Former US President Joe Biden new recording has revealed his conversation with a ghostwriter and memory issues.
According to CNN, the right-wing Oversight Project on Monday, July 27, released audio clips of Biden with his biographer, Mark Lewis Zwonitzer.
The tapes appears to support what former Special Counsel Robert Hur found in his 2024 report: Biden disclosed classified material, was forgetful and continued to possess classified material after leaving his post as vice president.
Classified stuff
In the audio tapes, Biden can be heard cavalierly discussing the notes he kept from his time as vice president as he showed them to Zwonitzer.
“They didn’t even know I had this,” Biden said while apparently showing the ghostwriter his old notes as reference points in their discussion of allegedly classified foreign policy matters during his VP days. The information is still redacted in the audio clips.
"I just found all the classified stuff downstairs," Biden is heard saying at one point in the audio, recorded in February 2017, a month after he left the White House.”
Biden tells the ghostwriter, "The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified."
In an October 2016 recording (the time he was serving as vice president to Barack Obama), he tells Zwonitzer, "I have extensive notes over this period of time… They [the White House] didn't know I have this."
Joe Biden memory struggles
The recordings include several moments where Biden struggles to recall dates and details, consistent with Hur’s description of him as an elderly man “with a poor memory.”
Hur ultimately declined to prosecute, citing Biden’s cooperation, the lack of evidence of intentional wrongdoing, and how his memory issues could influence a jury.
The Oversight Project said it fought "tooth and nail to bring these tapes to light,” adding, "These tapes we are releasing today should have come out a long time ago.”
It is worth noting that during Biden's tenure as president from 2021-25, the justice department declined to release the audio tapes.
However, in May, his personal lawyers sued the justice department in an effort to keep the tapes private, but after legal defeats they dropped their lawsuit.
