The president of the USA, Joe Biden, defended his mental capacity in a rare evening address after being under fire for mishandling classified information.
Biden, who appeared on live television from the White House, was outraged by the report's suggestion that he couldn't recall the date of his son Beau's death in 2015, let alone other significant events in his life.
"My memory is fine," he said.
"There's even reference that I don't remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?" Biden said, visibly fighting to rein in his emotions.
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The report by special counsel Robert Hur should have been excellent news for Biden.
It cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing in holding secret papers at his private home and former office, which he had used as vice president under Barack Obama.
This contrasts sharply with a separate criminal investigation investigating Biden's likely November presidential opponent, Donald Trump, who is accused of stealing large amounts of top-secret papers after leaving the White House in 2021 and then delaying efforts to retrieve them.
However, Hur dropped a political bombshell just nine months before the election, claiming that the 81-year-old Democrat came across as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Earlier Thursday, Biden stated that his exoneration by Hur on any legal grounds meant "this matter is now closed."
That was clearly not true, as seen by Biden's highly unusual, last-minute scheduling of televised remarks.
Biden has long faced criticism from the right and even some party members that he is too elderly to be president. As he prepares for the November election against Trump, whom he claims poses an existential threat to US democracy, Biden focuses on his extensive expertise and leadership of a rapidly rebuilding post-Covid economy.
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