The long-sought-after audio of Joe Biden‘s 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur has been released by Axios.
In the six-hour recording, extracts of which have been released to the public, Biden repeatedly struggles to recall key dates, slurs his speech, and fumbles through long, uncomfortable silences. At one point, he fails to remember when his son Beau died. In another, he needs help identifying the year Trump was elected. The ticking of a grandfather clock in the White House’s Map Room provides an eerie metronome to Biden’s stumbles.
“I don’t recall,” Biden says when questioned why he kept documents after his term as vice president. “Did I have this? Was this in my possession, this memo?”
The interview, part of Hur’s investigation into Biden’s improper retention of classified documents, had already provoked alarm for Hur’s claim that a jury would likely view the then-president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” While the transcript of the interview has been out for more than a year, now the public can judge that for themselves.
Despite Biden’s defenders insisting he was sharp and engaged, the audio released on Friday night paints a confronting picture. While Biden occasionally cracked jokes and rambled comically about Jay Leno and the Gutenberg printing press, he often veered off-topic and couldn’t clearly explain how classified files ended up in his home.
“Am I making any sense to you?” Biden asked at one point during the discussion.
Democrats, including then-Vice President Kamala Harris, had previously attacked Hur’s characterization of Biden’s age and mental state as “gratuitous” and politically motivated. However, the tape’s awkward pauses and meandering answers are already stirring anxiety in the party, especially with the upcoming release of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, a new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson.
“I’m a young man, so it’s not a problem,” Biden joked during the interview.
The White House had fought the release of the audio, citing concerns over precedent and partisan misuse. But Republicans and conservative groups like Judicial Watch have argued that the public deserves to hear it. Now they can.
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