Hunter Biden says dad Joe was on Ambien during disastrous 2024 debate with Trump
Former first son Hunter Biden claimed in a new interview Monday that his father's disastrous performance in last year's debate with Donald Trump was due in part to the 46th president taking Ambien — which there is no record of him being prescribed.
'I know exactly what happened in that debate,' Hunter, 55, told YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan in an interview released on the anniversary of Biden prematurely ending his re-election bid.
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3 Former President Joe Biden, his sister Valerie Biden, and his son Hunter Biden on July 26, 2024.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
3 Hunter Biden said his dad was on Ambien during his fateful debate with Donald Trump before the 2024 election.
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'He flew around the world. He's 81 years old. He's tired. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep and he gets up on the stage and looks like a deer in the headlights.'
A note released by Dr. Kevin O'Connor following Biden's physical exam that February makes note of six medications the commander-in-chief was taking — but the popular sleeping aid is not one of them.
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The former first son also downplayed the extent of the Democratic revolt against his father that led to Joe Biden giving up the Democratic nomination.
3 Jill and Joe Biden depart the stage after the former president's debate with Donald Trump.
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'The people who came out against him were nobody, except … Speaker Emeritus [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] did not give a full-throated endorsement,' he said.
'The entirety of the progressive side of the Democratic Party said Joe Biden has got more of our agenda accomplished in four years than any president in history.'
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San Francisco Chronicle
26 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Texas Democrats plea for donations to extend their walkout and block Trump's redistricting plan
After leaving Texas for Illinois to prevent a legislative vote on a Republican redistricting plan, state House Democratic leader Gene Wu needed a means to project his voice — and viewpoints — to a national audience. So he tapped his campaign account to buy a microphone for news conferences. When it came to covering the hefty hotel bill for Wu and his roughly 50 colleagues, the lawmaker said he relied on money from his chamber's Democratic Caucus. Now Texas Democrats are pleading for donations to help finance what could be a walkout of weeks — if not months — in a high-stakes attempt to prevent the Republican majority from passing a plan sought by President Donald Trump. The president is urging Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional districts to help Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House in next year's midterm elections. 'We're getting a lot of small-dollar donations,' Wu told The Associated Press, "and that's going to be used to help keep this thing going.' A political group led by Beto O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman who ran unsuccessfully for governor and Senate, gave money to the Texas House Democratic Caucus to help cover the up-front costs, according to a spokesperson for the group, Powered by People. O'Rourke this week has been holding events in red states to fire up Democrats and encourage donations. Powered by People has not disclosed how much it contributed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said Wednesday he's launching an investigation into whether O'Rourke's group has committed bribery by a 'financial influence scheme' benefiting Democrats who left Texas. In response, O'Rourke said he would be undeterred by the threat of an investigation and used it as a fundraising opportunity. Lawmakers face travel costs and potentially huge fines By departing the state, Democratic lawmakers have prevented Republicans from obtaining the quorum needed to conduct business. Democrats hope to run out the clock on a special legislative session that ends Aug. 19. But Republican Gov. Greg Abbott could immediately call another session, raising the prospect of a prolonged and an expensive holdout. Not only could Texas Democrats face thousands of dollars in out-of-state lodging and dining costs, they also could eventually face fines of $500 for each day they are absent, which under House rules cannot be paid from their office budgets or political contributions. Texas has a part-time Legislature where lawmakers receive $600 a month, plus an additional $221 for expenses each day they are in session. On Wednesday, state Sen. Jose Menendez joined Democrats from other states at a rally in Boston, where he noted that the potential daily fine for quorum-breaking lawmakers is nearly as large as their entire monthly legislative salary. 'They need your prayers, they need your thoughts and they need you to get behind them,' he said. Some Democrats in the Texas Senate have traveled out of state this week to support their House colleagues, but lawmakers in that chamber are not leaving the state to hold up legislative business. 'This fight is for the people' Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and billionaire, has welcomed the Texas lawmakers to his state but said he has not financially supported them. Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who has built a national following in recent weeks, said the lawmakers told Pritzker they didn't want him to fund their trip. 