Biden struggles with words, key memories in leaked audio from Special Counsel Hur interview

The audio was leaked after more than a year of congressional lawmakers demanding its release amid questions about the former president's memory lapses and mental acuity.

The audio, obtained by Axios, contains clips from several interviews between the former president and Hur related to an investigation into his handling of classified documents when he was vice president.

When asked by Hur about where he kept papers he was actively working on around 2017 and 2018, Biden said that Beau Biden was either "deployed or is dying" at that time. Beau died in 2015. At one point, Biden said to himself "When did Beau die?" and a lawyer answered that it was 2015. 

"Why do I have 2017 here?" he said, referencing his notes, and a lawyer tells him, "That's when you left office."

Later, when asked about a classified document on Afghanistan found at his lake house, Biden said at first he wasn't sure how the document got there, but then admitted, "I guess I wanted to hang on to it for posterity's sake." 

The interview was also filled with long pauses with Biden sometimes going off on tangents and slurring his words. 

The committee argued at the time that the audio recordings - not merely the transcripts of them - are "the best available evidence of how President Biden presented himself during the interview." 

Biden had exerted executive privilege over the audio recordings. 

Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other countries, among other records related to national security and foreign policy, which Hur said implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods."

Hur noted in his report that Biden struggled to remember details about when his son Beau died, which drew sharp backlash from Biden. 

"The date is 4-20-09," Biden said. "Was I still vice president? I was, wasn't I? Yeah."

Back when Hur's report was released, Biden reacted to him being classified as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Biden responded by saying, "I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing. I've been president. I put this country back on its feet. I don't need his recommendation."