New Joe Biden audio recordings reveal disagreements with Obama and memory lapses

Newly released audio recordings of former US President Joe Biden discussing material with his biographer have renewed attention on the 2024 report by former Special Counsel Robert Hur.

The recordings, released by the Oversight Project, include conversations between Biden and biographer Mark Lewis Zwonitzer.

According to the group, the audio was made public after it won a legal battle against the US Department of Justice.

In one recording, Biden says: "They didn’t even know I had this," while referring to notes from his time as vice president.

In another clip, he says: "So this was – I, early on, in ’09 – I just found all of the classified stuff downstairs."

The recordings also include moments where Biden appears to struggle with dates and information, reflecting findings in Hur's report, which described him as an elderly man "with a poor memory."

Hur declined to bring criminal charges, concluding there was insufficient evidence that Biden had intentionally broken the law.

Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo criticised the release, saying: "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."

The recordings also include Biden discussing policy disagreements with former President Barack Obama and his decision on whether to run for president in 2016.