The release of special counsel Robert Hur’s report on the documents stored by President Biden has made the top of the news this week for all the wrong reasons. What should have been a story about Biden being fully exonerated for any wrongdoing, was hijacked by wholly inappropriate assessments of his mental acuity.

Click here to Tweet this article

In a sane world the exoneration of Biden would be the lead story on every newscast. But Hur’s insertion of irrelevant opinions about Biden’s cognitive functioning – which Hur is utterly unqualified to assess – wound up stealing the show. That makes this a failure on the part of the media as well as the special counsel. Which is nothing new, as demonstrated by the reporting on Biden’s recent economic successes.

SEE THIS: The Biden-Harris Campaign Trolls Trump and Fox News on Truth Social with ‘Blowout’ Jobs Report

The Hur report not only concluded that no charges be filed against Biden, it also noted the stark differences between Biden’s actions and those of Donald Trump, who is currently facing 91 felony charges. Hur wrote that…

“Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite. According to the indictment, he not only refused to return documents for many months, he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then lie about it. In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives, the Department of Justice, consented to a search of multiple locations, including his homes and sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation.”

However, those facts seemed to get short shrift in favor of more salacious, tabloid style, pseudo-journalism. And at the forefront of that wretched reportage was, of course, Fox News. The network that serves as the Ministry of Propaganda for Trump and his MAGA Republicans invited Dr. Nicole Saphier to comment on the Hur report and Biden’s response to it. Note that Saphier is a radiologist with no credentials in psychology or politics. But that didn’t stop her from making a remote diagnosis…

“Actually, the way that [Biden] came out and was attacking [Fox’s White House correspondent] Peter Doocy and others, that actually goes in line with maybe he is having some sort of cognitive decline.’

According to Fox, anyone who lashes out at Doocy has cognitive decline pic.twitter.com/9wNkBMYGFY

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 9, 2024

First of all, Biden didn’t “attack” Doocy. To the contrary, he joked with him before explaining why he disagreed with the typically loaded question that Doocy had asked. Biden has cordial relationships with everyone in the press corps, and often needles them light-heartedly.

More to the point, Saphier’s assertion that a display of anger is evidence of “some sort of cognitive decline,” is not only way off target with regard to Biden, but is actually much more descriptive of Trump. After all, it is Trump who maligns the media as “enemy of the people.” And it is Trump who viciously attacks reporters and news outlets at every opportunity. for instance…

• Trump called New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman “Maggot” and “Maggie HAGerman.”
• Trump complained when NBC’s Peter Alexander asked what he would say to Americans who were afraid of COVID, “I say that you are a terrible reporter. That is what I say. I think that’s a nasty question.”
• When asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip whether Trump replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions would reign in Robert Mueller, he raged “What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”
• And there is even this: Trump Viciously Attacks Fox News, the Network He Says is ‘Dead, Totally Fake, Unwatchable’

That’s just a few of the insults that Trump has thrown at reporters in the midst of his temper tantrums. So if Saphier thinks that Biden’s mild and cordial tone is evidence of cognitive decline, what must she think of Trump’s raving? And if she needs any further proof of Trump’s cognitive collapse, she might want to take a look at this…

If we’re going to talk about a presidential candidate’s age and mental competency, his trouble even forming basic sentences, then let’s do it. But Biden isn’t the guy we’re talking about here.

We’re talking about Donald J. Trump.
Roll the tape! pic.twitter.com/tK5AtKB3ft

— The Mehdi Hasan Show (@MehdiHasanShow) September 21, 2023

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.