US President, Joe Biden confused key dates during his October interview with special counsel Robert Hur, forgetting which year his son Beau died of brain cancer, as well as the year Donald Trump was elected president, a transcript of the sit-down has revealed.
During a discussion of why he kept sensitive papers after leaving the vice presidency in 2017, the 81-year-old president launched into a rambling explanation before asking: "What month did Beau die? Oh, God, May 30 -"
At that point, White House lawyer Rachel Cotton and an unidentified man reminded Biden the year his son died was 2015
"Was it 2015 he had died?" Biden responded, according to the transcript.
"It was May of 2015," he was told.
"It was 2015," Biden repeated.
The sequence contradicted Biden's angry claim that Hur had inappropriately raised his son's death during the interview.
"There's even some reference that I don't remember when my son died," the US leader said on February 8. "How the hell dare he raise that? Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn't any of their damned business."
But in contrast, the transcript shows Biden brought up Beau's death unprompted by the special counsel.
Moments later, Biden referenced Trump's election to the presidency and asked if he had been elected in "November of 2017" rather than the previous year.
The transcript was obtained by the New York Times, which published excerpts hours before Hur was due to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about his probe of Biden's retention of classified national security information after leaving office.
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Hur triggered outrage in his report last month when he said he would not recommend charges against Biden in part because the 81-year-old president would present himself to a jury as an "elderly man with a poor memory."
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