Hunter Biden's alternate history

Politico

3 days ago

BLAME GAME — Hunter Biden suddenly has a lot to say. In multiple interviews released this week, he addressed his drug addiction, his infamous laptop, his father dropping out of the race for president and media coverage of his family, with some particularly choice words reserved for CNN anchor Jake Tapper, the co-author of a recent book about Joe Biden, actor George Clooney and The New York Times.
It's understandable that the president's son might want to defend the family in the wake of recriminations over Biden's legacy, as a wave of books and negative press accounts have come out about the 46th president's health in his final years in office. But the decision to air his grievances — and crowd out the news cycle at a moment when Donald Trump and his party are desperately trying to divert attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein saga — isn't being welcomed by Democrats.
In Hunter's most notable interview, spanning over three hours with online documentarian Andrew Callaghan and his network Channel 5, the younger Biden pontificates at length on his own addiction and recovery, before tearing into the party apparatus that he believes pushed his dad to abandon his 2024 campaign. Hunter's lengthy comments, filmed a month ago, represent an unvarnished look into the collective psyche of the close-knit Biden family since the former president dropped out. What it reveals is a lack of awareness and accountability for Biden's own role in losing the 2024 election, in favor of an alternate history.
One profanity-laced tirade stands out.
'Fuck [George Clooney]! Fuck him and everyone around him. I don't have to be fucking nice,' Biden said. 'Number one, I agree with Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney is not a fucking actor, he's a fucking — I don't know what he is, he's a brand … Fuck you, what do you have to do with fucking anything, why do I have to fucking listen to you? What right do you have to step on a man who's given 52 years of his fucking life to the service of his country, and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full-page ad in fucking The New York Times to undermine the president? Which, by the way, what do you think people care about the most? Why do you think the Republicans have an advantage? Because they're unified.'
Hunter remains convinced that his father should not have dropped out of the race. He admits the debate was a disaster, but chalks it up to the time his dad had spent on a plane prior and an Ambien he was given in order to sleep. He says 'my dad grew old in front of everyone's eyes,' and that Americans need to reconsider 'how we handle people who age in front of our eyes,' while insisting he was politically viable because of the 81 million votes he received in 2020.
At the time Biden dropped out, Gallup polling showed his job approval rating at an anemic 36 percent, the lowest of his presidency, and aides working on the campaign were consistently fretting about their chances to the press. One reportedly insisted, 'no one involved in the effort thinks he has a path [to victory].'
Hunter, however, contends his dad had 'cleared every hurdle they set up for him.' On the post-debate Democratic collective freakout, Hunter says, 'He goes and does [ABC News' This Week with George] Stephanopoulos. Everyone says, 'that's not enough. We've got to see him give a press conference.' For what? You remember that, it was about a two-hour long press conference, and he gave a tour de force, around the world history lesson about the existence of NATO, Russian aggression and Ukraine.'
President Biden became vulnerable again, according to Hunter's telling, after he got COVID, which was when he said the Democratic Party elite vultures descended and insisted they'd destroy the party if he didn't drop out. Notably, Hunter doesn't blame Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he calls very loyal. At another point, he insists she's still the future of the party.
In whole, the interview is a view of history that is simply inconsistent with the facts. Biden was in position to suffer a historic loss, according to publicly available polling that kept getting worse. And Hunter Biden's account is full of contradictions — according to him, Americans need to learn to deal with a president who's getting old and who's undone by an Ambien, yet that same president also gave a 'tour de force' press conference and never should have dropped out.
Most remarkable is the way in Hunter's mind, his dad is a victim. As he notes multiple times with pride, Biden was a leader in the Democratic Party for over half a century. He was a senator for decades, vice president for eight years and president for four. He had better relationships with congressional leaders than President Obama. But at the same time, somehow he's free of all responsibility for the party's current unpopularity. Instead, it is the fault of Democratic elites, which somehow does not include Joe Biden himself.
The majority of the younger Biden's interview with Callaghan is consumed by questions of addiction and a lack of humanity in our politics. When he's speaking on those topics, he can be erudite and remind viewers of our collective fragility. His situation — much of the worst of his life exposed to a media and public hungry to devour it — is an unfortunate and ugly outgrowth of modern American culture (it's also won him a legion of fans). And he's able to directly diagnose a big problem for Democrats, a widespread perception that they are increasingly the party of only the elite. He's engaging insofar as he is willing to be impolite and unhinged in a political milieu dominated by evasion and artifice. He's likely channeling the true feelings of his family. But his beliefs also involve constantly shifting blame — to Rudy Giuliani, Tapper, Clooney, Pod Save America or whoever else is closest at hand.
That makes his recent media tour seem at times like a public temper tantrum, a chance to excuse himself and his dad and lash out indiscriminately at everyone else.
At the end of the interview, Callaghan, the documentarian, tells Biden about another project he's working on, involving interviewing adults who dress up and act like babies, wearing diapers, playing with childhood toys and sucking on pacifiers or their thumbs. It's a very funny and strange concept to Biden, who laughs heartily for the first time across the three hours. He concedes he knows the feeling.
