Snippets from a 2023 interview that led Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur to describe former President Joe Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” were obtained and published by Axios Friday, showing Biden’s halting tone of voice and difficulty remembering dates.
CBS News has confirmed the audio matches the transcript of the interview released by the Biden White House in 2024.
In one four-minute clip, Biden was asked by Hur’s team — which was investigating Biden’s handling of classified records — about where he kept his documents shortly after leaving office as vice president. Biden’s response is marked by long pauses, and his voice appears hoarse at times. His speech is especially halting as he describes the period around his son Beau’s death.
In the audio obtained by news outlet Axios, Biden can also be heard struggling to remember the year when Beau died or the year when President Trump was first elected. Members of his staff can be heard correcting him or reminding him of the date.
A written transcript of the five-hour interview was released last year, but portions of the audio released Friday provide context on Biden’s demeanor and memory problems at certain points in the session.
In response to the audio, Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully told CBS News in a statement, “The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.”
Biden’s verbal delivery was a key part of Hur’s report. The special counsel wrote in February 2024 that Biden sounded like a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur said it’s a view jurors may share, making it hard to convict Biden of knowingly holding sensitive documents at his home and office. Hur’s report noted “significant limitations” to Biden’s memory, including his difficulty remembering when his son died.
Hur recommended against charging Biden with a crime, though he did conclude that Biden “willfully” retained government documents.
At the time, Biden and his allies reacted furiously to Hur’s report — especially the “elderly man with a poor memory” line and the comment about Beau Biden’s death.
“There’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that? Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business,” Biden said last year. “I don’t need anyone to tell me when he passed away.”
Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer called the report a “shabby piece of work” filled with “totally inappropriate and pejorative comments.” The Biden White House counsel’s office asked Hur’s team to revise the report, calling its references to Biden’s memory “inflammatory.”
The report was released as concerns swirled about then-80-year-old Biden’s age and fitness to run for another term, though at the time, Democratic officials publicly backed Biden and slammed Hur. Republicans, meanwhile, cited the report as evidence of Biden’s fading cognitive abilities and pushed for audio of the interview to be released.
But months later, Biden’s rocky June debate against Mr. Trump — in which he repeatedly struggled to complete his sentences — reignited worries about his age, leading to Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race amid pressure from his party.
Biden’s decisions during that period have drawn new scrutiny in recent weeks, as books that offer glimpses inside his campaign hit the shelves. Some of the books describe Biden’s struggles with age, his aides’ maneuvers to keep him in the race and the abrupt shift from Biden to eventual nominee Kamala Harris weeks after the Trump-Biden debate.
Biden has strongly denied any lapses in his cognitive ability, telling “The View” last week, “there’s nothing to sustain that.”
Joe Walsh is a senior editor for digital politics at CBS News. Joe previously covered breaking news for Forbes and local news in Boston.
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