Biden tapes: A look inside the audio recordings and transcripts of Biden interview with ghostwriter

Former President Joe Biden revealed classified information to his ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017 as the pair worked on his memoir following his tenure as vice president, newly released audio recordings and interview transcripts confirmed Monday.The Oversight Project released over 100 pages of transcripts from Biden’s interviews, ending a two-year legal fight to obtain the information from former Special Counsel Robert Hur. The former president dropped his legal opposition to the files and recordings last week, after a federal court ruled that the public interest outweighed Biden’s right to privacy.
The Oversight Project published two hours of recordings from Biden’s 2016 and 2017 conversations with Mark Zwonitzer, who ghostwrote the former president’s memoir, “Promise Me, Dad.” 
Inside the transcript:
The 117-page transcript was covered in redactions, signifying classified information, some of which the former president admitted that he knew was classified. 
Some of the classified information related to meetings that Biden had with members of former President Barack Obama’s National Security Council, many of whom would later join his own administration, including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Information about those meetings were blacked out by the Department of Defense.
Biden also admitted in the interview that he wrote a 40-page handwritten memorandum for Obama that argued against deploying troops to Afghanistan in 2009, because deploying the troops “wouldn’t matter.” 
“The day we left would be like the day before we arrived,” Biden told Zwonitzer.
Pages of one of the interviews were also blacked out that was between Zwonitzer and an “unidentified male speaker,” and other portions were blacked out because of the National Security Act. Other information was blacked out by the CIA.
Audio recordings:
The Oversight Project released hours of audio recordings, which were filled with breaks that highlighted the sharing of classified information. Biden also acknowledged that he had documents still in his possession that the White House had not been aware of.
The audio recordings also highlighted the former president’s memory lapses, where he failed to recall the names of some of his associates and got days confused, showing that Biden’s memory issues were prevalent before he even became president.
One example occurred in April 2017, where Biden could not remember the name of one of his economic advisors, Alan Krueger.
“I’ll think of his name,” Biden said. “I should write the names down because I keep forgetting them.”
Oversight Project: 
The Oversight Project highlighted that the extent of Biden’s sharing of classified information was far greater than Hur previously indicated, and that multiple times in the tapes and transcripts, Biden references the information he is reviewing is likely classified, which is followed by audio redactions.
“The listener shouldn’t overlook the audio redactions because those redactions are intended to cover the disclosure of classified information,” the Oversight Project wrote in a news release. “The silence of the redactions loudly demonstrates that Biden knowingly and willfully disclosed classified information to his ghostwriter.”
The Project also highlighted that the pauses the former president took in the interview and the confusion demonstrated in the transcripts showed that Biden’s mental decline was already taking place in 2017, before he became president.
“The tapes have always belonged to the American People, the Oversight Project just delivered them to their rightful owner,” Oversight Project President Mike Howell said in a statement. “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. 
“These tapes have so many pauses and ‘ums’ that it sounds like Biden is buffering like a dial-up Internet connection. The knowledge of his deterioration was well-established,” he continued. “We can never have a presidential administration run by machinized fiat again. Only one person can be president at a time, and ideally that person should actually win a credible election.”
Robert Hur investigation: 
Former Special Counsel Robert Hur conducted an investigation into Biden’s sharing of classified information with Zwonitzer, in which he concluded that the former president did violate the law by sharing classified information, but did not recommend criminal charges because he believed that a jury would not convict him.
Audio recordings of the 2023 interview with Hur also revealed Biden’s memory lapses, emphasizing his inability to remember key details and dates, including the year he left office as vice president. The recording also showed Biden occasionally slurring his words and muttering, and long pauses in the former president’s speech that are not revealed in a transcript of the interview. 
The Biden administration and other Democrats slammed the report at the time, claiming it was “politically motivated,” even though it did not recommend criminal charges.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage. 

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