Listen: Biden struggles to remember date of son's death
Joe Biden's memory lapses have been caught on tape in a leaked recording.
Audio of the former president's interview with a prosecutor over his handling of classified documents has been released, fuelling questions about his mental decline in his final years in the White House.
In the recording, Mr Biden pauses for extended periods, meanders in his responses and struggles to recall key dates, including the year his son Beau died, and the year Donald Trump was elected president.
The audio from 2023 will add to speculation that those around the former president sought to cover up his cognitive decline while he was in office.
The interview, transcripts of which were released last year, became one of the most controversial parts of the investigation by Robert Hur, the special counsel. Mr Hur concluded there was not enough evidence to charge Mr Biden with mishandling state secrets after classified documents were found in his garage.
Others prompted president with answers
In one clip obtained by Axios, Mr Biden, 82, was asked where he kept papers on matters he was 'actively working' on after leaving office as vice president in 2017.
Mr Biden took a long pause before haltingly responding: 'I don't know, this is what, 2017, '18, that area?'
He added: 'Remember, in this time frame, my son was either deployed or is dying,' referring to his eldest son Beau, who died from cancer in 2015.
Mr Biden then went on to have further trouble remembering when his son died and needed confirmation from others in the room.
'What month did Beau die?' Mr Biden asked before pausing, then saying: 'Oh, God, May 30.' Two people finished his sentence by providing the year: '2015.'
'Was it 2015 he had died?' Mr Biden then asked.
Discussing Mr Trump, Mr Biden asked: 'And Trump gets elected in 2017?' to which someone in the room reminded him that his predecessor won election in 2016.
In a second clip, asked whether he knew he had kept hold of a memo related to Afghanistan, Mr Biden said: 'I guess I wanted to hang on to it just for posterity's sake.'
An aide then interjected to rephrase his answer, saying: 'He does not recall specifically intending to keep this memo after he left the vice- presidency.'
'Elderly man with a poor memory'
Following two days of interviews, Mr Hur released a report in February last year in which he called Mr Biden 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory', sparking outrage among Democrats.
Mr Biden and his allies fiercely disputed the prosecutor's characterisation as inaccurate and unfair, and pushed back on the suggestion the president didn't remember when his eldest son died.
'There's even a reference that I don't remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that? Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself it wasn't any of their damn business,' Mr Biden said last year. 'I don't need anyone to tell me when he passed away.'
The report was released amid widespread concerns about Mr Biden's mental fitness and his ability to run for re-election.
Months later, the president dropped out of the race after a disastrous presidential debate performance, leaving Kamala Harris just four months to mount her ultimately unsuccessful campaign.
Reports emerged in recent days that the Trump administration intended to release audio of the interview, with the president saying it was up to his attorney general to decide.
A Biden representative downplayed the significance of the recording's release on Saturday.
'The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago,' Kelly Scully told Politico. 'The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.'
An upcoming book has claimed that aides to Mr Biden had discussed the prospect of him needing a wheelchair if he were re-elected.
The book, Original Sin, is said to lift the lid on efforts to conceal his mental and physical decline by those around him in the run-up to the election.
According to the authors, the president at one stage forgot the name of actor George Clooney and was closely managed by his wife, Jill Biden, who allegedly shielded the president from criticism and finished his thoughts for him.
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