Hunter Biden is back in the spotlight thanks to a media blitz in which he aggressively defended his father, former President Biden, and reignited a long-simmering feud between the Biden family and members of the Democratic Party who pushed for the former president to drop out of the 2024 race.
Hunter Biden took aim at actor George Clooney, Obama White House officials and President Trump in a pair of fiery and profanity-laced interviews that were released on the anniversary of the former president’s decision to end his candidacy.
The former president’s son, a major target for personal and political attacks from Republicans in recent years, appeared on YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan’s show and also sat down for a lengthy interview with former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jamie Harrison to unpack the 2024 campaign and the state of the party.
Republicans viewed Hunter Biden’s reemergence as a gift, as they have tried to keep the former president and his mental acuity in the headlines. Democrats, meanwhile, were left shaking their heads at yet another self-inflicted controversy sparked by the former first family.
“It’s good to see that Hunter has taken some time to process the election, look inward, and hold himself accountable for how his family’s insular, dare I say arrogant at times, approach to politics led to this catastrophic outcome we’re all now living with,” Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House official, posted on the social platform X.
The interviews underscored the degree to which the Biden family still feels stung by the Democratic Party’s decision to abandon the former president as its nominee, despite his decades of service and his successful 2020 campaign.
The comments also came at a time when Trump has grappled with discontent among members of his own base over the handling of the case of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and as Democrats have attempted to stay on the attack over the massive tax and spending bill Trump signed into law earlier this month.
Hunter Biden’s interviews made significant rounds in the media and online.
Fox News played comments from the former president’s son in which he went on an expletive-laced tirade against the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, as well as a soundbite in which Hunter Biden mused about how he would have handled discussions with El Salvador about a wrongfully deported migrant.
“How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you have food on your f‑‑‑ing table? Who do you think washes your dishes?” Hunter Biden said of those in the country illegally.
“Clearly they’ve learned nothing from President Trump’s overwhelming victory on Nov. 5,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox in response to those comments.
Some of Hunter Biden’s more incendiary comments came during a sit-down with Callaghan, who hosts the YouTube series Channel 5.
Hunter Biden teed off on Clooney, whose New York Times op-ed last summer added fuel to calls for then-President Biden to step down after his disastrous debate performance.
“F‑‑‑ you, what do you have to do with f‑‑‑ing anything? Why do I have to f‑‑‑ing listen to you? What right do you have to step on a man who’s given 52 years of his f‑‑‑ing life to the service of this country,” Hunter Biden said of Clooney.
Hunter Biden went on to single out Democratic strategist James Carville, top Obama White House adviser David Axelrod, former Obama aide David Plouffe, who joined the Harris campaign in a senior role, and Anita Dunn, who was a top White House official under the former president.
“They’re all going to insert their judgment over a man who has figured out, unlike anybody else, how to get elected to the United States Senate over seven times … and how to garner more votes than any president that has ever won, and they’re going to replace their judgment for his?” Hunter Biden told Callaghan.
Hunter Biden also offered a previously unheard of explanation for why his father struggled so mightily in a June 2024 debate with Trump that set off a wave of calls for Democrats to reconsider their nominee.
“I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world basically the mileage he could have flown around the world three times,” Hunter Biden said. “He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as s‑‑‑. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like a deer in the headlights.”
The former president has repeatedly blamed his halting debate performance on feeling under the weather. Some allies have blamed his taxing travel schedule before the debate. But he had been at Camp David for a week before the debate privately preparing.
A spokesperson for the former president did not respond to a request for comment about Hunter Biden’s comments to Gallagher.
Hunter Biden also echoed the argument of many of his father’s allies that the party’s defeat last November was a result of its decision to push the former president out of the race.
“We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That’s my position,” Hunter Biden told Jamie Harrison on his newly launched podcast, “At Our Table.”
The former president has largely remained under the radar since leaving office in January. He has made a few low-profile public appearances, and he gave a rare interview to The New York Times earlier this month to push back on claims he was not aware of who was granted clemency in the final weeks of his presidency.
The Trump White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill have worked to keep him in the spotlight, though. Trump attacks his predecessor multiple times each week over policy and the use of an autopen to sign certain actions while in office.
House Republicans have launched a probe into the former president’s mental acuity while in office, summoning a host of former White House officials for testimony. So far, his aides who have been called to testify have invoked their Fifth Amendment right, giving the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee little to work with.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), also keen to keep a spotlight on the Biden administration, released a 14-minute video on Monday of Democrats repeatedly defending the former president’s mental sharpness.
“As House Republicans investigate the scandal to bring accountability, the American people should never forget how far Democrats and the media went to hide the truth about the mental decline of the man holding the most powerful position on earth,” Johnson said in a statement.
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