Audio recordings from Special Counsel Robert Hur's investigation into former President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents have been released, showing the then-former vice president struggling to recall basic names and dates during interviews with his memoir ghostwriter.
The tapes, obtained by the Oversight Project through public records requests after a prolonged legal battle in which Biden sought to keep them private, reveal what Republicans are calling validation of Hur's characterization that Biden was an "elderly man with a poor memory."
What the Left Is Saying
Democrats who defended Hur's report in 2024 say the audio release does not change their core argument that the special counsel's commentary on Biden's mental fitness was inappropriate for a prosecutorial document.
"What everyone will soon realize is that this is a Republican special counsel who completely went out of his way to editorialize, to include material in his report that is unnecessary and irrelevant to what he was tasked with doing," said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., speaking to ABC News when the initial report was released.
Then-Vice President Kamala Harris defended Biden at the time, saying the report's characterization of his demeanor "could not be more wrong on the facts." She called it "clearly politically motivated, gratuitous."
"I think this issue of age is already out there, and when November comes, it's going to be a choice between two people," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., speaking to POLITICO. He noted that no one who met with Biden in leadership meetings walked away questioning his cognitive state.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., who traveled with Biden, insisted he was "at the very top of his game, all the way through it, both in private and in person."
"That is not the role of the Department of Justice... to talk about your memory today — irrelevant, it is gratuitous," said Andrew Weissman, a former FBI general counsel, speaking on MSNBC.
What the Right Is Saying
Republicans say the audio tapes confirm what they argued from the start: that Biden's age and cognitive abilities were a legitimate concern during his time in office.
Hur's 2023 investigation centered on classified documents found at Biden's home and former office. The report concluded that while Biden did retain classified material, prosecution might not result in conviction because a jury could view him as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
"Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017 and in his interview with our office in 2023," Hur wrote.
Conservative commentators have pointed to specific instances on the tapes where Biden struggles to recall basic information. In one exchange from April 24, 2017, Biden told his "Promise Me, Dad" memoir ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer that he should write down names because he kept forgetting them. After a long pause, Zwonitzer prompted with Alan Krueger's name.
In another instance, Biden appeared confused about the date and identity of a service member memorialized in a document: "I think I went to that memorial service in Wilmington... Memorial service — [REDACTED] gets names really f---ed up," he said. He also questioned whether her name was correct or if he had forgotten it.
What the Numbers Show
Hur's investigation resulted in no criminal charges against Biden, making him the first special counsel in history not to indict anyone in a case they were appointed to investigate.
The audio recordings span interviews from 2016 and 2017 with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer conducted while Biden was a private citizen after serving as vice president under Barack Obama.
Hur's report noted that classified materials found in Biden's possession included documents from his time as vice president and senator, spanning national security information about Afghanistan and internal White House deliberations.
The legal battle over the tapes' release lasted more than two years before a court ruled they could be made public through the Oversight Project's records request.
The Bottom Line
The audio release has renewed debate over whether Democrats who defended Biden in 2024 were aware of the recordings' contents. White House officials at the time called Hur's report "gratuitous" and politically motivated, arguments now complicated by direct evidence of memory lapses on tape.
Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July 2024, with then-Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him as the Democratic nominee without a primary election to select his replacement. Both Biden and Harris defended his cognitive fitness during that period.
The tapes' release may fuel Republican arguments about transparency and accountability in federal investigations while raising questions about what information was available to those who defended Biden's mental acuity.