'We've already been inundated with donations from across the state of Texas, from across the country, just regular people donating $5, $10, $15,' Talarico said this week. 'And that's appropriate, because this fight is for the people and it should be funded by the people. We don't have billionaires who are funding this operation.' The House Democratic Caucus has set up a website seeking donations of between $25 and $2,500 — with a default amount of $250. Earlier this week, Abbott asked the state's highest court to remove Wu from office and ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate possible bribery charges related to how Democrats are paying for the walkout, alleging anyone who financially helped them could be culpable. Wu, a former prosecutor from Houston, said the bribery suggestion is 'monstrously stupid.' 'No member is leaving because they might get a campaign contribution that might restore some of the money that they're spending,' he said. How left-leaning groups are helping Before Democrats decided to leave Texas, Wu said he called potential allies for assurance 'that there would be resources that would come to our assistance.' But he said that's no different from an aspiring candidate asking others for support before officially launching a campaign. Wu, who is chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said he has participated in online sessions with representatives of dozens of Democratic, progressive and redistricting-oriented groups. Not all are financial supporters. Some are providing help in other ways, such as by coordinating publicity. The Democratic National Committee has helped with communications and organizing, as well as providing help from a data analytics team, Chair Ken Martin said. Texas Democrats aren't worried that they'll be forced to return home in the near future because of a lack of money, said Luke Warford, founder of Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund, a Texas fundraising and organizing group. He said longtime Democratic funders understand the high cost of competing in tougher U.S. House races if Republicans succeed in redrawing the map. "Of course having most of the delegation out of the state is going to rack up a bill,' Warford said. But "when you think about it in the context of what Donald Trump has to gain and what Democrats might lose in the short term, it's just not even close to the cost of trying to win back either these races or a bunch of other races in the country.' The Democratic lawmakers have been holed up at a hotel and conference center outside Chicago that was evacuated Wednesday after an unfounded bomb threat. Many lawmakers have been dining and meeting together, and are prepared to keep doing so. Democratic state Rep. John Bucy III, speaking by phone from the hotel, said he isn't concerned about how the costs ultimately get covered. 'There's too much at stake here to be worried about those things,' Bucy said. "Our hotel bills seem so minor compared to what we're trying to do — to protect democracy.'
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
US to Scale Back Human Rights Accusations Against 3 Countries: Report
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The administration of President Donald Trump is scaling back criticism of certain foreign governments over their human rights records, including their treatment of LGBTQ+ people, in a shift from the traditional U.S. promotion of rights, The Washington Post reported. The newspaper reviewed leaked draft reports on El Salvador, Israel and Russia being prepared for the State Department's annual report on human rights practices in countries around the world. Newsweek reached out to the State Department for comment Wednesday night. Why It Matters The leaked reports for the three countries underscore how the Trump administration is rethinking the U.S. role in global human rights advocacy. The apparent shift on human rights reflects a pattern of disengagement from international conventions and comes as the administration has already moved to abandon long-held positions and norms in areas like trade, the environment and relations with allies. Diplomats in U.S. embassies around the world have drawn up the annual rights report for almost 50 years. Their findings are considered the most thorough and wide-ranging of their kind. President Donald Trump, left, greets Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, as Bukele arrives at the White House on April 14 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump, left, greets Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, as Bukele arrives at the White House on April 14 in Washington, D.C. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP What To Know The Post said the documents it reviewed are consistent with internal guidance circulated this year by State Department leaders who advised staff to shorten the reports to the minimum required by statutory guidelines and executive orders and to remove references to government corruption, gender-based crimes and other abuses the U.S. government historically has documented. "The 2024 Human Rights report has been restructured in a way that removes redundancies, increases report readability and is more responsive to the legislative mandate that underpins the report," the newspaper cited a senior State Department official as saying. According to the Post, the reports it reviewed are significantly shorter than the ones prepared last year by the administration of former President Joe Biden. They cut all references to LGBTQ+ people or crimes against them, and the descriptions of