Audio recordings between former US president Joe Biden and his ghostwriter have been released, following a lengthy court battle. The conservative Oversight Project sued the Justice Department for their release, and Mr Biden abandoned his legal challenge to keep them private.
The content broadly aligns with findings that Mr Biden retained classified material after leaving the vice presidency. The tapes offer insight into his experience serving under former president Barack Obama from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017. Mr Biden later served as the 46th president from January 20, 2021, to January 20, 2025.
Classified notes and redacted discussions
In the recordings, Mr Biden discusses notes from his vice-presidential tenure while showing them to biographer Mark Lewis Zwonitzer. "They didn't even know I had this," Biden says, referring to handwritten notes he kept. Parts of the conversation are redacted due to allegedly classified foreign policy matters. At one point, Mr Biden stops himself: "And then — and then the next thing I have here is — this is classified," he said.
Tensions with Obama over financial crisis
The recordings detail tension between Mr Biden and Mr Obama. Mr Biden says Mr Obama would "really get p***ed" at him during arguments over how aggressively the administration should respond to the 2008 financial crisis. "I was a really lonely voice on housing, I was a lonely voice on the middle class. I mean, I thought we should be much more aggressive than putting these guys in jail and the bankers," he says. "I mean, he used to really get p***ed at me."
Advice on 2016 nomination
The tapes also revisit Mr Biden's decision not to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016. He recalled Mr Obama telling him the decision was his own, but warning it would be "really be an uphill battle." "The fact is that he didn't think it was doable at that time, that I could, that I could actually go out and get the nomination," Biden said. "That was my read at the time."
