Newly released audio tapes, disclosed by a conservative activist group, appear to show Joe Biden sharing classified information with a biographer and sometimes claiming memory lapses during interviews that occurred before his election to the presidency in 2020.
About three hours of audio and 117 pages of transcripts — with many redactions — were released by the Oversight Project, an arm of the Heritage Foundation, after Biden lost a prolonged legal fight to keep his conversations with his memoir ghostwriter, Mark Lewis Zwonitzer, private.
“They didn't even know I had this,” Biden told Zwonitzer in October 2016, near the end of his second term as Barack Obama's vice president, as he talked about sensitive foreign policy matters handled by the administration.
In one 2017 session, after Biden had left the West Wing and before he'd launched his own presidential campaign, he appeared to admit retaining classified information from his time as vice president.
“I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden said. “I wrote the President a handwritten 40-page memorandum arguing against deploying additional troops to Iraq -- I mean, to Afghanistan on the grounds that it wouldn’t matter, that the day we left would be like the day before we arrived.”
The potentially classified information itself is redacted in both the audio and transcripts that the Oversight Project released.
The right-wing group first sued to obtain the tapes after Special Counsel Robert Hur decided in 2024 not to charge Biden for how he handled classified information. Biden cooperated with Hur’s inquiry and told the special prosecutor during his presidency that he did not intentionally mishandle any classified material.
Hur, who obtained the tapes as part of his inquiry, said in announcing his decision that he believed a jury would find Biden a sympathetic figure because of his age and what Hur described as a “poor memory” — a statement that became a flashpoint in public debate about Biden's age and fitness for the presidency.
Biden was 74 when the interviews began. He was 81 and seeking reelection when Hur released his report in early 2024, though Biden later ended his campaign for a second term after a halting debate performance against Republican Donald Trump.
The tapes contain instances of Biden being unable to recall some dates and details of topics he was discussing with Zwonitzer. Biden also showed a command of many details, recalling meetings and details of conversations referenced in the notes he shared.
At the Oversight Project, Vice President of Litigation Jeff Clark insisted the tapes prove Biden's decline.
“The tapes have always belonged to the American People, the Oversight Project just delivered them to their rightful owner,” Clark said in a statement. “The knowledge of his deterioration was well-established.”
A Biden spokesman blasted the release as politically motivated.
“President Biden’s conversations for a book a decade ago that discussed his late son are private, and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way,” said TJ Ducklo. “Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”
Biden initially sued to stop the Department of Justice from releasing the material, claiming the conversations were private. But he dropped his suit after a divided panel of appeals court judges rejected his bid. Biden could have petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene or asked for a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel from the circuit court found a “substantial” public interest in disclosing the material.
File - President Joe Biden speaks at the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File )
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks during a Department of Defense Commander in Chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Jan. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday is the first since the two leaders launched a joint war against Iran and a chance for Netanyahu to smooth out strains in their relationship.
The two leaders also plan to discuss the framework agreement the U.S. and Israel signed with Lebanon over the Israel-Hezbollah war and the expansion of the Abraham Accords, according to a White House official.
Trump is also meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral, which is their second sit-down this month. Sen. Lindsey Graham will be eulogized Tuesday during memorial services across Washington. Trump is expected to deliver remarks at the cathedral, alongside Fox News’ Sean Hannity and other conservative leaders.
Here's the latest:
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 90.8 in July from 92.2 in June.
Consumers’ view of current business and labor market conditions fell by 3.6 points to 114.9, the third straight monthly decline.
Views about their near-term futures held steady from last month with a reading of 74.7.
Consumer attitudes had improved modestly in June as gas prices came down to around $3.70 a gallon from more than $4.50 a gallon in late April and early May. But as fighting in the Middle East escalated, the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. started to rise again. On Tuesday it was $4.10, according to the auto club AAA.
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The White House says the meeting started at 9:47 a.m. It is “closed press,” meaning journalists at aren’t likely to see the leaders together in the Oval Office.
The remains of the Republican senator have arrived at the U.S. Capitol, his flag-draped casket carried inside by an armed forces team, in recognition of his military service.
He’s being honored at a tribute in the Rotunda, the start of two days of services for the South Carolina senator.
Vice President JD Vance is expected to speak and several Cabinet officials, including former Sen. Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, were in attendance, as was acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who faces a rocky Senate confirmation for the job.
The threat came in response to President Trump’s post on social media last week, in which he threatened to use Iranian assets frozen abroad to pay for damage to ships from Iranian attacks in the strait.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran’s joint military command, said Tuesday that any countries or companies that join in Trump’s “unlawful action” will be barred from using the strait. The critical waterway carried a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas before the war. His video message was carried by Iranian state TV.
