Biden's son says Clooney undermined father in election
Hunter Biden has accused Democratic advisers of making money but not helping the party's candidates. (AP PHOTO) Credit: AAP
Former US president Joe Biden's son Hunter has criticised actor and Democratic Party donor George Clooney's 2024 decision to call on the elder Biden to abandon his re-election bid.
In a three-hour online interview, Hunter Biden used a string of expletives to describe Clooney when discussing the actor with Andrew Gallagher of Channel 5.
Clooney supported Democrat Joe Biden's bid for a second term and even headlined a record-setting fundraiser for the then-president.
But the actor changed his stance after Biden turned in a lacklustre debate performance against Republican Donald Trump in June 2024 and added his voice to mounting calls for the then-81-year-old president to leave the race.
Clooney made his feelings known in an opinion piece in The New York Times.
Biden ended up leaving the race a few weeks later and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris, who later lost to Trump.
In the wide-ranging interview, Hunter Biden questioned why anyone should listen to Clooney and said the Ocean's Eleve actor had no right to "undermine" his father.
"What right do you have to step on a man who's given 52 years of his f***ing life to the services 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 to undermine the president," Hunter Biden said before he trailed off to talk about how Republicans are more unified than Democrats.
Joe Biden served 36 years in the US Senate and eight years as Barack Obama's vice president before he was elected president in 2020.
Referring to Joe Biden's debate performance, Hunter Biden said his father may have been recovering from Ambien, a medication that he had been given to help him sleep following trips in the weeks before the debate to Europe, as well as the Los Angeles fundraiser at which Clooney said his interactions with the elder Biden made him feel the president was not mentally capable.
"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," Hunter Biden said.
He also ranted against longtime Democratic advisers he accused of making money off the party and trading off previous electoral successes but not helping candidates' current efforts.
Anita Dunn, a longtime Biden senior adviser, has made "$US40 to $US50 million ($A61 million to $A77 million)" off of work for the Democratic Party, Hunter Biden said.
James Carville, adviser to former president Bill Clinton, "hasn't run a race in 40 f***king years".
Former Obama strategist David Axelrod, Hunter Biden said, "had one success in his political life, and that was Barack Obama - and that was because of Barack Obama".
Other former Obama aides who now host the Pod Save America podcast are "four white millionaires that are dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago," he said.
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