Vice President Kamala Harris continues to defend President Joe Biden’s mental fitness and stamina after replacing as the Democratic nominee.
Harris became the presumed Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the race in July following the first presidential debate, during which the president appeared feeble and, at times, nonsensical.
Axios asked the Harris campaign if the vice president could “fully assure” the American people about Biden’s mental acuity and vouch for his “hour-by-hour performance.”
Harris spokesman Ian Sams told the outlet: “Of course.”
Biden’s first term as president has been hindered by repeated gaffes that have raised doubts about the octogenarian’s mental health. After the first presidential debate, the doubts about Biden’s fitness became open topics of discussion among Democratic lawmakers and media pundits who pushed the president to step aside from his reelection campaign.
Before the debate, former special counsel Robert Hur’s report on the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents described the president as “elderly” and said his memory had “significant limitations.” In the report, Hur pointed to times in his interviews with Biden in which the president appeared to forget basic facts, such as when he served as vice president.
“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” Hur wrote in his February report.
Harris called Hur’s report at the time “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate.”
Former president Donald Trump was leading Biden in the presidential race by over three points at the time Biden exited the race, according to Real Clear Politics polling average.
Biden was vague at the time in giving his reasons for dropping out of the presidential race. He said his decision to step aside was in “best interest of my party and the country.”
Harris did not specify a reason for Biden stepping aside either.
With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else,” Harris said in a statement at the time.