'Some days I identify as a baby,' he tells Callaghan, laughing. He might have even more in common with this American subculture than he's ready to admit.
Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at [e-mail]. Or contact tonight's author at [e-mail] or on X (formerly know as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh.
What'd I Miss?
— Epstein crisis forces Republicans to shut down House early: House GOP leaders are canceling Thursday votes and sending members home early for a month-long recess as the Jeffrey Epstein crisis deepens on Capitol Hill. The decision to move up summer recess came after Republicans lost control of the floor over bipartisan pressure to vote on releasing Epstein-related documents. House committees will keep working through the week, but there will be no further floor votes after Wednesday.
— Deflecting Epstein questions, Trump urges DOJ to 'go after' Obama: President Donald Trump on Tuesday attempted to shift the public's focus away from the building crisis around the release of sealed documents detailing the Jeffrey Epstein case by urging his Justice Department to go after his predecessors. 'Whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people,' Trump said, accusing former President Barack Obama of 'treason.' As he took questions alongside Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos in the Oval Office, Trump dismissed the furor over the disgraced former financier, driven largely by Republican lawmakers and his own supporters, as 'a witch hunt,' claiming he 'didn't know' about the Justice Department's decision to seek a new interview with Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20 year prison sentence for sex trafficking minors and other crimes.
— China behind vast global hack involving multiple US agencies: Three China-linked hacking groups are among those responsible for a sweeping cyberattack against users of popular Microsoft server software that has already impacted dozens of organizations across the globe. Federal investigators believe multiple U.S. government agencies are among the early victims of the ongoing cyber exploitation campaign, though the full scope is not yet clear, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. Microsoft confirmed in a blog post today that three Chinese hacking gangs — known as Violet Typhoon, Linen Typhoon and Storm-2603 — are involved in the hacking effort. At least two U.S. federal agencies are among the roughly 100 suspected victims of the hacks thus far, said one U.S. official directly involved in the incident response and a second who has been briefed on it.
— Trump books draw lackluster sales: President Donald Trump promised Americans they would get tired of winning — for now, it appears they are getting tired of reading about him. Trump's first term saw books authored by prominent journalists sell hundreds of thousands of copies each as the public rushed to learn the inside details of Trump's norm-shattering presidency. But similar books aren't exactly flying off the shelves in his second term, and the bar to getting onto the coveted New York Times bestseller list has been lowered as the overall nonfiction book market has dipped.
— Judges oust Trump ally Alina Habba as New Jersey's top prosecutor: Federal judges declined to keep President Donald Trump's former personal attorney as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, exercising an arcane statute to rebuff the Trump administration's wishes. New Jersey district court judges voted to not let interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba stay on the job after her 120-day interim term expires, instead picking prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace, according to a court order posted to the judiciary's website. Habba, who served as counselor to the president and as Trump's personal attorney, was Trump's pick to be New Jersey's top federal prosecutor — a position she assumed in March on an interim basis. The decision to pass on Habba at the 120-day deadline of her tenure sets up a potential showdown between the judiciary and the White House, since the Trump administration lobbied judges to give Habba the permanent slot.
AROUND THE WORLD
NO MORE RANSOM PAYMENTS — Hospitals, local councils and operators of critical U.K. infrastructure are among the organizations that will be banned from paying ransoms to hackers under new plans unveiled by the British government.
The move — which will cover all public sector bodies as well as the owners and operators of critical national infrastructure — comes after years of escalating cyber attacks on parts of the British state.
Many of these attacks on British institutions and infrastructure can be traced back to Russia-aligned hacking groups that are now the subject of sanctions. Estimates from Chainalysis, a blockchain data and analytics company, suggest ransomware payments globally generated $1 billion from victims in 2023 alone.
'UNBEARABLE' IMAGES — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated EU calls for Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, as health workers warned Palestinians were facing 'forced starvation.'
'The images from Gaza are unbearable,' von der Leyen said. 'Civilians in Gaza have suffered too much, for too long. It must stop now.'
In 24 hours, 15 people — including four children — died of starvation, Gaza's health ministry said Tuesday morning. The latest deaths bring the total figures, according to local hospitals, to 101 people in Gaza, including 80 children, who have died from hunger since the start of the war.
Nightly Number
RADAR SWEEP
PLASTIC-FREE DINING — Shia, a Korean fine dining spot in Washington, D.C., is saying no to plastic. As the restaurant industry looks to become more sustainable, the restaurant replaced cling wrap with reusable muslin cloths and ditched squeeze bottles used for plate design for metal barista pitches. Owner Edward Lee is partnering with OpenTable to research and share what they have learned about the costs and benefits of the higher costs of going plastic-free on restaurants and customers. Will it work beyond small, upscale restaurants like Lee's? Ana Campoy reports for Bloomberg.
Parting Image
Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter.
Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.