Exclusive: Audio reveals Biden confusing date of son Beau's death
Audio obtained by Axios of former President Biden's October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur shows Biden struggling to find the right words and dates when recounting the time of his son Beau's death in 2015.
At one point he asks, "Was it 2015 he had died?"
Why it matters: After Hur's report came out in early 2024, Biden was livid at the suggestion that he had forgotten when his son died: "How in the hell dare he raise that?"
In fact, the audio and transcript show that Biden brought up Beau on his own.
The exchange became a centerpiece in Hur's 2024 report that concluded a jury likely wouldn't convict Biden of mishandling classified documents because it probably would view him as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said in a statement: "The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public."
Read the full transcript of the exchange:
Robert Hur: So during this time when you were living at Chain Bridge Road and there were documents relating to the Penn Biden Center, or the Biden Institute, or the Cancer Moonshot, or your book, where did you keep papers that related to those things that you were actively working on?
President Biden: Well, um … I, I, I, I, I don't know. This is, what, 2017, 2018, that area?
Hur: Yes, sir.
Biden: Remember, in this timeframe, my son is either been deployed or is dying, and, and so it was and by the way, there were still a lot of people at the time when I got out of the Senate that were encouraging me to run in this period, except the president. I'm not — and not a mean thing to say. He just thought that she [Hillary Clinton] had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did. And so I hadn't, I hadn't, at this point — even though I'm at Penn, I hadn't walked away from the idea that I may run for office again. But if I ran again, I'd be running for president. And, and so what was happening, though — what month did Beau die? Oh, God, May 30th.
Rachel Cotton (Biden White House counsel): 2015.
Unidentified male speaker: 2015.
Biden: Was it 2015 he had died?
Unidentified male spaker: It was May of 2015.
Biden: It was 2015.
Bob Bauer (Biden's personal attorney): Or I'm not sure the month, sir, but I think that was the year.
Marc Krickbaum (deputy special counsel): That ' s right, Mr. President. I …
Biden: And what's happened in the meantime is that as — and Trump gets elected in November of 2017?
Unidentified male speaker: 2016.
Unidentified male speaker: '16.
Biden: '16, 2016. Alright, so — why do I have 2017 here?
Ed Siskel (Biden White House counsel): That's when you left office, January of 2017.
Biden: Yeah, OK. But that's when Trump gets sworn in then, January.
Siskel: Right.
Bauer: Right, correct.
Biden: OK, yeah. And in 2017, Beau had passed and — this is personal — the genesis of the book and the title "Promise Me, Dad," was a — I know you're all … close with your sons and daughters, but Beau was like my right arm and Hunt was my left. These guys were a year and a day apart and they could finish each other's sentences, and Beau I used to go home on the train, and in the period that I was still in the Senate — anyway.
There was pressure — not pressure. Beau knew how much I adored him, and I know this sounds — maybe this sounds so everybody knew how close we were. There was not anybody in the world who wondered whether or not — anyway. And so…
Hur: Sir, I'm wondering if this is a good time to take a break briefly. Would that be ….
Biden: No, I — let me just keep going to get it done.
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