Marjorie Taylor Greene Raises 'Nuclear Football' Question Over Biden Report

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the recent report into Joe Biden's handling of classified documents suggests the president is a security risk.

Greene, a staunch Donald Trump supporter, was reacting to Special Counsel Robert Hur's 388-page review of Biden after sensitive materials were found at the president's private residence in Delaware and former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., in December 2022 and January 2023.

Hur said there would not be an attempt to file criminal charges against Biden even if he was not in office despite the special counsel saying he "willfully" retained classified documents from his time as vice president. However, Hur did cite concerns about the president's cognitive abilities, suggesting Biden's memory was "significantly limited" and appeared "hazy" when trying to remember key details while answering questions.

"Biden will likely present himself to the jury, as he did during his interview with our office, as a sympathetic, well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," Hur wrote. "It would be difficult to convince a jury they should convict him—by then a former president who will be at least well into his eighties—of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

Speaking to Fox Business, Greene said that Hur's report shows that the country is in a "national security crisis" and Biden should be removed from office either via impeachment or by invoking the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment. Section 4 of the amendment states that a president can be removed if they are unable to discharge the duties of the office.

"If the man is not fit to serve trial, then he has not been to serve as president of the United States," Greene said.

"He carries around the nuclear football. I mean, think about that. He is making the biggest decisions on behalf of our entire country—not only our country but in a large part of the entire world—yet he's not able to stand trial for all the documents that he kept. This is extremely serious."

Among the most damning claims was that while answering questions as part of the classified documents probe, Biden did not remember, "even within several years," when his son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.

"This cannot be dismissed," Greene added. "Look at recently in his speaking events, where he's talking about speaking to people that have already died.

"His mental clarity, his memory, his ability to make decisions, is extremely important as president of the United States, and the Democrat party cannot hide this anymore. We have to move forward to do something about it."

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.

The report has renewed an already strong concern about Biden's age and cognitive ability as the 81-year-old seeks re-election in 2024.

Similar concerns have also been raised about Trump, his presumptive GOP challenger in November's race. The 77-year-old Republican has pleaded not guilty to 40 federal charges over claims he illegally retained classified materials after he left office, then obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them.

In a Tuesday night press conference, Biden insisted, "My memory is fine," while lashing out at Hur for suggesting he could not remember when his son died.

"Every Memorial Day we hold a service remembering him, attended by friends and family and the people who loved him," Biden said. "I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away."

Biden spokesman Iam Sams shared a letter on X, formerly Twitter, that the White House sent to Hur before the release of his report rejecting the criticisms of the president's memory are "inaccurate, gratuitous, and wrong."

"The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events," the letter said.

"Such comments have no place in a Department of Justice report, particularly one that in the first paragraph announces that no criminal charges are 'warranted' and that 'the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt.'

"In fact, there is ample evidence from your interview that the President did well in answering your questions about years-old events over the course of five hours."