Media365
An audio of former US President Joe Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur revealed several long, awkward pauses as the former US President struggled to recall key facts, such as when his son died, when he left the vice presidency, the year Donald Trump was elected or why he had retained classified documents.
The tapes are the first such recordings from the closed investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials after his vice presidency.
Although transcripts of the discussions had already been released last year, the newly surfaced audio has added a layer of immediacy to an investigation that has stirred political controversy. The Department of Justice confirmed the authenticity of the tapes to CNN.
Mr Biden had been interviewed for over five hours across two days in 2023, as part of Mr Hur’s probe into whether the then-president mishandled sensitive government documents.
Ultimately, the special counsel concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges, but Mr Hur’s final report drew widespread attention for its personal assessment of Joe Biden. He described Mr Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” according to the Axios report.
CNN quoted Kelly Scully, a Joe Biden spokesperson, as saying that the recordings “confirm what is already public”, and added that the transcripts had been released by the then-Joe Biden administration over a year ago.
In one of the audio clips released by Axios, Mr Biden is asked about where he stored documents related to issues he was actively working on after leaving office in 2017. His response included a noticeable pause followed by a meandering recollection, including unrelated memories such as political encouragement he received to run for president in 2016.
The excerpt also captured a moment where the former US President struggled to recall when his son Beau Biden, died. “What month did Beau die?” Joe Biden asked aloud, before pausing and saying, “Oh, God, May 30…” Two people in the room added, “2015.”
“Was it 2015 he had died?” Mr Biden asked.
In another recording, Joe Biden is asked about a memo concerning Afghanistan. At first, he said, “I don’t know that I knew,” but added after a follow-up, “I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity’s sake.”
In February 2024, Robert Hur chose not to charge Joe Biden but stated he had “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.”
Meanwhile, Joe Biden and his allies had strongly rejected this characterisation, especially the reference to his failure to recall when his son Beau died.
Last week on ABC’s “The View,” the 82-year-old defended his performance in office, rejecting claims of serious cognitive decline. “They are wrong,” he stated, according to CNN. “There is nothing to sustain that.”
