The Justice Department has released audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, giving the public its first chance to hear for themselves the exchanges that prompted questions about the president’s memory. While the transcripts of the interview have been available for more than a year, the newly released audio puts tone, pauses, and hesitations on display in a way that words on a page could not.
In the tapes, Biden can be heard pausing for long stretches, stumbling mid-sentence, and struggling to recall dates. At one point he confused the year his son Beau died, saying 2017 instead of 2015, and later misstated the year Donald Trump was elected. On several occasions, aides stepped in to supply details or help him finish a thought. The effect is more striking in sound than in print—listeners can hear the mumbling, whispering, and halting delivery firsthand.
Hur’s report, issued in February 2024, concluded that Biden was “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” That characterization helped explain why no charges were filed over classified documents found in Biden’s home and office. Hur argued that convincing a jury Biden had acted with criminal intent would be difficult given his apparent lapses.
The release of the tapes comes after months of Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits from media organizations seeking access. The Justice Depart- ment ultimately made the recordings public in May 2025. Supporters of the decision describe it as an important act of transparency, while critics point to the timing—just as another election cycle ramps up—as evidence that the move was driven more by politics than accountability.
Reaction has been swift. Republican lawmakers immediately cited the audio as proof of Biden’s decline and pressed for hearings on his fitness for office. Democrats countered that the recordings offer nothing new, arguing that the lapses were already documented in the transcripts and reflected in Hur’s final report. Political observers note that the audio adds emotion to the story but does not change the facts already on record.
The legal landscape remains unchanged. No charges were filed against Biden in 2024, and the release of the tapes does not alter that decision. Still, the recordings have reignited debate over age and leadership in American politics, themes that are expected to dominate the coming campaign season.
For voters, the question is not whether the tapes prove something new, but whether they matter enough to shape opinions already formed. The audio makes Biden’s struggles more vivid, but it leaves the outcome the same: a case closed in court, and an open discussion in the public square.
