美国司法部长梅里克·加兰周二告诉议员们，他对乔·拜登总统的精神健康状况“完全有信心”，尽管特别顾问罗伯特·胡尔在2月份发布的报告中指出令人尴尬和有争议的描述关于总统的记忆和年龄。
加兰在众议院拨款听证会上说:“如果你问我作为国家安全委员会成员和总统内阁成员的个人观察，我对总统完全有信心。
加兰补充说:“我看到他娴熟地指导工作人员和内阁成员就外交事务和军事战略及政策问题举行会议，在我们现在面临的极其复杂的世界中，他一直是果断的——在向工作人员和主题发出指示时果断地做出保护国家的必要决定。”
司法部长此前受到一些民主党人的批评，因为他之前没有反驳Hur在一份报告中对拜登记忆的描述审查总统对机密记录的处理他不在办公室的时候。
Hur的报告称，“我们的结论是，在这件事上没有刑事指控是合理的”，因为“证据没有确凿无疑地证明拜登先生有罪”。
尽管如此，在整个报告中”胡尔描绘了一幅总统的模糊画面——他的政治对手立即抓住了这一点——他有时与记忆问题作斗争，不记得他何时结束副总统任期或他的儿子博何时去世。
拜登、他的助手和律师强烈反对这一评估。
“他怎么敢提这个?”总统告诉记者在挑衅性的新闻发布会上报告发布后，他继续说道:“我不需要任何人提醒我他(博)是什么时候去世的。”
在3月份国会议员的质疑下，胡尔为他如何描述拜登的记忆进行了辩护，坚称“我在报告中对总统记忆相关性的评估是必要的、准确的和公平的。我没有净化我的解释。”
加兰上个月告诉记者，关于他可以审查或稀释Hur报告的建议是“荒谬的”，理由是这肯定会比他之前承诺的那样简单地发布Hur的报告引起更大的争议。
他当时拒绝直接评论他个人是否认为Hur对拜登精神敏锐度的详细描述适合包括在内。
周二，他的回应是自报告发布以来他对拜登最广泛的个人辩护，尽管他告诉议员们，他不想直接对报告置评。
加兰说:“关于国内政策讨论，这些都是错综复杂的问题，他指导我们所有人解决这些问题是为了取得对美国人民有益、重要和有益的结果。”“我对总统无比信任。“
Garland defends Biden's mental fitness after special counsel Hur criticized his memory
Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers on Tuesday he has "complete confidence" in President Joe Biden's mental fitness for office, despite findings by special counsel Robert Hur whose report issued in February includedembarrassing and disputed characterizationsabout the president's memory and age.
"If you're asking me about my own observations as a member of the National Security Council and a member of the president's Cabinet, I have complete confidence in the president," Garland said during a House Appropriations hearing.
"I have watched him expertly guide meetings of staff and Cabinet members on issues of foreign affairs and military strategy and policy in the incredibly complex world in which we now face and in which he has been decisive -- decisive in instructions to the staff and the subject in making the decisions necessary to protect the country," Garland added.
The attorney general had faced criticism from some Democrats for not pushing back before against Hur's descriptions of Biden's memory in a reportthat scrutinized the president's handling of classified recordswhile he was out of office.
"We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter" as the "evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," Hur's report stated.
Nonetheless,throughout that report, Hur painted a dim picture of the president -- one that his political opponents immediately seized on -- as sometimes struggling with memory issues and not able to remember when he finished his term as vice president or when his son Beau died.
Biden, his aides and attorneys forcefully rejected that assessment.
"How in the hell dare he raise that?" the president told reportersin a defiant press conferenceafter the report's release, continuing: "I don't need anyone to remind me when he [Beau] passed away or that he passed away."
Under questioning from lawmakers in March, Hur defended how he described Biden's memory, insisting that "my assessment in the report about the relevance of the president's memory was necessary and accurate and fair. I did not sanitize my explanation."
Garland told reporters last month that the suggestion that he could censor or dilute Hur's report was "absurd," reasoning it would most certainly cause greater controversy than simply releasing Hur's report as he had promised previously.
He declined at the time to comment directly on whether he personally believed Hur's detailed descriptions of Biden's mental acuity were appropriate to include.
His response on Tuesday was his most extensive personal defense of Biden since the report's release, even as he told lawmakers he wasn't seeking to comment on the report directly.
"With respect to domestic policy discussions, these are intricate, complicated questions that he has guided all of us through in order to reach results that are helpful and important and beneficial to the American people," Garland said. "I could not have more confidence in the president."
