when his son Beau died, or even who his allies in government were.

The report has prompted calls for an analysis of Biden’s mental condition, and some have suggested that he be sidelined under the 25th Amendment.

The assessments from Hur 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, on Biden losing his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.

A major part of Hur’s report was explaining why it wasn’t worth the effort to charge and try Biden for “willful” violation of classified documents. He said a jury would be sympathetic to an old man losing his memory, in this case, the commander in chief of the United States.

Below is a list of references Hur made to Biden’s declining memory:

— “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.”

— “In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall.”

— “Mr. Biden’s apparent lapses and failures in February and April 2017 will likely appear consistent with the diminished faculties and faulty memory he showed in Zwonitzer’s interview recordings and in our interview of him.”

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— “A former executive assistant to Mr. Biden confirmed that at times Mr. Biden committed talking points to memory by writing them down, sometimes multiple times.”

— “The special counsel asked Mr. Biden about the Jan. 29, 2015 breakfast with senators and the handwritten notes in the EYES ONLY envelope during Mr. Biden’s interview. Mr. Biden had no recollection of the breakfast or the handwritten notes.”