Doctors concerned about potential spread of bird flu in Canada
H5N1 or avian flu has been detected at dozens of US dairy farms and Canadian experts are urging surveillance on our side of the border too.
The White House knew it had a political problem on its hands when a special counsel report questioned U.S. President Joe Biden’s memory last month, but Biden saw a much more personal affront as well.
Robert Hur, who had been appointed to investigate whether Biden mishandled classified documents, wrote that the president couldn’t recall in an interview with prosecutors the date when his adult son, Beau, died of cancer. It was a shocking contention about a keystone event in Biden's life, and it fed into questions about whether the 81-year-old president is fit to serve another term.
“How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden angrily declared during a hastily arranged press conference after the report was released. “Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business.”
The reality of the situation, however, isn’t as clear as either Biden or Hur portrayed, according to a transcript of the interview released on Tuesday before the former special counsel testifies on Capitol Hill.
Hur didn't ask the president about his son's death; Biden brought it up himself during a discussion about how he stored documents at a rental home in Virginia after leaving the vice president's office in 2017.
And Biden recalled the specific date that Beau died, although he briefly wondered aloud about the year as the conversation toggled between various events.
“What month did Beau die?” Biden mused. “Oh, God, May 30th.”
A White House lawyer interjected by saying, “2015.”
“Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden asked. When someone responded affirmatively, the president added, “It was 2015.”
Biden aides defended the president’s inaccurate characterization of the interview during his press conference last month, describing his response as visceral and emotional. And they said his exchange with Hur showed how Biden believed it was important to reflect on how his son's death had affected his decision-making over subsequent years.
The transcript released on Tuesday sheds new light on one of the most politically and personally sensitive episodes in Biden’s term. Although the special counsel's investigation found no basis to bring criminal charges against Biden — unlike Donald Trump, who was indicted for refusing to return classified records to the federal government — the references to his memory threatened the president’s ability to assure voters that he can keep doing his job until he turns 86.
Beau was Delaware’s attorney general and widely viewed as his father’s political heir when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The cancer, which Biden connects to his son’s National Guard service near toxic burn pits on military bases in Iraq, was devastating for a family that had already suffered tragedy decades earlier. Shortly after Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972, his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a car crash that also badly injured Beau and his younger brother Hunter.
Beau died while Biden was serving as vice president, and his deep sorrow helped deter him from running for president in 2016, when Trump ultimately defeated Hillary Clinton.
Biden mentioned the death during an interview that Hur conducted on Oct. 8. They were discussing where Biden kept documents that he was “actively working on” at his Virginia home.
The president responded by skipping back a few years to talk about how “in this timeframe, my son is — either been deployed or is dying.”
After the brief exchange about the specific date, Biden began to talk about writing his book, “Promise Me, Dad,” which was released in 2017.
“This is personal,” he said as he talked about how “Beau was like my right arm and Hunt was my left.”
Hur offered Biden a break at this point, but the president insisted on continuing with a lengthy story about his family. Biden said how Beau, after he was diagnosed with cancer, made him promise not to step away from public life.
Biden decided “I couldn't handle” another run for president but he would “stay involved.” However, in a story that Biden has frequently told at fundraisers, he changed course after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and Trump's response that there were “very fine people on both sides.”
Biden said that he is “the antithesis” of everything that “this guy stood for” and “I could beat him.”
As he wrapped up the story, Biden wondered aloud whether Hur needed such a lengthy answer.
“Sorry for the detail,” Biden said.
“No apology necessary," Hur replied.
----
White House correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
H5N1 or avian flu has been detected at dozens of US dairy farms and Canadian experts are urging surveillance on our side of the border too.
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says Canadian interest rates don't have to match U.S. or global rates, but there is a limit to how much they can diverge.
Canada's financial intelligence agency says it has levied a $9.2-million penalty against The Toronto-Dominion Bank for non-compliance with money laundering and terrorist financing measures as the bank also faces compliance investigations in the U.S.
Prince William and his wife Kate released a picture of their daughter Charlotte to mark the princess's ninth birthday on Thursday.
A Canadian restaurant lowered its prices this week, and though news of price tags dropping rather than climbing sounds unusual, the business strategy in this case is not, according to experts in the field.
Investors considering where to park their money have a choice: go with a traditional financial adviser or trust in an algorithm. Here are the pros and cons of both.
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Nathaly Paola Castro Torres has a rare disorder called Laron syndrome that is caused by a genetic mutation. It stunts her growth but also provides a hidden silver lining: Her body is protected from chronic diseases such as cancer that often take life away long before old age.
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglas barriers.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.