On Friday, Axios published the audio of an interview between then-President Joe Biden and former special counsel Robert Hur regarding Biden's handling of classified documents. This interview has emerged as a pivotal and politically charged element of Hur's investigation, which concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge Biden with criminal mishandling of records following his vice presidency.
In his final report, Hur described Biden, who was 81 at the time, as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” While the transcripts of Biden’s interview with Hur were made public last year, the release of these audio excerpts marks the first time the actual recordings have surfaced. An official from the Department of Justice confirmed the authenticity of the tapes to CNN.
In response to the audio release, Biden spokeswoman Kelly Scully stated, “The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.” This release comes at a time when questions regarding Biden’s physical and mental capabilities have resurfaced in public discourse.
Biden participated in interviews with Hur for five hours over two days in the fall of 2023, as part of the investigation into his handling of classified materials. One nearly four-and-a-half-minute clip released by Axios features Biden being asked about the location of documents related to matters he was “actively working” on after his vice presidency ended in 2017. Biden hesitated and responded, “I don’t know,” before diverging into unrelated anecdotal memories, including mentions of encouragement he received to run for president in 2016.
Additionally, Biden struggled to recall the date of his eldest son Beau Biden’s death, asking the room, “What month did Beau die?” and then taking a moment before confirming, “Oh, God, May 30th…” He needed assistance to complete the year, asking, “Was it 2015 he had died?”
In another segment, when asked about a memo related to Afghanistan, Biden initially expressed uncertainty, stating, “I don’t know that I knew.” However, when pressed, he remarked, “I guess I wanted to hang onto it just for posterity’s sake.” Following this, a member of Biden’s team intervened to clarify the president’s response, emphasizing that Biden did not specifically intend to keep the memo after his vice presidency.
Despite Hur's decision in February of the previous year not to press charges against Biden, the report indicated that the former president “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.” The most politically sensitive part of Hur’s findings was the characterization of Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” a portrayal that Biden and his supporters rejected as inaccurate and unjust.
Following the audio release, House Republicans sought records related to the interview, including transcripts and recordings, as part of their extended impeachment investigation into Biden, which ultimately lost momentum. Although the Justice Department provided Congress with the interview transcript, Biden asserted executive privilege over the audio recordings, leading to a vote by House Republicans to hold then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for not releasing the recordings, a move the DOJ did not pursue.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump commented on the situation, stating that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her team would decide whether to release the audio. He suggested, “Everybody understands the condition of him,” implying that Biden's age and mental acuity were concerning. Top Democrats, particularly those eyeing the 2028 election, are now facing scrutiny related to the revelations in an upcoming book titled “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson from Axios.
Biden's team has countered the claims made in the book, emphasizing that there is no evidence of Biden's cognitive decline impacting his presidential decision-making. A spokesperson for Biden stated, “We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite – he was a very effective president.”
In a recent interview on ABC’s “The View,” Biden, now 82 years old, defended his record in office, refuting claims of significant cognitive decline. “They are wrong,” Biden stated. “There is nothing to sustain that.” This evolving narrative highlights the ongoing political dialogue surrounding Biden's presidency and the implications of his interview with Robert Hur.
