First Lady’s Special Counsel Exploited Son’s Death for Political Gain

First lady Jill Biden expressed her disbelief and defense of her husband in an email to campaign donors on Saturday in response to the special counsel’s suggestion that President Joe Biden could not remember when his oldest son died.

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

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report mentioned Biden’s age and memory, but no charges were brought against the president for possessing classified documents.

Hur described a hypothetical defense in which President Biden’s memory was described as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor,” and having “significant limitations.” Biden also couldn’t recall when his oldest son Beau had died during an interview with investigators.

Jill Biden emphasized the persistent impact of Beau Biden’s death on her husband, stating, “Believe me, like anyone who has lost a child, Beau and his death never leave him.”

Beau Biden’s death in 2015 continues to deeply affect President Biden, and has been cited as both a reason for not running in 2016 and as a motivator for his 2020 campaign.

Jill Biden reflected on the day of Beau’s death, saying, “May 30th is a day forever etched on our hearts. It shattered me, it shattered our family. … What helped me, and what helped Joe, was to find purpose. That’s what keeps Joe going, serving you and the country we love.”

Biden’s reaction to references to Beau Biden in Hur’s report was one of anger, as he questioned, “How in the hell dare he raise that?”

Biden mentioned sitting for five hours of interviews with Hur’s team despite handling an international crisis at the same time.

There have been concerns about Biden’s age, with a significant majority of U.S. adults in an August poll expressing doubt about his effectiveness for another four years. Both Republicans and Democrats agreed that Biden’s age is a problem.

Jill Biden defended her husband’s age, stating, “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. His age, with his experience and expertise, is an incredible asset and he proves it every day.”