Newly released audio recordings are putting Joe Biden’s classified documents scandal back under the microscope — and this time, the tapes are raising fresh questions about both his memory and what he may have known about the sensitive materials in his possession.
The recordings, turned over Monday to the House Judiciary Committee and the conservative Oversight Project after a two-year court fight, capture Biden speaking with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer while working on his 2017 memoir, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.”
The conversations reportedly took place roughly four years before Biden entered the White House. But according to critics, the tapes reveal a former vice president who was already struggling to stay focused, frequently pausing, losing his train of thought and stumbling through key details.
In one audio clip, Biden appears to forget what he was about to say.
“Alright — what was I going to ask you? Something else… Uh… um. Oh gosh. I can’t think of anything else,” he says.
In another moment, Biden asks Zwonitzer to “hang on a second” while he appears to look through his notes. Moments later, he admits, “Um … it’s confusing me.”
Oversight Project President Mike Howell seized on the recordings, saying they confirm what conservatives have long argued about Biden’s condition and the way his public life was managed.
“We now know what has been long assumed: the autopen scandal extends far back beyond just when Joe Biden ‘ran’ for president from his basement,” Howell said in a statement.
“These tapes have so many pauses and ‘ums’ that it sounds like Biden is buffering like a dial-up Internet connection,” he added.
But the most explosive portions of the tapes may involve Biden’s own references to classified material.
The recordings were previously examined by former special counsel Robert Hur during his 2023 and 2024 investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents after leaving the vice presidency in 2017.
Hur’s report concluded that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” but he declined to bring charges, in part because he believed Biden would likely appear to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Now, the newly released tapes are giving the public a closer look at the material Hur reviewed.
In one clip cited by the Oversight Project, Biden appears to tell Zwonitzer that he had discovered classified materials in his home.
“So this was, I early on, um, in ’09 I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden is heard saying in one snippet from the roughly 70 hours of audio.
At another point, Biden warns his ghostwriter to be careful with the material.
“Some of this may be classified so be careful with it,” Biden says. “I’m not sure … It’s not marked classified but —”
In another recording, Biden appears to identify potentially sensitive material while going through papers near Zwonitzer.
“The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified …” he says.
According to Hur’s report, Biden read “nearly verbatim” from notebooks that included sensitive national security and foreign policy information during his interviews with Zwonitzer.
CBS News, which first reviewed portions of the tapes, reported that Biden also described potentially classified White House meetings, including “a big meeting with the CIA and everyone,” “a big meeting down in the Situation Room,” and “a long meeting where DOD brief … POTUS.”
In a recording from Oct. 10, 2016, Biden also reportedly boasted that he had kept extensive notes without others knowing.
“I have extensive notes over this period of time… They didn’t know I have this,” Biden said, according to the outlet.
The Oversight Project argued that the recordings suggest Biden’s disclosure of classified information was more serious than previously understood.
“At several points in the tapes, Biden references the information he is reviewing is likely classified, which is followed by significant audio redactions for classified information,” the group said. “This was not just once or twice, these classified redactions cover significant portions of the audio files released.”
“The listener shouldn’t overlook the audio redactions because those redactions are intended to cover the disclosure of classified information,” the group added.
Oversight Project Vice President Jeff Clark accused Biden of revealing sensitive information to someone who was not authorized to receive it.
Biden “clearly gives away secret after secret to someone not authorized to hold such secrets,” Clark said.
“And he did it all for personal and family profit to the tune of $8 million!” he added, referring to Biden’s book deal.
Clark also argued that the public deserves answers after Biden’s attorneys fought to keep the tapes and transcripts from being released.
“Americans want to see accountability. Now you know why Biden’s lawyers fought so hard to keep these tapes and transcripts out of the public’s watchful eye!” he said.
The release of the recordings comes after years of Republican outrage over what they view as a glaring double standard in the handling of classified documents cases involving Biden and President Donald Trump.
While Trump faced aggressive legal scrutiny over documents kept at Mar-a-Lago, Biden avoided criminal charges despite Hur’s finding that he willfully retained and disclosed classified materials.
For Biden’s critics, the tapes only deepen the controversy.
They argue the audio paints a damaging picture of a man who appeared confused, repeatedly acknowledged the possibility that he was handling classified information and still discussed sensitive matters with a private ghostwriter while working on a book.
A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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How on earth did this lump of coal ever get elected into the Oval Office!