Biden has a campaign problem that isn’t a governing one

What a Special Counsel Could’t Teach About Joe Biden, His Son Beau, When he Died, And Why he Don’t

WILMINGTON, Del. — First lady Jill Biden said in an email to campaign donors on Saturday she didn’t know what the special counsel was trying to achieve when he suggested President Joe Biden could not remember when his oldest son died.

“We should give everyone grace, and I can’t imagine someone would try to use our son’s death to score political points,” she wrote. “You don’t measure loss in years but you do measure it in grief if you have experienced a loss like that.”

That’s true even though the report by Hur, a former Trump appointee tapped by Merrick Garland to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents, looks like a partisan hit job. (Democratic attorneys general have a terrible habit of appointing Republican special counsels in an effort to display their own impartiality — a type of moral preening that Republican administrations rarely fall victim to.) With Hur deciding not to charge Biden with any crimes, his comments about Biden’s age, particularly his claim that Biden couldn’t remember the year his son Beau died, seemed designed to shiv him politically. It worked if that was the case.

It was something that a special counsel for the president’s investigation had never seen before. Beau Biden died in 2015 from a brain tumor. It’s something that Biden speaks of regularly, and cites as both a reason why he didn’t run in 2016 and a later motivator for his successful 2020 run.

“On May 30th, we will never forget Beau Biden’s death,” said a note to supporters written by the wife of the vice president. “It shattered me and shattered our family.” What helped me, and what helped Joe, was to find purpose. That’s what keeps Joe going, serving you and the country we love.”

Even though Israel was attacked on October 7th, Biden sat for five hours with Hur’s team over the course of two days.

Joe is 81, that’s correct, but he does more in an hour than most people do in a day. “Joe has wisdom, empathy, and vision,” said the vice president’s wife. He proves his age with his experience and expertise every day.