► The former president was handed a political gift. An independent special counsel poured kerosene on concerns about Joe Biden’s age with pointed language about the president’s poor memory after concluding Biden had willfully mishandled classified documents – and that his failing memory makes him impossible to convict. Biden was on defense at a hastily called White House news conference. “My memory is fine,” Biden said.
► He is on a glide path to the Republican nomination. Trump romped in the Nevada and US Virgin Island caucuses Thursday night, continuing his unbeaten streak and making Nikki Haley’s campaign feel futile.
► He appears poised for a win at the Supreme Court. Justices expressed deep skepticism that Colorado could declare him an insurrectionist and bar him from their election ballots.
It’s a one-two-three combo that should have Trump feeling solid about his political future, at least for a moment.
Feeding the frenzy about Biden’s age
In concluding Biden should not be prosecuted, Special Counsel Robert Hur, a former Trump-appointed US Attorney in Maryland, offered a political indictment of the president’s fitness. Hur described the leader of the free world as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory” that would make him impossible to prosecute.
Other elements for Trump to exploit
Trump has sought to create a false equivalence between his own standoff with the government over classified material – which led to one of his federal indictments – and what was found in Biden’s Delaware garage and den. Pictures in the report of boxes in Biden’s garage, next to his Corvette, will almost certainly be placed by Trump supporters alongside the infamous pictures of Trump’s boxes in an unused Mar a Lago bathroom.
Trump will also point to the decision not to prosecute Biden as evidence of a double standard in the justice system, although the politically loaded language Hur used to describe Biden could be seen as evidence to prove there is no double standard. Hur was appointed as special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who serves under Biden.
