EXCLUSIVE: Joe Biden Tapes Spark New Questions Over 'Secrets and Obama Rift'
Joe Biden tapes raise new questions over alleged secrets and a reported rift with Barack Obama.
Aug. 18 2026, Published 5:00 a.m. ET
The audiotapes Joe Biden fought to keep private have been released, and they capture the doddering former president casually telling his ghostwriter, "I just found all the classified stuff downstairs" – a stunning admission critics said is a betrayal of his country, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
In the bombshell interviews with Mark Lewis Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter for his 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad, Biden also spoke about his disdain for then-boss President Barack Obama, and displays repeated memory lapses and long pauses that critics said underscore his cognitive decline.
Biden Tapes Raise Security Questions
Historian Leon Wagener called for Joe Biden to be prosecuted over his handling of classified documents.
"They didn't even know I had this," Biden said during an October 2016 interview while discussing notes and classified foreign policy material he had retained from his two terms as vice president.
"Some of this may be classified, so be careful," he warned the ghostwriter.
Presidential historian Leon Wagener told RadarOnline.com he believes Biden, 83, should be prosecuted for hiding top secret documents – if he could even remember what he was doing at the time.
"It's one of the biggest breaches of national security in living memory, and it certainly destroys his legacy," he said.
On the smoking-gun tapes, Biden also repeatedly forgets dates and loses his train of thought during rambling rants – saying at one point, "Oh gosh. I, I can't think of what it is."
Court Clears Biden Tape Release
The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project obtained roughly 70 hours of Biden's interviews with ghostwriter Mark Lewis Zwonitzer.
The roughly 70 hours of tapes were obtained by the conservative Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected Biden's bid to block the recordings from being released to the public.
"These tapes have so many pauses and 'ums' that it sounds like Biden is buffering like a dial-up internet connection," Oversight Project president Mike Howell said in a statement.
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Barack Obama became upset with Biden during a disagreement over economic policy, according to Biden's account.
Biden also claimed his former boss got mad at him during a disagreement over the country's economic policies following the 2008 financial meltdown – suggesting Obama and his aides pandered to Silicon Valley.
"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 Silicon Valley," he said. "And the Valley guys didn't want the s--t that I – you know, I wanted."
