Newly Released Biden Audio Reveals Classified Material Discussions, Memory Lapses and Obama Tensions

After years of legal battles, roughly 70 hours of private audio recordings featuring Joe Biden have been released to the public. The tapes, recorded in 2016 and 2017 while Biden worked with ghostwriter Mark Lewis Zwonitzer on Promise Me, Dad, surfaced after the former president abandoned his final appeal to block their publication.

The recordings became central to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s 2024 investigation into Biden’s handling of classified records after leaving the vice presidency. Following a lawsuit brought by the conservative nonprofit Oversight Project, a federal appeals court ruled that the public interest outweighed Biden’s privacy claims, ultimately leading to the release of the tapes.

One of the recordings has drawn particular attention because Biden appears to acknowledge possessing classified material at his Delaware residence. During one conversation, he tells Zwonitzer: «I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,» before discussing a handwritten 40-page memorandum he wrote to Barack Obama in 2009 opposing a troop surge in Afghanistan.

Elsewhere in the recordings, Biden continues reviewing journals and personal notes while preparing his memoir. At one point he says, «They didn’t even know I had this,» before adding, «This is classified.» Portions of the audio discussing sensitive foreign policy issues remain audibly redacted, with beeps masking information authorities determined should remain protected.

The recordings also capture several moments in which Biden pauses, struggles to recall details or loses his train of thought. In one exchange he says, «Alright—what was I going to ask you? Something else… Uh… um. Oh gosh. I can’t think of anything else.» Those moments later became a major focus of Robert Hur’s final report.

Hur ultimately concluded that a jury would likely view Biden as «an elderly man with a poor memory» rather than someone who intentionally retained classified material. That assessment became a key factor in his decision not to recommend criminal charges, triggering widespread political debate after the report was released.

Beyond the classified material investigation, the recordings provide insight into Biden’s relationship with Barack Obama. Biden recalls disagreements over economic policy following the 2008 financial crisis, saying Obama would «get pissed» when he advocated taking a tougher approach toward Wall Street bankers.

Biden also suggests Obama’s inner circle became «subconsciously beholden to Silicon Valley,» arguing that the administration failed to sufficiently protect middle-class Americans. He further recalls Obama warning him that challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016 would be «an uphill battle.»

Throughout the legal proceedings, Biden’s attorneys argued the interviews were private conversations intended solely to help write his memoir. After the recordings were released, his legal team stated: «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. Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.»

Biden’s lawyers maintained that providing the recordings to the Department of Justice during the investigation should never have eliminated his expectation of privacy. However, the appeals court concluded that public access to the recordings outweighed those privacy interests, bringing the lengthy legal dispute to an end.

The release of the recordings has reopened debate surrounding Robert Hur’s investigation and allowed the public to hear firsthand the conversations that shaped many of its conclusions. Beyond questions about classified material, the tapes also offer an unusually candid look at Biden’s memory, his reflections on the Obama administration and his private thoughts during one of the most consequential periods of his political career.