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Hunter Biden slams Clooney on anniversary of father's campaign exit

Hunter Biden slams Clooney on anniversary of father's campaign exit

Arab News5 days ago
WASHINGTON: In interviews published one year after Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid, his son Hunter lashed out at actor George Clooney for leading the public charge on calling for the elderly president to bow out.
'Fuck him. And everybody around him,' Biden's younger son said in a profanity-laced interview with independent journalist Andrew Callaghan, who has 3 million followers on YouTube.
'Really, do you think in middle America, that voter in Green Bay, Wisconsin, gives a shit what George Clooney thinks about who she should vote for?' Biden also said in a podcast with Jaime Harrison, former chair of the Democratic National Committee.
Clooney was one of the first high-profile Democrats to publicly call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, just three months before the election.
Biden, then 81 years old, was at the time facing growing doubts in his own camp about his health and mental acuity, after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump at the end of the June.
'I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee,' read the headline for Clooney's essay, published in the New York Times on July 10, 2024. The Oscar-winning actor and producer recounted having seen the president at a Hollywood fundraiser the month prior, describing him as no longer the politician he was in 2010 or 2020.
'I consider him a friend, and I believe in him...In the last four years, he's won many of the battles he's faced,' Clooney wrote.
'But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.'
Less than two weeks later, on July 21, the president announced he was quitting the race.
In the interviews released on Monday, Hunter Biden angrily remembered the events leading to the end of his father's decades-long political career.
'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 and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full page ad in the f***ing New York Times?' he said in the Callaghan interview.
Plagued for years with legal troubles and drug addiction, Hunter Biden became a favorite target of Republicans, who viewed him as the president's Achilles Heel.
Hunter received an unconditional pardon from his father in December 2024, after Trump defeated the Democratic replacement candidate, vice president Kamala Harris.
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Disney Brings the Grid, and the Light Bikes, with ‘Tron: Ares' Footage at Comic-Con
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  • Asharq Al-Awsat

Disney Brings the Grid, and the Light Bikes, with ‘Tron: Ares' Footage at Comic-Con

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Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques
Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques

Arab News

time3 hours ago

  • Arab News

Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques

TEXAS: After a spate of vandalism reports involving graffiti at a few mosques in Texas and California, Muslim leaders there have stepped up existing efforts to keep their sacred spaces and community members safe. The incidents and subsequent hypervigilance add to what many American Muslims say has already been a charged climate amid the fallout in the US from the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza. The war started in October 2023 with a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel. 'The past two years have been extremely difficult for American Muslims,' said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. A constant stream of images showing the death, destruction and ongoing starvation in Gaza has taken a toll, said Mitchell, as has a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry in the US Tomorrow, @CAIRAustin and leaders from the three mosques vandalized last week will hold a press conference condemning the attacks and inviting the public to a community gathering of solidarity on Thursday at Nueces Mosque. Press Conference Tuesday, May 27 | 11 AM CST … — CAIR National (@CAIRNational) May 26, 2025 He pointed to one of the most egregious examples of that bigotry: After the war started, an Illinois man killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American Muslim boy and wounded his mother in a hate-crime attack. Worry and frustration The recent vandalism reports have left some worried and frustrated — but not entirely surprised. 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Less than two weeks earlier, someone had spray-painted graffiti at the Islamic Center of Southern California, including the Star of David on an outer wall there, center spokesperson Omar Ricci said. 'In light of what's going on within Palestine and the genocide in Gaza, it felt like an attack,' said Ricci, who's also a reserve Los Angeles Police Department officer. Some specifics remained unresolved. The LAPD said it opened a vandalism/hate crime investigation and added extra patrols, but added it has neither a suspect nor a motive and noted that nonreligious spaces were also targeted. The Austin Police Department did not respond to Associated Press inquiries. Nueces had already increased its security camera use following three incidents last year, including someone throwing rocks at the mosque, Abdelghani said. After the May vandalism, it also added overnight security, she added. Nueces serves many university students and is considered a 'home away from home,' Abdelghani said. 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The initial Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, while about 250 were abducted. Tensions in multiple spaces The war has fueled tensions in myriad US settings. After it started, Muslim and Jewish civil rights groups reported a surge of harassment, bias and physical assaults reports against their community members. Pew Research Center in February 2024 found that 70 percent of US Muslims and nearly 90 percent of US Jews surveyed say they felt an increase in discrimination against their respective communities since the war began. More recently, leaders of US Jewish institutions have called for more help with security after a firebomb attack in Colorado on demonstrators showing support for Israeli hostages in Gaza that left one person killed and others injured, as well as a fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Politically, the conflict loomed over last year's presidential election, leaving many pro-Palestinian US voters feeling ignored by their own government's support for Israel. It has roiled campuses and sparked debates over free speech and where political rhetoric crosses into harassment and discrimination. There've been bitter disagreements, including among some Jewish Americans, about exactly what the definition of antisemitism should cover, and whether certain criticism of Israeli policies and Zionism should be included. That debate further intensified as President Donald Trump's administration sought to deport some foreign-born pro-Palestinian campus activists. The Islamic Center of Southern California has been targeted before, including vandalism in 2023 and separate threats that authorities said in 2016 were made by a man who was found with multiple weapons in his home. Incidents like the latest one cause concern, Ricci said. 'People see that it's not going to take very much to spark something in the city,' he said. 'There's a lot of emotion. There's a lot of passion' on both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sides. Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said 'if people think they can get away with graffiti, then the next step is to firebomb a mosque or even go attack worshippers.' Opening doors and receiving support Al-Marayati and others praised how many have shown support for the affected Muslim communities. 'The best preparation is what we did in Los Angeles and that's to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and be there for one another,' he said. In Texas, a gathering at Nueces brought together neighbors and others, including Christians and Jews, to paint over the vandalism, clean up the property and garden, Zayan said. 'It was beautiful,' she said. 'It's really important to open your doors and open your heart and invite people and to rebuild this trust and connection,' she said. 'For non-Muslims, it was a great opportunity for them to show their love and support. They really wanted to do something.'

Pakistan deputy PM says hopeful of finalizing US trade deal ‘in days'
Pakistan deputy PM says hopeful of finalizing US trade deal ‘in days'

Arab News

time11 hours ago

  • Arab News

Pakistan deputy PM says hopeful of finalizing US trade deal ‘in days'

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