The 1600: Hunter Biden to the Rescue

Newsweek

3 days ago

The Insider's Track
Good morning,
Last night, my wife and I were planning on watching a movie. Instead, we watched Hunter Biden give a detailed explanation of how to make crack cocaine on the stove.
I know a lot of you get annoyed when I bring up the Biden family, but good lord do they make it difficult to ignore them. What is wrong with these people? Amid a particularly negative news cycle for the White House, first Joe gives a rambling interview with the Times defending his use of the autopen. Then Hunter, the failed painter who is perhaps best known for leaving his wife to shack up with his brother's widow, sits for a three-hour interview with the YouTuber Andrew Callaghan.
In the absolutely insane, expletive-laden viral video, Hunter unloads on everyone from George Clooney to David Axelrod and the Pod Save America bros, calling the latter "four white millionaires dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago." Not wrong, though I think HUNTER BIDEN is perhaps not the best person to accuse others of peddling influence based on their proximity to the Oval Office. The former First Failson then helpfully breaks down the difference between crack and powder cocaine, and why the former is so addictive. Great work keeping the attention on Trump's ties to Epstein, everyone. Nailed it as usual.
Other than that, we're approaching the summer doldrums in Washington. House Republicans have essentially stopped working leading up to their six-week recess as a way to avoid taking a vote on the release of the Epstein files. Bidens notwithstanding, the Dems are trying to keep this story front and center, and the White House is throwing everything against the wall to get people to move on. I hadn't really planned on giving oxygen to this latest attempt, courtesy of Tulsi Gabbard, to accuse Obama of trying to overturn the 2016 election. Gabbard has spent the last couple days threatening to prosecute Obama over the "Russia hoax," while Trump has been posting nonstop memes of Obama officials in prison jumpsuits and AI-generated videos of what, I suppose, Trump imagines their arrests would look like. To which I will just say: if the Trump administration thought it had a smoking gun that showed evidence that Obama or anyone around him committed so much as a jaywalking infraction, do you think they'd put that out in a press release or a criminal indictment? These folks continue to play their voters like a violin, it's almost sad to watch.
Meanwhile, all the libs I know are still worked up over the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which CBS announced a few days ago would end in May. The big MSNBC conspiracy theory is that CBS/Paramount are cutting Colbert as a sweetener to get this merger done with Skydance, which needs Trump's FCC approval. Colbert is obviously a big critic of Trump, and the theory goes that this is CBS bending the knee to the administration once again after already settling a frivolous lawsuit that he filed against '60 Minutes.'
The last thing I will ever do is defend the national TV networks. Having worked in that soulless corporate world, I saw firsthand how they operate. It's about money. Colbert's show somehow cost $100M a year and was losing tens of millions of dollars. Late night TV is a dying medium. And Colbert just wasn't funny. He was once a genius—the original 'Colbert Report' was arguably one of the greatest comedic achievements of the 2000s—but once he got to CBS he shed any of that edge and just became another howling resistance lib. I'm not saying politics weren't involved. But when you're making $20M a year while losing your employer millions—while also being a political pain in the ass? Your days are going to be numbered. CBS would be better off giving its 11:30 p.m. slot to Hunter Biden and his crackhead friends. I bet you could get Hunter for a tiny fraction of Colbert's salary.
The Rundown
House Republicans brought legislative business to a halt on Monday, abruptly shutting down the House floor to block a planned vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. It comes after Democrats said they planned to stage a vote on bringing legislation to the floor that would compel the release of the Epstein files. Here's the latest.
Also happening:
Epstein files: Attorney General Pam Bondi shared a statement regarding federal prosecutors contacting Ghislaine Maxwell, potentially opening a new chapter in the investigation surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. The DOJ says it remains committed to pursuing justice wherever the facts lead, despite reaffirming earlier conclusions that no charges can be brought against unindicted third parties. Follow the latest updates .
Attorney General Pam Bondi shared a statement regarding federal prosecutors contacting Ghislaine Maxwell, potentially opening a new chapter in the investigation surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. The DOJ says it remains committed to pursuing justice wherever the facts lead, despite reaffirming earlier conclusions that no charges can be brought against unindicted third parties. . Exclusive: In an interview with Newsweek, former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross poured praise on his former boss's tariff plans, but said that the main challenge now will be reaching a fully fledged and durable agreement with China, and securing a trade deal with the European Union. Read more.
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