CNN political analyst Paul Begala said Friday that President Joe Biden’s supporters are worrying after he gave an impromptu speech Thursday night to address claims about his mental acuity.
Special counsel Robert Hur released a report Thursday in which he concluded that Biden willfully possessed classified information covering important national security matters but declined to pursue criminal charges against the president, according to his report. Hur said Biden, if forced to stand trial, “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.”
Hur also said it would be “difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Biden responded by defending his mental acuity and denying that his handling of the documents violated the law.
Watch the press conference:
“How much Democratic bedwetting do you think there will be … and if you are the White House, how do you assuage said bedwetting?” CNN’s John Berman asked Begala.
“Oh yeah. Look, I’m a Biden supporter, and I slept like a baby last night. I woke up every two hours crying and wet the bed,” he responded. “This is terrible for Democrats, and anybody with a functioning brain knows that. But here’s what you do: instead of calling a press conference and saying, ‘I really am sharp,’ you attack the other guy.”
“You know, Joe Biden gave the strategy in 2012. I remember, he was vice president, and he said, ‘Don’t compare us to the Almighty, compare us to the alternative,'” Begala added. “So everything with Biden has to be not ‘I’m great,’ but, ‘The other guy’s really damaging, dangerous, a threat.'”
“John’s exactly right, this is going to be a really rough, ugly, unpleasant campaign,” he continued. “Look at, years ago, David Duke, the former Klansman, was running for governor, against Edwin Edwards, who has been charged, indicted, convicted of any number of criminals [sic]. Edwin won the campaign with a bumper sticker that said, ‘Vote for the crook. It’s important.’ They have to tell Democrats, ‘Vote for the old guy. Support the old guy. It’s important.'”
“So you think they blew it last night? Just to be clear, you think last night was a mistake, to have him out there?” Berman asked.
“No, I want to see more of Joe Biden, and the gaffes are built in. But instead of simply saying, ‘I’m okay,’ he just simply — he needs to be on the attack 24/7 for the next 269 days,” Begala responded.
“Uplifting. Uplifting message from Paul right there,” Berman said.
Biden tried to downplay the findings of the report in a surprise speech Thursday night in which he attempted to address concerns about his memory. Biden said he keeps a rosary in memory of his son Beau but appeared to forget the parish it came from and trailed off into silence.
Biden then described Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the “president of Mexico.”
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