Audio recordings of Joe Biden have been released after a lengthy court battle, offering a rare glimpse behind the curtain.
Audio recordings of Joe Biden’s interviews with his ghostwriter have been released after a lengthy court battle, offering a rare glimpse into the conversations that drove a politically explosive investigation into the former president.
The recordings were released on Monday by the conservative Oversight Project after it successfully sued the Justice Department.
They appear broadly consistent with former special counsel Robert Hur’s 2024 findings, which asserted that Biden retained classified material after leaving the vice presidency and struggled at times to recall dates and key details.
The also show a snippet of the former US President’s opinions on Barack Obama, who he served under as vice.
Biden had fought to keep the recordings private before abandoning his legal challenge on Monday.
The tapes capture Biden casually discussing notes from his years as vice president while showing them to biographer Mark Lewis Zwonitzer.
“They didn’t even know I had this,” Biden says while apparently referring to handwritten notes he kept from his time in office. Portions of the discussion remain redacted because they relate to allegedly classified foreign policy matters.
In another exchange, Biden could be heard discussing the deployment of US troops to Afghanistan.
“So this was – I, early on, in ‘09 – I just found all of the classified stuff downstairs. I wrote the President a handwritten 40-page memorandum arguing against deploying additional troops to Iraq – I mean, to Afghanistan on the grounds that it wouldn’t matter, that the day we left would be like the day before we arrived,” he said.
At another point, Biden abruptly stops himself.
“And then — and then the next thing I have here is — this is classified,” he said.
The interviews also reveal moments where Biden struggles to remember dates and details, echoing Hur’s description of the then-president as an elderly man “with a poor memory.”
Hur ultimately declined to prosecute Biden, concluding there was insufficient evidence he had intentionally broken the law. The report also mentioned his cooperation with investigators, while arguing a jury would likely view him as a well-meaning elderly man whose memory lapses would make a conviction difficult.
The release of the recordings follows a months-long legal fight from the right-wing group.
“Since March 2024, the Oversight Project and the Heritage Foundation fought tooth and nail to bring these tapes to light,” the group said in a statement.
“Together, we defeated both the Biden-led Justice Department and his high-price private attorneys. These tapes we are releasing today should have come out a long time ago.”
A spokesperson for Biden last week defended the confidentiality of the interviews.
“President Biden’s conversations for a book a decade ago that discussed his late son are private, and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way,” spokesman TJ Ducklo said.
“Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”
Obama would ‘really get pissed’ at Biden
Beyond the classified documents discussion, the recordings offer an unusually candid account of Biden’s private views on Barack Obama, the 2008 financial crisis and his own political future.
Biden says Obama would “really get pissed” at him during arguments over how aggressively the administration should respond to the financial crisis.
“I was a really lonely voice on housing, I was a lonely voice on the middle class. I mean, I thought we should be much more aggressive than putting these guys in jail and the bankers,” he says.
“I mean, he used to really get pissed at me.”
He also argued the administration had been “subconsciously” influenced by Silicon Valley.
“I think the reason why we didn’t do more, by the way, is because I think that — this is a harsh thing to say — But I think subconsciously, at least, Barack and his guys were beholden to Silicon Valley.
“And the valley guys didn’t want the shit that I — you know, I wanted.”
Biden also recalled Obama backing away from appointing economist Larry Summers to the Federal Reserve because Summers had become “a liability.”
“He was, you know, Harvard and women,” Biden said.
Reflecting on the economic recovery, Biden acknowledged one issue he failed to anticipate.
“I wasn’t focused on robots and artificial intelligence and, and digitalization and Moore’s law. I mean, it was all about — and I really believed that, and I still believe it, that we could bring back the manufacturing in America.”
The recordings also revisit Biden’s decision not to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
He recalled Obama telling him the decision was ultimately his own, but warning it would be “really be an uphill battle.”
“The fact is that he didn’t think it was doable at that time, that I could, that I could actually go out and get the nomination,” Biden said.
“That was my read at the time.”
Biden had also discussed advice from aides weighing a potential presidential run.
“Consensus is that it’s no longer a question about is the race doable, it is, the question was when would I need to show my hand to be plausible,” he said.
One adviser argued he had “the ability to be a unifier, a reassuring skill,” while “Hillary is divisive and Bernie is too angry.”
The recordings even touch on one of Biden’s enduring political liabilities.
Reading from his notes, he says: “Gaffe issue, is like a virus. It’s dormant, when you make a mistake again they’ll bring it up.”
Moments later, he pauses before saying: “I can’t read my own writing.”
