Sometimes it’s better to be accused than called senile
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- US Justice Department investigators have found classified documents improperly stored in President Joe Biden’s garage.
- Prosecutor Robert Hur believes that Biden, due to his advanced age and general derangement, cannot be held responsible and does not recommend filing charges.
- Aftonbladet’s editorial page believes that this could damage Biden’s campaign before the upcoming presidential election, as it confirms that he appears too old for office.
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full screen US President Joe Biden will not be prosecuted for his mishandling of classified documents. Unfortunately, the prosecutor’s statement can still have serious consequences. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP
The classified documents were in boxes in Joe Biden’s garage. Some were in folders in the filing cabinet under the president’s television.
This is not the way to store secret documents, if there were any doubts about that. But the prosecutor who investigated the whole thing still ended up with the recommendation not to press charges against Biden.
Unfortunately, one might almost say.
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full screen The classified documents were stored in a box in Joe Biden’s garage. Image from the investigation. Photo: AP
Bad memory
The reason why Justice Department special investigator Robert Hur is not recommending prosecution? Joe Biden is old and forgetful, and thus cannot be expected to have a proper grasp of such things as classified documents.
If Joe Biden were to be brought before a jury, he would probably appear as an “old, likable, well-intentioned man with a bad memory,” Hur writes in the investigation.
There we can talk about the kiss of death.
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full screen Prosecutor Robert Hur, who was appointed as the Department of Justice’s special investigator on the issue of Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. Photo: Steve Ruark/AP
Biden too old?
Joe Biden’s biggest challenge before the approaching presidential election is to convince the voters that he not is a senile uncle. This has not been made easier by the fact that the president insists on mixing up both the names of other world leaders and which countries they represent, stumbling on stairs and having difficulty finding the words.
The latter he himself says is due to problems with stuttering, but it does not seem to have convinced the voters completely. In an opinion poll made by Ipsos last fall answered 77 percent that Biden is too old to be president again. If the Democrats win the election in November, Joe Biden would be 86 years old at the end of the term.
Better than Trump
Special investigator Robert Hur emphasizes that Donald Trump’s handling of classified information was significantly worse than Biden’s. Trump specifically directed employees to destroy documents and lie about it. The ex-president also became familiar prosecuted for this.
But this does not seem to have touched Donald Trump’s voters much. He himself claims that the charges are a conspiracy to try to prevent him from becoming president again, which fits perfectly into the narrative of Trump as an underdog kicking up against the establishment.
Coup d’état for the campaign
It is of course to Joe Biden’s advantage that he avoids being prosecuted. But at the same time, the prosecutor’s description of the president as a well-intentioned, forgetful old man could be the coup de grace for Biden’s presidential campaign.
That verdict was the last thing the Democrats needed.
