By Max Mazta for BBC News
President Joe Biden gave his reaction to the special counsel's report, at a briefing in the diplomatic reception room of the White House on February 8, 2024 in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP
US President Joe Biden has angrily criticised an investigation that found he mishandled top secret files and said he struggled to recall key life events.
In a surprise news briefing on Thursday evening, Biden insisted to media: "My memory is fine."
He slammed a claim that he could not recollect when his son died, saying: "How the hell dare he raise that?"
The inquiry found Biden "wilfully retained and disclosed" classified files, but decided not to charge him.
Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur determined Biden had kept classified documents related to military and foreign policy in Afghanistan after serving as vice-president.
The scathing 345-page report said the president's memory had "significant limitations".
Hur interviewed the president over five hours as part of the inquiry.
The special counsel said Biden, 81, could not recall when he was vice-president (from 2009-2017), or "even within several years, when his son Beau died" (2015).
At Thursday night's news conference, an emotional Biden lashed out at the passages questioning his recollection of events.
"Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself, [it] was none of their damn business," he said.
"I don't need anyone to remind me when he [Beau Biden] passed away."
He said he was "very occupied... in the middle of handling an international crisis" when he was interviewed by the special counsel from 8-9 October last year - just as the Israel-Gaza war erupted.
The inquiry also said Biden had shared some of the sensitive material from hand-written notebooks with a ghostwriter for his memoir, a finding that the president denied from the podium.
The special counsel concluded it would be difficult to convict the president of improper handling of files because "at trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory".
The president's age has become a concern for voters going into November's presidential election. But Biden told reporters on Thursday that he was the most qualified person to be president.
"I am well-meaning," Biden said. "And am elderly. I know what the hell I'm doing. I put this country back on its feet.
"I don't need his recommendation."
Asked whether he took responsibility for having classified documents in his home, Biden blamed his staff.
He said he didn't know they had put sensitive memos in his home garage, where the special counsel says they were found next to a dog bed.
The top secret files were found at Biden's house in Wilmington, Delaware, and former private office from 2022-23.
The discovery came after a separate investigation charged former president Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents following his departure from the White House.
The report distinguishes between both cases, saying Biden handed over the documents to government archivists, while Trump "allegedly did the opposite".
"According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it," the report says about Trump, who is facing a trial in May for his handling of classified records.
The report issued on Thursday comes with an attached letter from Biden's legal team, criticising the special counsel.
"We do not believe that the report's treatment of President Biden's memory is accurate or appropriate," wrote White House lawyer Richard Sauber.
"The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events."
Even as Biden sought to rebut reporters' questions about his age and mental acuity, he inadvertently mixed up two world leaders.
Asked to comment on the latest developments in the Gaza war during Thursday's evening news conference, he confused the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.
"I think as you know initially," he said, "the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced him."
This story was first published by the BBC.
