Of the three Saturday network morning shows, only NBC’s Today covered Axios releasing audio files of former President Joe Biden suffering a memory lapse during an interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
Yamiche Alcindor reported, “Meanwhile, newly released audio from Axios confirming that President Biden had a series of memory lapses during an interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur, including that Biden struggled to remember the year his oldest son, Beau died.”
Alcindor then played part of the released audio in a clip that featured Biden, former White House deputy counsel Rachel Cotton, and an unidentified man:
JOE BIDEN: What month did Beau die? Oh, god. May 30.
RACHEL COTTON: 2015.
BIDEN: Was it 2015 he had died?
MAN: It was May of 2015.
BIDEN: It was 2015.
Alcindor then recalled, “The Biden administration denied the memory lapses when Hur released his report last year. On Friday, a spokesperson for President Biden said, “The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.”
Indeed, Biden angrily denounced Hur for claiming he forgot when Beau died, "How in the hell dare he raise that?" Which raises the question, why did ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Saturday Morning not cover the audio? They had two hours. They both found time to talk about Donald Trump’s setback at the Supreme Court, and CBS added the additional setback of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” failing in the House Budget Committee, but the one topic that would make Democrats look bad was ignored.
Here is a transcript for the May 17 show:
NBC Today
5/17/2025
8:12 AM ET
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Meanwhile, newly released audio from Axios confirming that President Biden had a series of memory lapses during an interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur, including that Biden struggled to remember the year his oldest son, Beau died.
JOE BIDEN: What month did Beau die? Oh, god. May 30.
RACHEL COTTON: 2015.
BIDEN: Was it 2015 he had died?
MAN: It was May of 2015.
BIDEN: It was 2015.
ALCINDOR: The Biden administration denied the memory lapses when Hur released his report last year. On Friday, a spokesperson for President Biden said “the audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.”
