Special Counsel Stuck 'Shiv' Into Joe Biden: Ex-Obama Official

David Axelrod, an ex-senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, wrote in an opinion piece on Saturday that the Department of Justice's (DOJ) special counsel Robert Hur stuck a "shiv" into President Joe Biden with his recent report.

On Thursday, Hur's bombshell report on the classified documents found at Biden's Delaware home in January 2023 and his Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C., in November 2022 was released. Hur, a Republican who served under former President Donald Trump's administration, was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the DOJ's investigation.

While Hur decided not to criminally charge the president, it was what he said about Biden's memory that gained the most attention.

In his report, Hur wrote that Biden presented himself as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" in an interview that spanned two days and occurred while Biden was dealing with the aftermath of Hamas' surprise attack on Israel in early October 2023.

During a news conference on Thursday night, Biden said, "My memory is fine." He also told a reporter, "I'm well-meaning and I'm an elderly man. I know what the hell I'm doing."

"Robert Hur may think President Joe Biden's memory is faulty, but it's a safe bet the president will never forget the shiv the special counsel stuck into the Biden re-election campaign Thursday," Axelrod wrote in his opinion piece for CNN published Saturday.

Axelrod, a CNN senior political commentator, continued: "Hur is a lawyer, not a medical doctor, so his assessment seemed gratuitous and out of place. But often, the most damaging stories in presidential races are the ones that confirm negative impressions voters have already formed."

Newsweek reached out to Biden's campaign via email for comment and attempted to reach Axelrod through the Washington Speakers Bureau via phone for comment.

Age and cogitative ability have been major talking points in this upcoming presidential election as Biden, the Democratic incumbent, is 81 years old and Trump, the GOP frontrunner for the Republican nomination, is 77. Both candidates, meanwhile, have also been mocked for making various speech gaffes.

Axelrod cited a CNN poll released last week in his opinion article. The poll conducted by SSRS between January 25 to 30 found that 46 percent of 442 Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents who are registered to vote say that Biden's age is their biggest concern going into this election. Meanwhile, 5 percent thought his mental competence was the biggest issue.

When surveying 442 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents who are registered to vote, only 2 percent thought Trump's age was the biggest issue. Meanwhile, the biggest concern these voters had with Trump was that he was tactless (8 percent), or they were mostly concerned with the former president being attacked by the Democrats (8 percent).

The full sample of the survey, 1, 212 U.S. adults, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Axelrod said that voters don't give the credit that Biden deserves for the work he's done in office.

"The image of a doddering president is belied by an array of significant achievements, including landmark legislative victories and global leadership, that speak to his competence and might normally boost a president's standing," the ex-Obama official wrote on Saturday. "But voters seem unwilling to credit the president for what he's done and are inclined to blame every problem on his perceived deficits.

Axelrod also called out Trump, "who is viewed as more energetic but riddled by legal and ethical problems and no less prone to mind-boggling verbal gaffes."

Trump, meanwhile, is currently facing four criminal indictments, one involving classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains that the cases against him are politically motivated.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.