Newly surfaced audio recordings from Joe Biden's private conversations with a ghostwriter are undermining the defence Democrats mounted after Special Counsel Robert Hur's 2023 report described Biden as an "elderly man with a poor memory." At the time, prominent Democrats accused Hur of exaggerating or politicising his findings, but the recordings reportedly capture Biden struggling with recall in ways that echo Hur's characterisation, complicating those denials.

The tapes, released by the Oversight Project, include a conversation from 24 April 2017 between Biden and memoir ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, in which Biden appears unable to recall the names of two of his own economic advisers. The recordings are being presented as evidence that concerns about Biden's memory predate his presidency and the classified documents inquiry, reigniting scrutiny of Democrats who publicly dismissed such concerns.