Hunter Biden says father was on Ambien before disastrous debate, defends painting sales

Fox News

21-07-2025

Former first son Hunter Biden disclosed his father was on an anti-insomnia prescription ahead of his disastrous 2024 debate that may have affected his command of the stage that evening.
Biden said former President Joe Biden had taken Ambien, a gamma-aminobutyric acid enhancer similar to benzodiazepines, to help him sleep better amid his grueling schedule and advanced age.
He criticized several members of former President Barack Obama's inner circle for continually doubting his father, saying that the 2024 State of the Union was a make-or-break moment that the elder Biden "knock[ed] out of the park."
The debate, he said, was the next test his father was given by Democratic elders to see if he should run for reelection.
"I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world, basically, the mileage that he could have flown around the world, three times. He's 81 years old. He's tired as s---. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep," he said.
"He gets up on the stage. And he looks like he's a deer in the headlights. And it feeds into every f---ing story that anybody wants to tell," Hunter went on, adding that CNN anchor Jake Tapper's book relied on several anonymous sources for his related expose because in reality no one had spoken out against Joe.
"If this was a conspiracy… somehow the entirety of a White House in which you're literally living on top of each other has kept their mouth shut about you now, like what? And what's the conspiracy? Did Joe Biden get old? Yeah, he got old. He got old before our eyes. The people that came out against him were who — nobody — except Speaker Emerita Pelosi did not give a full-throated endorsement, which allowed everybody else to kind of go, 'OK.'
"Who came out full-throated? Progressives. AOC, Bernie, the entire progressive wing, [Silicon Valley Congressman] Ro Khanna. 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. The largest investment into climate change in history, just that alone. And so he gets over the hump. He goes and does Stephanopoulos, and everybody said that's not enough…"
Earlier in the interview, with Delaware Valley podcaster Andrew Callaghan, Hunter savaged Obama's inner circle, mocking the hosts of "Pod Save America" — made up of his then-youthful close aides — as "Saviors of the Democratic Party."
"[They're] White millionaires that are dining out on their association with Barack Obama from 16 years ago living in Beverly f---ing Hills telling the rest of the world what Black voters in South Carolina really want or what the waitress living outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin [want].
"I hear Rahm Emanuel's going to run for president," he added incredulously. "I think David Axelrod is going to run his campaign for him… there's a f---ing answer; geniuses all."
Hunter also disputed claims his father had been the unanimous choice of Democrats in 2020.
"Bull----. We lost Iowa. We lost New Hampshire. We came in second in Nevada. David Plouffe and David Axelrod went on TV. They said that there's no way Joe Biden can get the nomination, not a chance in the world. Mike Bloomberg's gonna crush him in California. Elizabeth Warren's gonna beat him in Massachusetts… A lot of rural voters said, 'F--- you, we love Joe.' A lot urban voters said, 'F--- you. We love Joe.' And they voted for him overwhelmingly," he said.
He later defended himself against allegations about his decision to market paintings, saying they were a pastime that "saved him" from his vices.
"They accused me of crimes for painting. Not that I couldn't sell my paintings, but that it was a clear conspiracy to launder money and to curry influence by selling acrylic on canvas — through this abstract painting by Hunter Biden," he said.
"All of a sudden, the Iranians are going to change their nuclear weapons program. It's such f---ing insane bull----. Meanwhile, these mother f---ers are selling gold telephones and sneakers and $2 billion investments in golf courses and selling tickets to the White House for investment into their memecoin.
"If you believe the worst possible thing that they've ever said about me [in terms of influence peddling] — what they are openly doing, they're openly doing. And nobody's batting an eye. Don Jr. is opening a club called the Executive Club in Georgetown in which it is promised that you will be able to rub shoulders at the cost of a $500,000 initiation fee with… people and decisionmakers in the cabinet of his father."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, as well as a representative for former President Joe Biden in regard to the Ambien revelation.