Jill Biden defends husband Joe Biden, says special counsel report used their son's death to ‘score political points’

Washington: US First Lady Jill Biden has come out in defence of her husband President Joe Biden's health and memory and she slammed the special counsel for using their son's death to score political points.

Her defence came in response to the voluminous report of Special Counsel Robert Hur in which he said that Biden, 81, “willfully” mishandled classified documents as a private citizen.

The special counsel in his report early this week recommended against filing any charges against Biden for misuse of classified documents when he was a private citizen but made scathing observations on his mental health and memory and claimed that the president did not even remember the date of the death of his son.

“The reason I’m writing is because of what else was in the report: Inaccurate and personal political attacks about Joe. Rather than just saying the case was closed, as they have for others, the Special Counsel claimed that Joe “couldn’t remember the year his son died.” Believe me, like anyone who has lost a child, Beau and his death never leave him,” Jill wrote in a mass email to her supporters on Saturday “I hope you can imagine how it felt to read that attack -- not just as Joe’s wife, but as Beau’s mother. I don’t know what this Special Counsel was trying to achieve," she said.

Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, appears 16 times in the pages of the report prepared by Hur, the special counsel appointed to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents after serving as vice president until 2017.

"We should give everyone grace, and I can’t imagine someone would try to use our son’s death to score political points. If you’ve experienced a loss like that, you know that you don’t measure it in years -- you measure it in grief,” she said.

“May 30th is a day forever etched on our hearts. It shattered me, it shattered our family” she said.

She said Biden's experience and expertise are assets.

“Joe is 81, that’s true, but he’s 81 doing more in an hour than most people do in a day. Joe has wisdom, empathy, and vision. He has delivered on so many of his promises as President precisely because he’s learned a lot in those 81 years. His age, with his experience and expertise, is an incredible asset and he proves it every day," Jill Biden said.

“Look at all he’s accomplished: He brought our country back from COVID. He brought our economy back from the brink. He created 14 million jobs. Gas prices are down. Inflation is down. Energy costs are down. He got bipartisan legislation passed -- even in the midst of this hyper-partisan environment. The media may not give him credit, but I’m thankful you realise all he’s done for this country,” she said.

“Joe is the most resilient person I’ve ever known,” she wrote.