Just before writing this piece, I saw Gary Oldman in a London production of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape. For those unfamiliar, the play revolves around an old man listening to a series of tapes recorded by himself when he was younger, musing pompously on his hopes and dreams for the future. In his present, desiccated state, he can only scoff at his middle-aged self, before being overcome by the pathetic realization that it is all up for him and that he is doomed to a miserable, unhappy future.
I suspect that much the same has been going on in Joe Biden’s household of late. If, of course he still knows what day of the week it is, or what his name is. It has transpired that, in preparation for the creation of his uneagerly awaited memoir, Biden read his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer various documents and notebooks that might have been useful for its writing.
Unfortunately, Biden was unable to distinguish between the kind of long-winded nonsense that a former president is contractually obliged to include in his autobiography and matters of national security. Wait, I tell a lie: the recordings, which the Department of Justice now wants to see released, allegedly include Sleepy Joe brightly telling Zwonitzer sensitive information as if it was the daily news. And at one point cheerily declaring “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs.”
Biden, or at least those who are responsible for managing him these days, is fighting to stop these recordings – 70 hours’ worth! – and their transcripts from being released into the public domain. Namely to Congress and the Heritage Foundation, which is leading the fight for their release. In a statement, Biden’s magnificently named spokesperson TJ Ducklo said that Biden had cooperated with Special Counsel Hur and had agreed to allow him access to these audiotapes “on the condition that they would not be made public”. Ducklo went on to say “the DOJ themselves have said these tapes serve no public interest.”
Others disagree. Mike Howell of Heritage has said that “These tapes will further prove the massive lie regarding Biden’s fitness for office and the fact Biden revealed classified information.” Given that the former president stated in 2024 “I did not share classified information. Guarantee you, I did not”, there is going to be considerable embarrassment on one side over the next few months. If I were a betting man, I would suggest that a gaffe-prone politician who seemed increasingly incapable of managing anything, let alone his country, is going to be the one at fault. But we shall see soon enough.
It is unclear as to why the memoir is even being written. Most readers got their Biden fill from his 2017 title Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship and Purpose, which revolves around his pre-presidential life. Yet the domestic coffers need filling. Dr Jill’s memoir entitled View from the East Wing will be published early next month. Biden supposedly signed a $10 million deal with Little Brown for the next installment in his adventures. It is hard to think of ten people who will want to read the book, let alone ten million, but publishing is an exercise in hope rather than sober judgement.
Beckett’s Krapp, reflecting on his own short-lived and unsuccessful writing career, sighs “Seventeen copies sold, of which eleven at trade price to free circulating libraries beyond the seas. Getting known.” Biden is, of course, well known, if not beloved, by every American. Yet this latest humiliation will reinforce a sense, gleefully whipped up by his predecessor and successor as president, that he was increasingly not up to the job. And that his stubbornness to admit this has brought lasting calumny on his party. Should these embarrassing tapes make it into the public domain, this shame will only deepen and continue to contaminate the Democratic body politic even further.
Comments