Biden called himself a 'frustrated architect' who lost track of his house plans, made car noises and recalled an archery trip to Mongolia: The bizarre revelations from the Robert Hur transcript

President Joe Biden calls himself a 'frustrated architect' in the transcript of his five-hour interview with Robert Hur, where his answers veer to his early life ambitions, his classic Corvette, and his prowess as an archer.

Some of Biden's trips down memory lane occur in response to bland questions about the facts of when and where classified materials ended up in his home and office. Biden's ramblings served to run out the clock on his consecutive interviews, while surfacing snippets of information in the Biden biography. 

'I'm a frustrated architect, and if you went through, you probably saw all those significant number of house plans that I've drawn,' Biden said in one digression after talking about furniture he kept from the U.S. Senate.

He said something about building his house in a way 'so the sun would always shine,' although the specifics are blacked out in the Justice Department's transcript transcript.

Straight shooter: Biden tells a long story about a 2011 trip to Mongolia while getting peppered with questions about classified documents by Special Counsel Robert Hur

'And as a matter of fact, in order to try to convince me not to run for the Senate for the 19th time, my wife said, look, you don't run, I'll pay for architectural school for you,' Biden quipped. The transcript says that '(laughter)' followed, suggesting the prosecutors didn't take the six-term senator's line about his tenure literally.

'I'm deadly earnest, not a joke. Any rate, so what I had was, I had a,' he continued, with three lines of blacked out dialogue, with surrounding text suggesting he is still talking about his home. 'I can't remember exactly. And I build that for two reasons, [redacted]. My dad was getting ill, and I did not want he and mom to be living alone.'

Then Biden goes on at length about his Wilmington house, its 10-acre pond, a 'pool table and couch,' a 'big fireplace' and other details. Then he keeps rolling, talking about furniture purchases and paying for a handmade 'magnificent [redacted] for the home. 

The longtime senator continues to filibuster, talking about a trip to Mongolia with 'great pictures' after describing keeping mementos from his time in office.

'There are pictures that are put on - what kind of board is that called?' Biden asked.

'Poster board,' responded one of the prosecutors.

Don't look back: Biden regaled Hur with stories about his classic Corvette when asked about boxes of classified material in his garage

Biden called himself a 'frustrated archetect' and spoke at length about the contents of his home, even while failing to recall details about handling of government documents

The Justice Department redacted information that might reveal security information about the orientation of his home

Longshot: The straight-shooting Biden was mortified when his host the Mongolian prime minister didn't perform as well at archery

Hur's questions about boxes of documents sometimes brought winding answers about Biden's life and career

That brought a discourse on his 2011 trip to Mongolia as vice president and a cultural photo-op he took part in. 'They were showing – they were doing a – what they would do at the time of the invasion of the Mongols into Europe in the 14 – in the 800s.'

'And so they walked over and they had a target with bales of hay a hundreds yards away, and these guerillas were, you know, taking shots.'

Then someone handed Biden a bow and arrow. 'I'm not a bad archer. But (indiscernible) where I can pull it back, so I – and pure luck, I hit the goddam target,' he says, again eliciting '(Laughter).

But the straight-shooting Biden was mortified when his host didn't perform as well. 'I turned to the prime minister and handed it to him and the poor son-of-a-bitch couldn't pull it back.'

At least one part of the story is contradicted by an official White House photo. It shows Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold holding his own bow, which means Biden wouldn't have needed to hand him one.

Following his long digressions, Biden's lawyer Bob Bauer asked if the group could take a break. When they came back, prosecutors asked what files or documents Biden could recall being in his West Wing office during his vice presidency.

'I don't have any idea,' he said. 

Sometimes Biden tried to fire up 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 bering queried about boxes of material in his garage that sometimes got moved when his car came out.

'And the worst part was, they said I couldn't drive it outside the driveway. It's a long driveway. So I'd get it to the bottom of the driveway, tack it up to about four grand (indiscernible (makes car sound) (indiscernible) (Laughter).'

'You think I'm kidding; I'm not,' said Biden. ''We believe you,' said Deputy Special Counsel Marc Krickbaum.

'I believe you,' seconded Hur.

That brought another digression, this one about electric vehicles he gets to drive. 'You step your foot on the accelerator all the way down '' 

'Woah,' says Hur.

'All you do is take your foot off the brake. (Makes car sound)' Biden continues, again drawing laughter. 'It's on my bucket list,' says Hur,' before steering the conversation back to documents at the Penn Biden Center.