Former President Joe Biden lashed out against special counsel Robert Hur over a report in which he described the longtime lawmaker as a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

The part of Hur’s report that most angered Biden was the suggestion that the then-president could not remember when his son, Beau, died. However, new audio obtained by Axios sheds light on Biden’s lapses in memory.

In February 2024, Biden and several high-profile Democrats — as well as media personalities — attacked Hur. During a press conference on Hur’s report, Biden said, ‘There’s some attention paid to some language in the report about my recollection of events. There’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?’

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Hur in February 2024, saying his report was ‘gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate.’ She also suggested that it was ‘clearly politically motivated.’ Harris recalled Biden’s alleged sharpness at the time, noting that Hur’s interview took place on Oct. 8, 2023 — just one day after Hamas’ attack on Israel. Harris said she was ‘in almost every meeting’ with Biden and that he was ‘in front of and on top of it all.’

Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., grilled Hur when he testified on Capitol Hill in March 2024. Both lawmakers attempted to get Hur to say that his report ‘exonerated’ Biden — which he did not do. Then–Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also criticized the special counsel, suggesting that Hur knew his description of Biden would ‘ignite a political firestorm,’ something Hur denied.

Former Obama advisor David Axelrod also criticized the report, calling it a ‘shiv the special counsel stuck into the Biden reelection campaign,’ according to CNN.

On Friday, Axios published a bombshell report that included audio recordings from Biden’s interview with Hur, something the previous administration refused to release. The audio includes long pauses in which Biden struggled to recall the dates of several major events, including when President Donald Trump was elected to office for his first term, his son’s death or his exit from office as vice president.

Since his report was released, Hur has seen two key moments of vindication aside from Friday’s report. The first came when the transcript of his interview was released in March 2024. At the time, the White House refused to release the audio, citing fears of AI deepfakes. Hur appeared to receive further vindication when Biden had his disastrous debate against then-candidate Trump in June 2024. Less than a month after the debate, Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Harris.  

In an emotional and widely shared moment, President Donald J. Trump spoke directly with Edan Alexander, the 21-year-old American-Israeli soldier who was recently freed from Hamas captivity, during a phone call captured on camera and released by the White House.

‘Mr. President,’ Alexander greeted Trump at the start of the call, visibly moved. ‘You’re the only reason I’m here. You saved my life.’

The phone conversation, which took place while Alexander was recovering at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, came just days after his dramatic release from Gaza, where he was held hostage for over 580 days following his abduction by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

President Trump greeted Edan with a bit of humor and humility, saying ‘I’m very nervous talking to you, Edan, because you’re a much bigger celebrity than I am.’

Trump also expressed American solidarity and the administration’s commitment to bringing all hostages home while on the call.

‘You’re an American, and we love you,’ Trump told Alexander. ‘We’re going to take good care of you. And your parents are incredible. I saw your mother. She was pushing me around a little bit—putting a lot of pressure on me.’

‘Like a good mom!’ exclaimed Edan’s mother in the background.

The heartfelt exchange was posted online by the official White House account and has quickly gone viral, drawing praise from across the political spectrum for its display of humanity and international unity.

Alexander’s release came amid intensified U.S. diplomatic pressure and quiet negotiations, coordinated in part by senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler. 

Trump had previously signaled his determination to secure the freedom of American citizens held abroad and made Alexander’s case a top priority.

The Alexander family issued a statement thanking President Trump directly, along with the negotiation team and the Israeli Defense Forces, calling the outcome ‘a miracle rooted in strength, diplomacy, and prayer.’

Edan Alexander’s homecoming has reignited calls to bring home the remaining hostages still held in Gaza. 

A coalition of 65 former hostages recently signed a letter urging both President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ‘build on this breakthrough’ and intensify efforts for a comprehensive agreement to ensure every hostage’s safe return.

Prime Minister Netanyahu acknowledged the success of this combined effort, stating, ‘This was achieved thanks to our military pressure and the diplomatic pressure applied by President Trump. This is a winning combination.’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino issued a sharp and public condemnation of the bureau’s former director, James Comey, Saturday, accusing Comey of disgracing the agency as authorities investigate Comey’s controversial ’86 47′ Instagram post.

In a statement posted to X, Bongino said Comey’s actions are another example of failed leadership that continues to haunt the agency.

‘Former FBI Director James Comey brought shame to the FBI badge, yet again, this past week,’ Bongino wrote. ‘The Director and I spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up messes left behind by former Director Comey. And his latest actions are no exception.’

Comey, dismissed by President Donald Trump in 2017, sparked outrage after posting a photo to social media Thursday showing seashells arranged to say ’86 47,’ a phrase widely understood to mean to ‘get rid of’ the 47th president. Though Comey later deleted the post and claimed it was misunderstood, many, including Trump, say the meaning was clear.

‘He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,’ Trump said Friday on Fox News. ‘If you’re the FBI director, and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination,’ and it says it loud and clear.’

Comey offered a follow-up statement online, saying he ‘didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence’ and that it ‘never occurred to me.’

Bongino strongly rejected that explanation, describing it as part of a larger pattern of misconduct. In his post, Bongino wrote:

‘As the Deputy Director of the FBI, I am charged, standing with Director Patel, with managing the most powerful law enforcement agency in the world. The Director and I are also responsible for looking at grave mistakes made by people within the FBI in the past, and ensuring they never happen again.’

