Hunter Biden is speaking out!
Former President Joe Biden’s notoriously troubled second son sat for a wide-ranging three-hour interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan. And while their conversation about Hunter’s struggles with alcohol and drugs will certainly be interesting to many people, it was Hunter’s comments about the Democratic establishment that most struck me.
You see, Hunter is furious with the leaders of the Democratic Party for, in his view, betraying his dad. Here he was railing against Jon Favreau and the rest of the Obama bros at “Pod Save America.”
“For some reason, the intelligentsia of the Democratic Party, with 2020 hindsight, believes that Joe Biden should have considered not running again, because of their perception that he was too old. And so then the drumbeat began. […] The New York Times, on a near daily basis, Anon by the ‘Pod Save America’ saviors of the Democratic Party — what, four white millionaires that are dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago, living in Beverly f–king Hills telling the rest of the world what Black voters in South Carolina really want, or what the women, the waitress living outside of Green Bay, Wis., really believes.”
Hunter also addressed his father’s bad debate performance, which effectively ended Joe Biden’s campaign:
“And I’ll tell ya wait, I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world basically — the mileage, that he could have flown around the world three times, he’s 81 years old, he’s tired as s–t, they give him Ambien to be able to sleep, he gets up on the stage and he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights. And it feeds into every f–king story that anybody wants to tell.”
Ambien! He blamed Ambien!
I would just note that when Roseanne Barr sent that offensive tweet about Valerie Jarrett — the one that ended her career — she eventually explained that it was partly due to her taking Ambien. In response, the drug company that makes Ambien released a statement saying that Ambien does not cause racism. I can’t wait for Ambien to put out a statement saying the drug doesn’t transform you into a bad president either. But I digress.
Hunter Biden also railed against George Clooney, and implied that it was the actor’s ego that prompted him to melt down and publish an op-ed in The New York Times encouraging Biden to get out of the race. Clooney was apparently offended that Biden didn’t immediately recognize him at a fundraiser, a detail that was previously reported in “Original Sin,” the Jake Tapper-Alex Thompson book.
“F–k George Clooney,” says Hunter in no uncertain terms.
Now, conservatives are certainly enjoying watching Hunter Biden rail against all these people that they too don’t like: the Obama Bros, Nancy Pelosi, George Clooney, David Axelrod, and on and on and on. I too am amused by watching this man savage the Democratic intelligentsia. But we should also face facts: The Democratic Party betrayed Biden for good reason. Their only mistake was not doing so earlier. Love him or hate him, Biden was not capable of serving another term, and his inner circle tried to conceal that fact from the voters.
Hunter is loyal to his dad, and that’s understandable. But the Biden family is simply delusional about this. There was no way that Biden was going to win the election, and there was no way he could continue to serve as president if he somehow did win. It’s insulting to our intelligence to pretend otherwise. So while I appreciate Hunter’s willingness to speak his mind, and his openness to challenging other authority figures in Democratic circles, he’s dead wrong on the substance here.
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his on-air commentary.