Trump had said damage to ships would be “paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls.” It was unclear what legal mechanisms Trump would use to seize and spend the funds.
The Ukrainian leader’s car pulled up on West Executive Avenue, a private road within the White House complex. He stepped out of the passenger side of a black SUV and walked around the rear to enter the White House for the meeting.
Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, has sought to leave his mark during his interim status in the job.
With the Senate poised to confirm Jay Clayton for the role, Pulte released Tuesday on X a series of intelligence community documents from 2020 that described China’s capacity to interfere in the American political process as well as vulnerabilities in the election system.
The substance of the material was largely recycled and already known, but its disclosure is part of a broader Trump administration effort to raise concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections — most especially the 2020 presidential race he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Pulte has also presided over a downsizing of the national intelligence office, which functions as a coordinating hub for the U.S. government’s intelligence agencies.
He boasted on X that with a latest round of job cuts, the office is carrying out about a 30% staff reduction from weeks ago.
Trump has repeatedly retreated from threats to knock out bridges, power plants and other infrastructure but he told Fox News Channel in an interview that Iran knows he’ll “finish the job” if its leaders don’t make a deal to end the war.
He says millions of people would then struggle to get by.
Trump claimed he would need less than an hour to “take out” most of Iran’s bridges and said he could blow up their power plants “within one day” and then target desalinization plants.
“You know, if I can avoid doing that, I’d like to do that,” he said.
The president says he’s not worried about construction activities at Iran’s potential nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain, a complex Trump has threatened to bomb.
And Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for publicly expressing concerns about the site ahead of the two leaders’ meeting Tuesday at the White House.
“I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe,” Trump told “Fox & Friends,” adding that whatever Iran is doing is “not a big problem.”
On Netanyahu’s statements ahead of his visit to Washington, Trump said, “Why don’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce to the world.”
The bilateral huddle, on the same day that both men are attending the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral, is the first since Netanyahu and Trump launched their war in Iran five months ago.
Speaking fondly about his friend and ally, Trump said he admired Graham as a nice person who was quick to call for military action.
“He was a guy that liked war,” Trump said Tuesday in a Fox News interview. “I jokingly say, and there’s nothing funny about it, but he’s never seen a war that he didn’t like.”
Trump added that Graham was “very much a hawk on Iran” but had also told Trump it was time to make a deal to end the war. That sentiment did not extend to the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump said.
“Ukraine he’s very militant about,” Trump said. “Lindsey liked war, to be honest with you.”
It will ensure that a permanent director is in place as the midterm elections approach.
Clayton is expected to be confirmed along party lines after a contentious hearing two weeks ago in which he repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Still, Democrats have said they have more confidence in Clayton than they do in Trump’s temporary pick for the job, Bill Pulte, who has no known intelligence experience and investigated the president’s perceived enemies in his previous post as a federal housing regulator.
Senators from both parties have expressed concerns about Pulte, who took over on an interim basis last month after Tulsi Gabbard resigned. Pulte was in charge when Trump delivered a speech from the White House earlier this month doubling down on his false claims about the 2020 election, which he lost, and released classified documents he said were relevant to his arguments.
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Only foot traffic is allowed on streets surrounding the complex. Vehicular traffic is blocked by city police cars and dump trucks at key intersections, like Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th St and near Lafayette Park.
Netanyahu is staying at Blair House, the U.S. government’s guest house across from the White House.
Zelenskyy has the first meeting with Trump, scheduled for 9:30 a.m., followed by Netanyahu at 11 a.m.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral, their second sit-down this month and after a far-right activist with the U.S. president’s ear had a widely publicized change of heart on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Trump is set to welcome Zelenskyy to the White House as the Ukrainian leader travels to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other exports.
Zelenskyy posted on X early Tuesday that he had arrived in the U.S. and listed the goals for his visit.
“Our schedule includes meetings with President Trump, his team, and those who can support our defense,” the Ukrainian leader said. “Our number one priority is anti-ballistic defense and strategic cooperation with America. Peace needs to be brought closer.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday is the first since the two leaders launched a joint war against Iran and a chance for Netanyahu to smooth out strains in their relationship.
The meeting comes as both face growing pressures at home. Netanyahu is up for reelection and is embattled in part because of his deteriorating relationship with Trump. Trump is under pressure to end an unpopular war that has wreaked economic havoc and driven prices higher ahead of midterm elections this November.
The two leaders also plan to discuss the framework agreement the U.S. and Israel signed with Lebanon over the Israel-Hezbollah war and the expansion of the Abraham Accords, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the meeting.
“We have a little difference,” Trump said Monday when asked by reporters if he and the Israeli prime minister were on the same page with Iran. “But pretty close, yeah.”
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President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Monday, July 27, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - President Donald Trump listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
