Biden and his colleagues tried to ‘put out the fire’ on the report, questioning his memory of key moments.

Biden set the tone for the response hours after the release of special counsel Robert Hurr’s report. He angrily rejected the report’s conclusions about his memory and insisted he had not forgotten the year his son Beau died, as the report claimed. Democrats quickly followed on Capitol Hill and across the country.

“For a Republican to say that Biden is old is the least surprising thing in American politics,” Sen. said Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. “That’s all they have,” he added.

Democrats have responded to broader questions about the president’s age and readiness by asserting that Biden is capable of being commander in chief and seeking to discredit those who paint him as a weak politician. Key to that strategy is drawing contrasts with former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner who is 77 and has mixed up names and facts while facing four trials and multimillion-dollar civil judgments.

The signs of support are crucial for Biden as he prepares for what could be a close election race against Trump. Even before the report was published, there were growing fears of friction in the coalition that helped elect him in 2020, which in turn is increasing pressure not to lose supporters.

The Biden campaign aired the issues it wanted to emphasize, which the AP agency had access to. He describes Hurr, who was appointed during the Trump administration, “as a prosecutor appointed by the MAGA movement who has no case against Biden, so he decided to make personal attacks against the president.”

“Hur is a lawyer and not a doctor, so people should take his legal conclusions and ignore his political opinions,” another point is made.

“The way the report portrayed the president’s actions could not have been more factually inaccurate and clearly politically motivated and patronizing,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday. “I would say that when it comes to the role and responsibility of the prosecutor in a situation like this, we should expect a higher level of integrity than what we saw,” he said.

“I really think this is bringing out the best in the president. It shows he’s a fighter,” said Lajoya Broughton, a Columbia small business owner who voted for Biden in the primary.

Biden’s advisers say they don’t expect the president or his campaign to address the age issue more directly. They can’t make Biden look younger, and they point out that attacks on the president for his age have also been consistent since Trump labeled him “Sleepy Joe” four years ago.

Instead, they aim to take inspiration from the 2020 campaign plan and argue that many voters don’t want a repeat of Trump’s turbulent time in the White House. They also plan to highlight Biden’s accomplishments and an economy that continues to show strength.

“The president has said that age is a fair issue on the minds of voters, but if you’re an independent voter and you’re concerned about your child facing gun violence at school (…) or about the future of our democracy, one you about the age of the president. But at the end of the day the choice is easy,” said former White House deputy communications director Kate Berner.

But some Democrats weren’t so optimistic. “This is a distraction. When you run a presidential campaign, you don’t like distractions,” said Jim Messina, who ran former President Barack Obama’s last campaign.

Messina compared the special counsel’s report to then-FBI Director James Comey’s October 2016 announcement that he was further investigating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified emails while she was secretary of state. Comey’s announcement, which came 11 days before the election, has been blamed for helping Trump defeat Clinton.

In this case, this week’s report comes nine months before Election Day on November 5. “There’s a lot of time to get through all of this,” Messina said. “Trump has all the tests ahead of him. “I’d be surprised if this was still a problem in a month,” he said.

Biden fundraiser Barry Goodman of Michigan said some donors had taken a “wait-and-see approach” to supporting Biden even before the special counsel was announced.

“They wanted to see if somebody else would come in or if Trump would go,” Goodman said. “Some of the people I talk to are more excited than others,” he said. Still, Goodman said the report did nothing to undermine his support for Biden.

Former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson called the report a clear political problem for Biden. But he accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of allowing the report to include comments about the president’s age, memory and cognitive function.

“Merrick Garland’s failure to do his job only emboldened a Trump appointee to spin a political story away from Trump,” Robertson said, adding: “Donald Trump can’t lift a glass of water to his lips without using both hands because he’s old. ,” he added.

Indeed, while Biden’s allies were eager to highlight what they perceived as a double standard, Biden’s mistakes received more attention than those of other prominent politicians.

“There is a clear injustice that people feel,” Rep. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., a former federal prosecutor, said of the focus on Biden’s gaffes. He called the special counsel’s assessment of Biden’s mental health “wrong,” “inappropriate” and “disgraceful.”