Remember how special counsel Robert Hur referred to Joe Biden in his final report? “… a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,” right?

Remember how the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) freaked out? Kamala Harris, Tommy Vietor, Jamie Raskin, Joe Scarborough, Jon Favreau, and Karine Jean-Pierre ALL attacked Robert Hur and insisted Joe Biden was just fine. Biden’s lawyers were indignant and demanded that Hur edit the report to take out references to Biden’s memory issues. Joe Biden himself snapped at Hur, acting offended that he had even had to be questioned in the first place – and then promptly proved the point about his cognitive state. Most damning of all for the current moment, Jake Tapper had Adam Schiff on to trash Hur and defend Biden.

REMINDER as Jake Tapper tries to sell his book. https://t.co/qUPiS1o45S

— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) May 16, 2025

Well, it turns out that Robert Hur was trying to be kind to Joe Biden, while at the same time letting him off the hook for the classified documents in his possession. Axios has gotten hold of the audio transcripts of the Hur interviews of Joe Biden. We had already seen the written transcript, but the Biden DOJ refused to release the audio recording. The reasonable supposition was that Biden – who in the written interview comes off badly – would sound even worse. Let’s take the written transcript from pages 82 to 84, and how one of Biden’s replies was transcribed.

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yeah, okay. But that’s when Trump gets sworn in then, January

MR. SISKEL: Right.

MR. BAUER: Right, correct.

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Okay, 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. (Indiscernible 0: 48:27 . 6). 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

MR. HUR: Sir, I’m wondering if this is a good time to take a break briefly. Would that be —

PRESIDENT BIDEN: No, I — let me just keep going to get it done.

Anyone reading the transcript would assume that there were breaks in the dialogue where the dashes were inserted, right? Listen to the audio, and you will quickly realize why the Biden DOJ did not want it released while Joe Biden was still president – and how generous both Robert Hur and the transcription service were to old Joe.

The Axios YouTube channel has five clips of audio segments from the Hur interview, but the above is currently the longest clip. Alex Thompson, co-author with Jake Tapper on “Original Sin” (which is officially released next Tuesday) co-wrote the Axios exclusive with the Hur audio with Marc Caputo.

Though amiable, the interview became somewhat tense when Biden attorney Bob Bauer chastised prosecutor Krickbaum in this exchange over why Biden had kept a memo about Afghanistan.

"Your answer is that you don't know," Bauer instructed the president.
Listen here. pic.twitter.com/CoZSD6vi5R

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 16, 2025

What the audio makes abundantly clear – and what anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear already knew years earlier – was that Joe Biden was in cognitive decline, and anyone who was around him privately for any period of time was aware of it. Which means everyone in the White House knew, and Congressional leadership knew, and Kamala Harris knew. Anyone who professes to be shocked, SHOCKED, by the audio recording of the Hur interview is lying through their teeth. And anyone who was defending Joe Biden as “sharp as a tack” was also lying.

The audio release opens up two very big questions. First of all, how did Axios get these audio recordings? They were being held by the Department of Justice, and the Biden DOJ refused to release them. The Trump DOJ was saying that they planned on releasing the audio, with President Trump deferring to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi has not made any announcement about releasing the audio. So how did Alex Thompson get the audio, and as Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points out, who benefits?

This is basically a Friday night news dump technique, which is normally deployed to bury *bad* news over a weekend to keep it from becoming a bigger headache. Who benefits from that strategy in this case? The Bidens, perhaps, but none of them will be running for office, and I seriously doubt that any of them have this much strategic sense. Democrats may be hoping to get past the Biden-senility deathtrap they set for themselves, but that question isn’t going away any time soon — and ripping the Band-Aid off the Hur tapes isn’t going to decrease interest in it. Just the opposite, in fact.

So *cui bono*? One has to wonder whether Hur himself or his investigators might have grown tired of the Democrats’ attempts to claim that they never saw Biden slow down until the June 2024 debate. But why wait until a Friday afternoon to do so? There doesn’t seem to be a good fit for the circumstances among any of the parties involved. Still, the only people with access to these tapes would presumably be the DoJ, Hur’s team, and the Bidens’ attorneys, *at most. Hmmmm.*

Interestingly, the Oversight Project has attempted to FOIA the Hur audio recordings, and were told by the DOJ that they were being held in a SCIF. So how did Alex Thompson get them for Axios, and how long has he had them? The only reason I can think of for their release right now is the most self-serving one – Thompson and Tapper have a book to sell, and order now so you will have it in your hands next Tuesday!

The second big question is, where does Robert Hur go to get his apology? The special counsel was absolutely trashed for telling a nice version of the truth in his report, and Democrats even told him to his face during Congressional testimony just how awful his actions were.

Special Counsel Robert Hur confronted substantial pushback from Democrats Tuesday on his decision to include unflattering assessments of Biden’s mental acuity, with Rep. Adam Schiff claiming he knowingly ignited a “political firestorm.” pic.twitter.com/kESVaGtsst

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2024

When will Adam Schiff issue an apology to Robert Hur? Probably never. What about all the other Democrats who complained and barked and yelled at Hur during that same testimony? Will they be lining up to apologize to Hur? Of course not! That would require them to admit that they were wrong, and tacitly admit that they were lying about Joe Biden’s cognitive state.

The release of this audio highlights yet again that the cover up of Joe Biden’s mental decline needs a full reckoning, with Cabinet members and Kamala Harris and White House staff being sworn in for Congressional hearings to explain themselves. Joe Biden was a meat puppet sitting behind the Resolute desk (or the fake one on the Oval Office set that they liked to use), and the American people are owed answers as to who was pulling his strings, and why the members of the administration covered it up instead of speaking up and using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click