President Joe Biden on Monday tried to make light of Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur's report last week that described Biden as someone with a poor memory who couldn't recall when he was vice president or what year his son Beau Biden died.
During a speech at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., Biden joked about his forgetfulness as well as his age; at 81, he is the oldest-serving U.S. president.
Biden was talking about generating more manufacturing in the U.S. when he said: "We're promoting clean energy and industries of the future, made here in America — made in America. What I didn't realize — and I've been around — I know I don't look like it, but I've been around awhile. I do remember that."
His remark generated laughter and applause.
It was a stark contrast to the last time Biden publicly discussed Hur's report, when Biden was angry and combative during a news conference Thursday, after the report was released on his handling of classified documents.
The report did not recommend criminal charges for Biden, noting that at a trial, the president "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."
Biden lashed out at a reporter's question about Hur describing him with a poor memory, saying, "My memory is so poor, I let you speak." After another reporter raised voters' concerns in polls about Biden's age, the president barked, "That is your judgment."