Three Big Moments From The Biden-hur Interview

Ahead of former Special Counsel Robert Hur's Tuesday testimony on his report about President Joe Biden's handling of classified information, lawmakers released a transcript of Hur's interview with Biden — a document that sheds major new light on his findings.

Hur used his testimony to defend the impartiality of his report, which Biden and his allies slammed as gratuitous for highlighting perceived lapses in the president's memory and suggesting that Biden could portray himself as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man.”

The former Justice Department special counsel's findings are facing heavy scrutiny as Republicans continue to eye a potential impeachment of the president — though they’re still well short of the support they need or any direct evidence of Biden using his official roles to benefit his family.

Here are three moments from the transcript worth highlighting:

Hur on Biden ‘photographic’ memory

The then-special counsel praised Biden during the interview for his “photographic understanding and recall” of a house the president visited during a trip to Mongolia.

Biden also used the interchange to tout his archery skills while recalling his foray into the sport during his foreign trip. He said that he’s “not a bad archer” but that due to “pure luck, I hit the goddamn target.”

The president added that “I turned to the prime minister and handed [the bow] to him and the poor son-of-a-bitch couldn’t pull it back.”

Beau Biden’s death

In perhaps the most striking moment from Biden’s public rebuttal to the Hur report last month, he bristled at its suggestions that he could not remember the date of the death of his son, Beau, from cancer in May 2015.

The transcript shows Biden, while recalling that “I hadn’t walked away from the idea that I may run for office again” during the period following his son’s death, searching aloud for the exact date of Beau’s death — before correctly recalling it as May 30.

After that response, the president still struggled to recall the exact year of his son’s passing, getting help from aides and his lawyer.

“Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden asked, before his personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, prompted him: “I’m not sure of the month, sir, but I think that was the year.”

Biden acknowledges his messy organization

Hur also asked Biden about his storage of files related to his tenure as vice president — an exchange that prompted hesitation from the president about when he stopped serving as former President Barack Obama’s No. 2.

“When did I stop being vice president?” Biden asked, according to the transcript. Another attorney, Rachel Cotton, replied: “2017.”

Asked about how his records ended up in his garbage, the president replied: “I don’t remember how a beat-up box got in the garage … Somebody must’ve, packing this up, just picked up all the stuff and put it in a box, because I didn’t.”

Benjamin Johansen and Kelly Garrity contributed to this report.