- Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick shaded Joe Biden for being late in 2016, the Uber Files revealed.
- Kalanick texted a coworker: "Every minute late [Biden] is, is one less minute he will have with me."
- After meeting with Kalanick, Biden appeared to amend his Davos speech to refer favorably to Uber.
Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick texted a colleague to seemingly suggest he'd cut short a meeting with former vice president Joe Biden when Biden was late to arrive to see him in 2016, documents leaked to the Guardian reveal.
"At the Intercontinental waiting for Biden … Who is late," Kalanick texted a colleague during the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a trove of documents being labeled The Uber Files showed.
"I've had my people let him know that every minute late he is, is one less minute he will have with me," Kalanick added.
Biden later appeared to alter his World Economic Forum speech after meeting with Kalanick, according to the investigation published Sunday, led by The Guardian in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Biden's Davos speech referred to a CEO whose company gave workers "freedom to work as many hours as they wish, manage their own lives as they wish." Biden was publicly pro-Uber at the time.
Kalanick served as the CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017 before stepping down amid investor pressure, as the ride-sharing app faced a rising tide of scandals.
The investigation also found that several former aides to the Obama administration were influential in pro-Uber lobbying in meetings with government officials and diplomats.
In Uber's response to the leaked documents, senior vice president of public affairs Jill Hazelbaker said that the company's past mistakes and scandals were "exactly why" it hired Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO.
"Dara rewrote the company's values, revamped the leadership team, made safety a top company priority, implemented best-in-class corporate governance, hired an independent board chair, and installed the rigorous controls and compliance necessary to operate as a public company," she said.
Kalanick did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours.