government abuses that remain have been softened. The draft for El Salvador says it had "no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" in 2024. The previous report for El Salvador, documenting 2023, identified "significant human rights issues" there—including government-sanctioned killings, instances of torture and "harsh and life-threatening prison conditions." "A comparison of the documents covering El Salvador shows the Trump administration downplaying the country's history of prison violence, emphasizing that there has been a reduction overall while stating that purported deaths were under government review," the newspaper reported. El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, a close ally of Trump, has offered to house people from other countries deported by the U.S. in a mega-prison built to detain gang members. "Scrutiny of corruption and judicial independence also is significantly scaled back in the draft report for Israel," the newspaper said, adding that the Israel draft is 25 pages compared with more than 100 pages last year. The draft for Israel makes no mention of corruption or threats to the independence of its judiciary. The 2023 report compiled by the Biden administration addresses the corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and judicial overhaul efforts, which critics say threaten the independence of the judiciary. Previous reports also mentioned Israeli surveillance of Palestinians and restrictions of their movement but the issue is not addressed in the draft, the Post said. Keifer Buckingham, who worked on LGBTQ+ issues at the State Department until January, told the Post that the failure to include any mention in the reviewed reports of gender-based violence or violence against LGBTQ+ people was a "glaring omission" in the case of Russia, where its Supreme Court had banned LGBTQ+ organizations and labeled them "extremist," with raids and arrests last year. What People Are Saying Buckingham, also managing director at The Council for Global Equality, said: "Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio has repeatedly asserted that his State Department has not abandoned human rights, but it is clear by this and other actions that this administration only cares about the human rights of some some countries, when it's convenient to them." The senior State Department official cited by the newspaper said: "The human rights report focuses on core issues." What Happens Next It is not clear if the reports eventually transmitted to Congress and released to the public will mirror the drafts. The ones for El Salvador and Russia are marked "finalized," while the draft for Israel is marked "quality check," the Post reported.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Texas AG to investigate O'Rourke-linked group amid map row
Texas has launched an investigation into Beto O'Rourke's Powered by People group in connection to Democrats who fled the state over the weekend. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday launched an investigation into potential Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke over allegations that he "bribed" Democratic state lawmakers who fled the Lone Star State to prevent Republicans from passing GOP-favorable congressional maps that critics say strip power from voters of color. Paxton announced the investigation amid a deepening row between the state's Democrats and Republicans. The state's minority Democrats fled Texas over the weekend to deny Republicans the quorum needed to certify the controversial maps. The state's Republican leadership has responded with threats of arrest and to vacate their congressional seats if they don't return by Friday, as well as investigations into anyone who solicits funds to support their effort. Paxton said Wednesday that he is investigating the O'Rourke-led Powered by People, which is reportedly covering the costs of Texas Democrats who fled the state. He also said the Powered by People group may have violated bribery laws and state laws, such as those governing campaign or officeholder contributions and expenditures, coercion of a public servant and abuse of office. "Any Democrat coward breaking the law by taking a Beto Bribe will be held accountable," Paxton said in a statement announcing the investigation. "These jet-setting runaways have already lost public trust by abandoning our state, and Texans deserve to know if they received illegal bribes to do it." The new maps, if certified, are expected to give Republicans five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of next year's midterm elections. Critics and Democrats argue that the maps draw lines that dilute the voting power of Latino and Black people, while serving as a power grab by President Donald Trump through rigging the GOP representation in the House. Democrats have widely supported their Texan colleagues' actions to prevent quorum. Republicans have viewed the move as a shirking from their responsibilities. O'Rourke has been traveling throughout several swing states, including Missouri, Wisconsin, Indianapolis, Nebraska and others, trying to generate grassroots support for the Texas Democrats. In response to the investigation, O'Rourke accused Paxton of hypocrisy. "The guy impeached for bribery is going after the folks trying to stop the theft of five congressional seats," he said on X. Paxton was impeached by the state House but was acquitted of all corruption charges by the Senate. The Republican attorney general has vowed that he will seek "aggressive legal action" against any Democrat who is not present at the House on Friday, while Abbott has called for their arrests.
