However Mr. Hur made a very hanging assertion in stating that Mr. Biden “didn’t keep in mind when he was vice chairman.” As proof, Mr. Hur quoted him as saying, “If it was 2013 — when did I cease being vice chairman?” In line with the report, Mr. Biden displayed comparable confusion on the second day of questioning, asking, “In 2009, am I nonetheless vice chairman?”
The transcript supplies context for these traces. In each cases, Mr. Biden mentioned the mistaken 12 months however appeared to acknowledge that he had misspoken and instantly stopped to hunt readability and orient himself.
The primary unfolded as Mr. Biden harassed that he didn’t understand how materials about an inner Obama administration debate in 2009 in regards to the Afghanistan struggle had ended up in his Delaware storage:
BIDEN: Any person should’ve, packing this up, simply picked up all of the stuff and put it in a field, as a result of I didn’t.
HUR: OK. Do you might have any thought the place this materials would’ve been earlier than it bought moved into the storage?
BIDEN: Nicely, if it was 2013 — when did I cease being vice chairman?
COTTON: 2017.
BIDEN: So I used to be vice chairman. So it should’ve come from vice-president stuff. That’s all I can consider.
The second occurred when Mr. Biden was requested about how a specific folder of those self same paperwork ended up in his storage. Once more discussing the top of his vice presidency in 2017, he mistakenly as a substitute invoked the 12 months the paperwork had been from:
BIDEN: My downside was I by no means knew the place any of the paperwork or containers had been particularly coming from or who packed them. Simply did I get them delivered to me. And so that is — I’m, at this stage, in 2009, am I nonetheless vice chairman?
[indiscernible whispering]
BIDEN: Yeah, OK.
Mr. Krickbaum then mentioned he noticed that Mr. Biden was “flipping forward” and the dialog moved on.
Mr. Hur was selective in portraying Mr. Biden’s reminiscence of an envoy’s place.
In portraying the president’s reminiscence as unusually defective, Mr. Hur singled out one different concern: whether or not Mr. Biden precisely remembered the stance of a diplomat in Afghanistan. In line with the report, Mr. Biden, in discussing a memo he wrote to President Barack Obama in 2009 arguing towards a surge of extra troops to Afghanistan, had mistakenly mentioned he “had an actual distinction” of opinion with Karl Eikenberry, who was the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. In actual fact, Mr. Hur famous, Mr. Eikenberry, like Mr. Biden, had opposed a surge.
That line got here when Mr. Biden interrupted himself throughout a prolonged recollection of the interior administration debate over whether or not Mr. Obama ought to order a surge:
BIDEN: I’ll simply let you know one factor, it has nothing to do with the investigation, you’ll perceive why that is delicate. The president thought that I knew much more about Afghanistan than he did and different members of the administration. He knew I had an actual distinction with the important thing overseas coverage sorts, notably — whether or not it was Eikenberry or whether or not it was — anyway. And he was searching for me to make my case as sturdy as I might, with out him having to ask for it or being related to it, as a result of his concern on this interval was he didn’t have overwhelming overseas coverage expertise, and the way might he tackle essentially the most premier members of the overseas coverage institution in his administration. Fairly a number of that mentioned, go, do that. So he was searching for me to make the strongest case I might. So I’d be the man that’d principally take the warmth, which I used to be ready to do as a result of I knew as a lot about it as they did.
Notably, later that very same day, Mr. Biden invoked Mr. Eikenberry once more. In that passage, Mr. Biden made clear that he recalled that Mr. Eikenberry shared his opposition to sending extra troops to Afghanistan. Mr. Biden was discussing a typed file he could or could not have seen earlier than writing his 2009 memo to Mr. Obama.
BIDEN: I acquired this earlier than I wrote the opposite, it was added argument why he ought to hearken to my argument. I’m speaking about — you recognize, “I had a protracted dialog with Eikenberry, sure, I urge you to name him earlier than you decide. Karl can communicate for himself and he has eloquently in a few of his cables, let me relay only a few issues. Including troops is not going to pace up the flexibility to coach Afghans as a result of…” and so forth. So these are criticisms of the proposal that was being made to the president by, by others within the administration wanting him to double down in Afghanistan.
In his report, Mr. Hur didn’t point out this second dialogue of Mr. Eikenberry’s place.
Mr. Biden appeared clearheaded more often than not.
Mr. Biden went into nice element about many issues, the transcript reveals. He made jokes over the 2 days, teasing the prosecutors. And at sure factors, he corrected his interrogators once they had been those who misspoke.