Biden Recordings Show Memory Lapses, Candid Obama Criticism

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Or sign-in if you have an account.Former President Joe Biden, left, and former First Lady Jill Biden during the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on June 18, 2026. Photo by Mustafa Hussain /Photographer: Mustafa Hussain/Bl(Bloomberg) — Recordings of former President Joe Biden speaking with his ghostwriter reveal occasional memory gaps amid detailed discussions of foreign policy — and some candid criticism of two-time running mate Barack Obama over his ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Account“Between you and me,” Biden told ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in April 2017, Obama “always got to the right spot, but a day late and a dollar short.” Biden, speaking in the context of Obama’s reluctance to impose sanctions on China, added a qualifier: “Maybe if I were president I would’ve not had the nerve to do it, too.”The recordings, released Monday by a Heritage Foundation advocacy group following a two-year court battle, capture Biden in six sessions between October 2016 and April 2017, as he was finishing his tenure as vice president and beginning work on his memoir. The transcripts run 117 pages and are heavily redacted.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againFor the most part, Biden speaks with precision and detail — recalling specific phone calls with foreign leaders years earlier, the mechanics of Ukrainian energy subsidies, and the internal politics of the Obama White House. But in at least two moments, he loses his train of thought mid-conversation.“What was I going to ask you?” Biden says in one session. “Oh, gosh. I, I can’t think of what it is.” In an earlier session, he pauses while recounting a meeting and says, “What was I talking about there?”Such moments would later lead Robert Hur, the special counsel investigating Biden’s handling of classified information, to cite “diminished faculties and faulty memory” in his decision not to prosecute.“Mr. Biden’s recorded conversations with Zwonitzer from 2017 are often painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries,” Hur wrote in his final report. In one exchange, Biden warned Zwonitzer that some material he was about to share “may be classified” and that it was “not marked classified” before continuing to discuss it. Some parts of the transcripts were redacted for national security reasons. “Biden clearly gives away secret after secret to someone not authorized to hold such secrets,” said Jeff Clark, a former Trump administration official whose lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act led to the release of the tapes. “Now you know why Biden’s lawyers fought so hard to keep these tapes and transcripts out of the public’s watchful eye!”In a statement, Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said the conversations “are private, and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way. Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”The recordings also show Biden offering unusually blunt assessments of President Obama’s leadership, particularly on economic policy. Biden argued the administration had been too deferential to Wall Street and too cautious about confronting China over intellectual property theft. This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.He repeatedly called himself a “lonely voice” on issues of housing and the middle class.“I mean, I thought we should be much more aggressive than putting these guys in jail and the bankers,” he said. “I mean, for real. It wasn’t idle, I mean he used to really get pissed at me.”“Barack used to get pissed at you?” Zwonitzer asked.“Oh, yeah, really pissed,” Biden said. Biden tried to buttress his argument by citing his economic advisers — but then forgot their names.“I should write the names down because I keep forgetting them,” he said.“Is it Alan Krueger?” Zwonitzer asked, referring to an economist who served as chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. “Alan Krueger. Great guy by the way,” Biden said.Biden said he and Obama were on the same team, but that there was constant tension on economic policy. “I think the reason why we didn’t do more, by the way, is because I think that — this is a harsh thing to say. But I think subconsciously, at least, Barack and his guys were beholden to the Silicon Valley. And the Valley guys didn’t want the s—- that I — you know, I wanted.”“And the other thing was that there was a guy who was a big Barack supporter early on is Jamie Dimon,” Biden said, referring to the JPMorgan Chase & Co. chief executive officer. “And so, you know, even though we weren’t, quote, ‘tied to Wall Street bankers,’ we were pretty well tied to Wall Street bankers.”—With assistance from Zoe Tillman.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. 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