Hunter Biden, often viewed as a troubled figure in the Democratic Party due to his legal and drug issues that have drawn negative attention to his father, is publicly lashing out at party “elites” and critics over what he says was unfair treatment of former President Joe Biden during last year’s presidential campaign.
In a candid, three-hour, profanity-laced online interview with Andrew Gallagher of Channel 5, Hunter Biden expressed frustration over the 2024 election, when Joe Biden ultimately ended his bid and Donald Trump reclaimed the White House.
He singled out actor and Democratic donor George Clooney for urging his father to drop out of the race.
Hunter also criticized longtime Democratic advisers, accusing them of profiting from the party’s past victories while failing to support current candidates effectively.
The lengthy tirade made clear Hunter Biden’s belief that his father was mistreated by those around him in the final days of his candidacy and administration. He also laid bare critiques of the party’s operations and operatives, which he says aren’t serving its opposition to Trump and the Republican Party well.
Here are some key moments from Hunter Biden’s interview:
Hunter spared no feelings in his assessment of Clooney, questioning why anyone should listen to the “Ocean’s Eleven” star.
Clooney had supported Joe Biden’s bid for a second term, even headlining a record-setting fundraiser for the then-president, but changed his stance after Biden’s poor debate performance against Trump in June 2024.
Clooney expressed his views in an opinion piece in The New York Times, adding his voice to mounting calls for the then-81-year-old president to end his reelection bid. Biden left the race weeks later and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who went on to lose to Trump.
“What right do you have to step on a man who’s given 52 years of his f*** life to the service of this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full-page ad in the f*** New York Times to undermine the president?” Hunter said before trailing off to discuss how Republicans are more unified than Democrats.
Representatives for Clooney in Los Angeles did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Hunter also leveled sharp critiques at several longtime Democratic advisers.
Anita Dunn, a senior Biden adviser, “has made $40 to $50 million” off work for the Democratic Party, Hunter said. James Carville, adviser to former President Bill Clinton, “hasn’t run a race in 40 f*** years.”
Former Obama strategist David Axelrod, Hunter said, “had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama – and that was because of Barack Obama.” He also criticized other former Obama aides who now host “Pod Save America,” calling them “four white millionaires dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago.”
One of the hosts, Tommy Vietor, praised Hunter on social media Monday, applauding his decision “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.”
Axelrod did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Regarding the disastrous debate performance – which helped trigger calls for his father to drop out of the 2024 race – Hunter said Joe Biden may have been recovering from Ambien, a medication prescribed to help him sleep after trips to Europe and a Los Angeles fundraiser where Clooney said his interactions with Biden made him question the president’s mental capacity.
“He’s 81 years old, he’s tired as s***,” Hunter said. “They give him Ambien to be able to sleep, and he gets up on the stage and he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights.”
A spokesperson for Joe Biden declined to comment on the interview.
Hunter also appeared Monday on “At Our Table,” a new podcast hosted by former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.
“Yeah, Joe Biden did get old. He got old before our eyes. ... But you know what? A few changes does not mean that you do not have the mental capacity to be able to do your job,” Hunter said.
In that interview, he again discussed the debate, calling it “awful” and “truly horrible,” and said he opposed holding it because of Trump’s recent convictions on 34 felony charges in a New York hush money case.
To Harrison, Hunter also addressed Clooney: “I love George Clooney’s movies, but I don’t really give a s*** about what he thinks about who should be the nominee for the Democratic Party.”
Asked about his father’s decision to quit the 2024 race, Hunter said, “I think that he could have won,” but still believes his father made the right choice for the party.
“I know that it wasn’t a mistake in that moment,” Hunter said, adding that his father “chose to save the party” over himself.
The podcast episodes were released days ahead of expected court proceedings in a Los Angeles federal court.
Hunter Biden is suing Patrick Byrne, alleging the former Overstock.com CEO falsely claimed that Hunter was reaching out to the Iranian government in fall 2021 and offering to have Joe Biden “unfreeze” $8 billion in Iranian funds in return for $800 million being funneled into a numbered account for us.”
In the final days of his administration, Joe Biden pardoned his son, sparing him a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing earlier promises not to use presidential powers to benefit family members.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after convictions in Delaware and California. The pardon came weeks before Hunter was to be sentenced following his trial conviction on the gun charge and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before Trump returned to the White House.
