President Joe Biden calls himself a “frustrated architect” in the transcript of his five-hour interview with Robert Hur, where his answers cover his early life ambitions, his classic Corvette and his prowess as an archer.
Some of Biden’s recollections occur in response to boring questions about the facts of when and where classified materials ended up in his home and office. Biden’s ramblings caused his successive interviews to run out of time, while snippets of information in the Biden biography emerged.
“I’m a frustrated architect, and if you keep going, you’ve probably already seen the significant number of house plans that I’ve drawn,” Biden said in one digression after talking about furniture he was withholding from the U.S. Senate.
He said something about building his house in a way “so that the sun would always shine,” although the details are blacked out in the Justice Department transcript.
Straight shooter: Biden tells a long story about a 2011 trip to Mongolia while being bombarded by Special Counsel Robert Hur with questions about classified documents
“And by the way, to convince me that I wouldn’t run for the Senate for the 19th time, my wife said, look, you don’t, I’ll pay for architecture school for you,” Biden joked. The transcript states that “(laughter)” followed, suggesting that prosecutors did not take the six-term senator’s statement about his term literally.
‘I’m dead serious, no joke. Anyway, so what I had was, I had a,” he continued, with three lines of blacked-out dialogue, with surrounding text suggesting he’s still talking about his house. ‘I don’t remember exactly. And I build that for two reasons (redacted). My father got sick and I didn’t want him and mother to live alone.’
Biden then goes into detail about his Wilmington home, its 10-acre pond, a “pool table and couch,” a “large fireplace” and other details. Then he continues talking, talking about furniture purchases and paying for a handmade ‘beautiful (edited) copy for the home.
The longtime senator continues to filibuster, talking about a trip to Mongolia with “amazing photos” after describing how he has kept memories of his time in office.
‘Photos are put on it, what is that called?’ Biden asked.
“Posterboard,” one of the plaintiffs responded.
Don’t look back: Biden regaled Hur with stories about his classic Corvette when asked about boxes of classified equipment in his garage
Calling himself a ‘frustrated architect’, Biden spoke at length about the contents of his home, even though he did not remember details about the handling of government documents
The Justice Department has redacted information that could reveal security information about the orientation of his home
Longshot: The straight-talking Biden was mortified when his host, the Mongolian prime minister, didn’t do so well in archery
Hur’s questions about boxes of documents sometimes yielded surprising answers about Biden’s life and career
This resulted in a paper on his 2011 trip to Mongolia as vice president and a cultural photo-op in which he participated. “They showed – they did a – what they would do at the time of the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 14 – in the 800s.”
“And so they walked over and they had a target with bales of hay hundreds of yards away, and these guerrillas were, you know, shooting.”
Then someone handed Biden a bow and arrow. ‘I’m not a bad archer. But (invisibly) where I can pull it back, so I – and pure luck, I hit the damn target,” he says, again eliciting “(Laughter).
But the straight-talking Biden was shocked when his host didn’t perform so well. “I turned to the Prime Minister and handed it to him, but the poor bastard couldn’t withdraw it.”
At least one part of the story is contradicted by an official photo from the White House. It shows Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold holding his own bow, meaning Biden didn’t have to hand him one.
After his lengthy digressions, Biden’s lawyer Bob Bauer asked if the group could take a break. When they returned, prosecutors asked what files or documents Biden could remember being in his West Wing office during his vice presidency.
“I have no idea,” he said.
At times, Biden tried to fuel his responses with car talk in a possible play to build a bridge with Hur.
Special counsel Robert Hur testified Tuesday
Biden said it drove him “crazy” that he couldn’t drive his classic Corvette while in office — when asked about boxes of equipment in his garage that were sometimes moved when his car came out.
‘And the worst part was they told me not to drive it into the driveway. It’s a long driveway. So I would put it at the bottom of the driveway, and hang it up to about four thousand dollars (indiscernible (makes car noise) (indiscernible) (Laughter).”
“You think I’m joking; I don’t do that,” Biden said. “We believe you,” said Deputy Special Prosecutor Marc Krickbaum.
“I believe you,” Hur agreed.
That entailed another digression, this one about electric vehicles in which he is allowed to drive. ‘You press the accelerator all the way’
“Wow,” Hur says.
‘All you have to do is take your foot off the brake. (Makes car noise),” Biden continues, laughing again. “It’s on my bucket list,” Hur says, “before steering the conversation back to documents at the Penn Biden Center.