2024-02-10 14:10:56
Former President Donald Trump said on Saturday that if President Joe Biden “is too mentally incompetent to convict at a trial,” as laid out in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s damning report of the Biden classified documents probe, then he is unfit to serve as president.
Trump made his argument at a packed afternoon rally in Conway, South Carolina, broadcasted by Right Side Broadcasting Network, ahead of the state’s Republican primary in two weeks, where polls indicate he will trounce former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC).
“The special counsel’s report tries to let Biden off by claiming that he is too mentally incompetent to convict at a trial,” Trump noted, implying that this demonstrates Biden is unfit to lead. “‘I’m not going to charge him with a crime, but it’s okay for him to become Commander in Chief’ – think of that one.”
After a brief disturbance, in which an anti-Trumper in attendance made an outburst and was quickly removed, Trump said, “But we know that Joe Biden has always been too mentally incompetent.”
In his report, Hur cited Biden’s memory as a factor in the decision not to prosecute, as Breitbart News Capitol Hill Correspondent Bradley Jaye noted:
The report says the investigation “uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen” but does not establish guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Yet Hur’s assessment of Biden’s “significantly limited” memory also played a part in his decision not to prosecute.
“We have also considered that, 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 report states. “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt.”
Trump, who has been charged on 40 counts in his own classified documents case by Special Counsel Jack Smith under Biden’s Department of Justice, also contended the decision not to prosecute Biden underscores “a weaponized two-tiered system of justice in this country.”
“Crooked Joe got off scot-free,” Trump said before quipping, “and I don’t know if you call it scot-free; they said he was a mental basket case.”
He went on to add, “Biden’s thugs are still trying to put me in jail on fake charges for crimes that they openly admit that Crooked Joe did. He actually did these crimes.”
“Now, I’m not looking for anything to happen to this guy. He wouldn’t know the difference,” Trump said, vowing there would be “no revenge” if he was elected as the 47th president. “But this is selective political persecution. Not prosecution – persecution.”
