Leaked audio reveals extent of Biden's memory struggle

Audio of the then US president Joe Biden's 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur concerning the improper possession of classified documents has been released more than a year after his administration released transcripts.

- OLIVER O'CONNELL IN NEW YORK

The recordings, published by Axios, reveal the extent to which the 46th president, then 80, struggled to remember key details and dates, was prompted by his lawyers, and spoke in a halting, whispering voice, punctuated by long silences.

They shed light on why the White House refused to release the audio while Mr Biden was still in office amid questions regarding his mental acuity, and also perhaps why Mr Hur’s conclusion was that jurors in any trial that might arise over his possession of the documents would have viewed him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

At the time, the White House hit back at this assessment of the president, insisting he was “sharp” and that any attacks on Mr Biden were politically motivated – yet the special counsel comes across as respectful, and the tone of the interview is friendly and mostly appears relaxed.

The release of the audio comes as the Trump administration was reportedly weighing up releasing the recordings. It also comes ahead of the publication of a new book about a White House and presidential campaign hiding the decline of the president as he ran for another term in office. Ori nal Sin, by Axios’s Alex Thompson and CNN’s Jake Tapper, will be released on Tuesday.

During the two three-hour sessions with Mr Hur and his cocounsel Marc Kricknaum, Mr Biden’s attorneys had to remind him of the year his son Beau died and the year that Donald Trump was elected president for the first time – 2015 and 2016, respectively.