He stressed the FBI’s continuing commitment to supporting federal law enforcement partners investigating any threats involving public officials, past or present.

‘While the FBI does not have primary investigative responsibility for investigating threats against the POTUS, and we do not make prosecutorial decisions, we do have the ability and authority to support other federal agencies for violations of federal law,’ Bongino said. 

‘And we certainly have a responsibility to comment on matters involving former FBI officials, and allegations of law-breaking.’

The U.S. Secret Service has already interviewed Comey about the incident. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a separate statement that the bureau is ‘in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran.’

Bongino noted that this latest controversy is part of a general legacy of dysfunction inherited from Comey’s leadership, which he and Patel are working to fix from the inside out.

‘As I’ve stated in the past, I cannot post openly about all the things the Director and I are doing to reform the enterprise, but I assure you, they are happening,’ Bongino wrote. ‘Sadly, many of those agenda items are the result of former Director Comey’s poor decision-making and atrocious leadership.

‘And to those who doubt me, I assure you, when you see what the Director and I see from the inside, it’s even worse.’

Bongino said he chose to post his statement now because his scheduled interview with FOX Business anchor Maria Bartiromo, which will air Sunday on ‘Sunday Morning Futures,’ was recorded earlier in the week, before the Comey post was made public.

‘I’m addressing this now, rather than on our interview with Maria Bartiromo [Sunday], because we recorded that interview earlier in the week prior to the incident with Comey,’ he explained.

He closed with a message to the country that echoed his support for the law enforcement community and the reforms underway at the FBI.

‘God bless America, and all those who defend Her,’ he said.

Bongino, a former NYPD officer and longtime Secret Service agent, was appointed deputy director of the FBI earlier this year. 

His leadership under Director Kash Patel reflects a broader effort by the Trump administration to restore accountability and integrity to the FBI after years of what many see as politically motivated misconduct.

The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for further comment.

The White House on Saturday released a study estimating that 8.2 to 9.2 million more Americans could be without health insurance as a result of an ensuing recession if President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ on the budget does not pass. 

The finding comes from a White House Council of Economic Advisers memo titled, ‘Health Insurance Opportunity Cost if 2025 Proposed Budget Reconciliation Bill Does Not Pass.’ 

The research assumes that the U.S. had approximately 27 million uninsured people in 2025. If the budget bill does not pass, that could increase to approximately 36 million uninsured people, far closer to the approximately 50 million people who were uninsured before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, in 2010, according to the memo.

The memo says the estimate is ‘based on the assumption that states which expanded Medicaid with relatively generous eligibility will pull back to meet balanced budget requirements and try to provide more unemployment support during a severe recession.’ It also qualifies its conclusions by saying the analysis assumes ‘no policy countermeasures,’ which the White House describes as a ‘very unlikely but plausible worse case’ scenario. 

The White House projects that the expiration of the 2017 Trump tax cuts in 2026 and other shocks would trigger a ‘moderate to severe recession.’ The economic advisers report that a ‘major recession’ would result in reduced consumer spending as a result of higher individual taxes, lower small business investment and hiring as a result higher pass-through individual taxes, global confidence shock including concerns about U.S. competitiveness, and dollar deflation tightening credit and pushing real interest rates higher. 

According to the advisers’ ‘upper bound’ estimate of the impact of not extending the Trump tax cuts, U.S. GDP could contract by approximately 4% over two years – similar to the 2008 recession. Unemployment could increase by four percentage points, resulting in approximately 6.5 million job losses. Of those 6.5 million job losses, 60% had employer-sponsored insurance, so the White House projects approximately 3.9 million people would lose coverage and become uninsured as a result. 

The memo also anticipates a loss of individual and marketplace coverage, as those already without employer-sponsored insurance are no longer able to afford to purchase insurance themselves. The White House expects a 15% drop from approximately 22 million enrolled in 2026 to approximately 3.3 million losing coverage. 

Without the passage of the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ Medicaid and ACA subsidized plan enrollment could experience 10% enrollment frictions, resulting in approximately 500,000 to 1 million people losing or failing to gain coverage, the memo states. The expiration of the 2017 Trump tax cuts would disproportionately affect non-citizens, gig workers and early retirees, according to the White House. The advisers assess that individuals in those working classes without employer-sponsored insurance would no longer be able to afford coverage as a result of a recession, leading to 500,000 to 1 million insurance losses among ‘vulnerable segments.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is laboring to get the ‘One Big Beautiful Act’ through the House by a self-imposed Memorial Day deadline despite divisions among Republicans, who maintain control of the lower chamber by a razor-thin margin. 

The 1,116-page bill includes more than $5 trillion in tax cuts, costs that are partially offset by spending cuts elsewhere and other changes in the tax code, and would make permanent the tax cuts from Trump’s first term. 

It also realizes many of Trump‘s campaign promises, including temporarily ending taxes on overtime and tips for many workers, creating a new $10,000 tax break on auto loan interest for American-made cars, and even creating a new tax-free ‘MAGA account’ that would contribute $1,000 to children born in his second term.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.