Leaked audio emerges of Joe Biden’s damaging interview with special counsel Robert Hur

In one uncomfortable moment from the leaked audio, Mr Biden struggles to remember when his son died. In another memory lapse he has difficulty remembering when Donald Trump was elected.

Yesterday audio emerged from portions of interviews Mr Biden gave to federal prosecutors in 2023. The interview was conducted by ex-special counsel Mr Hur, who has gone on record to describe Mr Biden as having “diminished faculties.”

Audio from the 2023 interview between Biden and Hur had initially been blocked from publication, due to worries it would fuel questions about the then-President’s mental acuity.

The interview was a key part of an investigation into the president's handling of classified documents.

The transcript of the interview was released, but the Biden administration used their executive privilege to block the audio from being publicised.

However, excerpts of the audio have now been revealed by American digital news site Axios.

The audio adds a third dimension to the transcript, showing a frailty in Mr Biden that couldn’t be conveyed through text alone.

In the audio, Biden makes several long pauses, and fails to remember key dates in his life and career - such as the year of his son’s death, and the year Donald Trump was elected.

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It had been speculated that the Trump administration would leak the audio - but Trump had told reporters the audio was being handled by the Justice Department, not the White House.

A spokesperson for Biden has said: “The audio does nothing but confirm what was already public”, referring to transcripts of the audio that were published in 2024.

The interview initially put Hur between two warring parties when it was conducted in 2023.

Biden sat with Hur for two sessions, spanning five hours in total in October 2023.

Hur asked Biden where he had kept papers he was actively working on. Biden paused for a long time before responding “I don’t know”.

He then went on a few tangents, including talking about people who had encouraged him to run in 2016.

He then struggled to remember exactly when his son Beau died.

“What month did Beau die,” Biden asked before taking a pause. “Oh, God, May 30th…”Two people finished the then-president’s sentence: “2015.” “Was it 2015 he had died?” Biden questioned.

When Hur concluded he wouldn’t bring criminal damages against Biden, he commented that Biden was a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory”.

This angered both the Democrats and the Republicans. The Republicans, who were dealing with their own classified documents investigation with Trump at the time, wanted to see Biden prosecuted in his own investigation.

The Democrats meanwhile were fending off Republican efforts to portray Biden as mentally unfit for the Presidency. At the time, they said Hur’s comments were “politically motivated”, and insisted Biden was still “sharp”.

The audio has leaked just days before an explosive book about Biden’s mental acuity is set to hit the shelves: “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”.

The book, co-written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, is due for release May 20. Thompson from Axios was one of the journalists responsible for the audio leak.