Special counsel's report 'derailed,' Biden's lawyer says

White House officials and Democrats spread out Sunday to defend President Biden's mental fitness, reflecting growing anxiety in the president's administration over a special counsel report that fueled concerns about his age.

“This is a report that has gone off the rails,” Bob Bauer, Mr. Biden’s personal attorney, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “A poor work product.”

The report, released on Thursday, cleared Mr Biden of criminal wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents after he left the vice presidency. But the special prosecutor in the case, Robert K. Hur, characterized the 81-year-old Biden as a “well-meaning, older man with a poor memory” who had “diminished his faculties in old age.”

Democrats have gone on the offensive over what they say is a partisan hit that may violate Justice Department policy, specifically challenging descriptions that question Mr. Biden's memory.

Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Mr. Biden's secretary of homeland security, said on NBC's “Meet the Press” that “the responsibility of a federal prosecutor is to investigate and learn the facts and apply the law to those facts .”

“The special counsel did this in the case, concluded there was no case — case closed — and then made gratuitous, unnecessary and inaccurate personal comments, and they are inappropriate,” Mr. Mayorkas said.

While the report found that “no criminal charges are warranted” against Mr. Biden, the descriptions about his memory put a spotlight on what was already a primary concern for voters: his age. New York Times/Siena College polling in the fall found that more than 70 percent of battleground voters agreed with the statement that Mr. Biden was “simply too old to be an effective president.”

“We have to face the reality that when you reach those ages, you get smaller,” Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential candidate who has also attacked the mental acuity of former President Donald J. Trump, said on “ Face the Nation.” “These are people who make decisions about our national security. These are people who make decisions about the future of our economy. We need to know they are at the top of their game.”

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, said the report's contents were not a surprise.

“Look, there are no new bombshells about President Biden in here,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The American people have seen for years that he is a man with a failing memory. What this report indicates, however, is that you have a blatant double standard: if Joe Biden is not criminally charged, then Donald Trump should not be criminally charged either.”

Mr. Biden's allies have also doubled down on their campaign strategy, framing the election as a choice between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, whom they portray as a threat to democracy and who is accused of his own handling of classified documents. Trump, 77, recently confounded the leaders of Hungary and Turkey, warning that the country was on the brink of World War II and claiming he had defeated Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

White House officials on Saturday also were quick to highlight Trump's comments at a campaign event, when he said that while he was president, he told the leaders of NATO countries that he would “encourage” Russia to do whatever they want'. to countries that had not paid the money they owed to the military alliance.

“What our nation needs to focus on is how Donald Trump is undermining the rule of law, democracy and our security as a nation,” Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said on ABC's “This Week” when asked about the report. the special counsel. .

But it was clear on Sunday that Mr. Biden's aides and allies also felt a sense of urgency to attack Mr. Hur's report and convince voters concerned about Mr. Biden's age.

“The real problem is not going away,” Quentin James, co-founder of the Collective PAC, an organization that aims to elect black officials, said in an interview. “I think the only way to beat it is to hit the road and campaign really hard. And we expect that from every other candidate, regardless of your age or experience.”

Mitch Landrieu, the co-chairman of Mr. Biden's campaign, said on “Meet the Press” that Mr. Biden had already traveled around the country during his presidency to describe his domestic agenda.

“It is this ad hominem attack that called into question the president's capacity,” Mr. Landrieu said of Mr. Hur's report. He added: “This guy is tough. He is smart. He's working on his game.”

The White House has also made a point of sending officials with prosecutorial backgrounds to attack the credibility of the report. A day after it was released, Vice President Kamala Harris cited her time as prosecutor, describing the report as “gratuitous” and “politically motivated.”

Erica L. Green And Karoun Demirjian reporting contributed.