I hear you and I think your view makes some sense.
But, what would you expect him to say if he was asked whether or not he raped a girl named Joan or molested a 6 year old boy? “I just don’t recall that”?
“Sir, there’s a report that you held up a liquor store when you were 17. Would you like to comment?”. “Well, I just can’t recall that, but if I did, I’m very sorry.”
There are times when you need to say, “No, that never happened.” That’s what you must say, if it never happened.
But, I do appreciate your point.
Yet the hair cutting incident is not far removed from what would have been standard fare for pranking and hazing in high school 50 years ago. I guarantee you every politician that age and older from a wealthy background, would have to say they don’t recall when asked a question like that. This includes both Dems and Pubs.
You would be sitting there thinking, Okay we duct taped, penny-locked, made a kid run around the dorm naked, I don’t remember if we forcibly cut somebody’s hair.