Opinion: Biden not competent for presidency

The 345-page Hur Report landed on the Biden presidential campaign like a 345-pound bomb.

The report didn’t start out that way, but eventually it got toxic.

Hur decided not to charge Biden with anything that had to do with classified documents. In point of fact, due to the Justice Department’s policy that a sitting president can’t be indicted, Hur had no choice. He couldn’t indict Biden.

Hur’s statement that, “our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” including “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan.” was particularly damning, in that Donald Trump has been charged with multiple counts of “willful retention of national defense information.” These two allegations look remarkedly similar.

Hur interviewed Biden, in person, for five hours over a two-day period and came to the conclusion that Biden portrayed himself as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur notes that, “Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited” and continues with Biden’s “diminished faculties in advancing age.”

These conclusions, according to Hur, are based on the fact that Biden did not remember when he was vice president or when his son Beau died of brain cancer.

I disagree with Hur that Biden portrayed himself as an elderly man with a poor memory. Joe Biden’s words, actions and mannerisms in public show that he is in fact an elderly man with a poor memory. Biden is not portraying anything. What you see is what you get.

Although Biden can’t be indicted as long as he is president, the precedent of the Trump prosecutions has established that a former president can be indicted for actions that occurred before, during or after his term of office. Because of that, Hur went on to explain that even if Biden were indicted, he couldn’t be convicted due to the Hur belief that Biden is losing his memory.

Biden says he is perfectly competent and demands that he be treated exactly like other former presidents, who are being indicted for mishandling classified information.

The question remains; if Joe Biden is considered incompetent to stand trial due to loss of memory and is in effect presumed to be non compos mentis, how is it possible for Joe Biden to stand for re-election in 2024?

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

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