Latest news with #presidentialdebate
CNN
13 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Analysis: Should anyone pay attention to Hunter Biden?
Aggravated and unleashed, former first son Hunter Biden is on something of a grudge tour, lashing out at those who pressured his father to sub out of the presidential race in the fourth quarter of the 2024 presidential election. 'I don't give a shit what George Clooney thinks,' Biden told former DNC chair Jaime Harrison in a podcast. Clooney's New York Times op-ed about President Joe Biden's decline may have energized pressure for him to step down as the Democratic nominee in 2024, but it was fed by the conventional wisdom, obvious to anyone who watched Biden's fumbling performance in CNN's 2024 presidential debate that he was going to lose the election. Biden's decision to step down after a disastrous debate performance came after the primary process — too late for Democratic voters to pick his replacement, but soon enough for Vice President Kamala Harris to launch a last-minute and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to keep the White House for Democrats. Now Democrats are contending with a lurch to the right engineered by the Trump administration, which has initiated mass deportation efforts; downsized the federal government; directed the Justice Department to investigate the president's political enemies; all but ended foreign aid programs; clamped down on diversity efforts; cut taxes mostly for the wealthy; and engineered cuts to Medicaid spending that will kick millions of Americans off their health insurance in the years to come. In the aftermath of the Democrats' disaster, Hunter Biden has it in for Clooney, James Carville and other Democratic luminaries, all of who he thinks undercut his dad, who got a lot done and is now watching much of it be undone by Trump. He has also been dismissive of former President Barack Obama. And Hunter has an excuse for his dad's bad debate performance: Joe Biden was tired and on the sleep aid Ambien, Hunter Biden said during a three-hour interview about politics and his recovery from addiction on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan. That may be true, but there are also no excuses if your one job — as Joe Biden's was for Democrats — is to stand in the way of Trump's resurgence. And so most Democrats probably, to borrow Hunter Biden's words, don't give a $!@# what he says. Controversy around Hunter Biden, who has been accused of trading on his last name to secure work for foreign companies, allowed Trump and Republicans to impugn Joe Biden. There was never proof that Joe Biden abused his position, but after years of investigations, there didn't need to be. The special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden's illegal ownership of a firearm while addicted to drugs and his tax evasion were sideshows that also probably damaged Joe Biden's presidency. Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son and others on his way out of the White House door will tarnish his presidential legacy, even as it accurately predicted the Trump administration's use of the Department of Justice. All of that makes it easy to pile on Hunter Biden for not seeing that his father's flagging approval rating and the perception that his decline was being hidden from Americans made his reelection extremely unlikely. Hunter Biden is sticking up for his dad's legacy. Clooney's op-ed, on the other hand, seemed to come from a place of genuine concern both for Biden and for the country. An autopsy the party is preparing to assess why it lost the 2024 election will sidestep Biden's decision to bow out, as well as Harris' campaign, according to a report in the New York Times — which almost sounds like the punchline of a joke. 'An autopsy should address the actual cause of death,' Rep. Ritchie Torres of Texas said Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Torres argued a Democratic nominee would have benefited from a primary process and exposure to voters, which is Politics 101. Another Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, told CNN's Kasie Hunt that he's looking forward to the next election, not back at the last one. 'You can't go back in time and change that decision, which, of course, was consequential to the outcome. So why don't we focus on what people expect from us right now,' Swalwell said Monday.
CNN
13 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Analysis: Should anyone pay attention to Hunter Biden?
Aggravated and unleashed, former first son Hunter Biden is on something of a grudge tour, lashing out at those who pressured his father to sub out of the presidential race in the fourth quarter of the 2024 presidential election. 'I don't give a shit what George Clooney thinks,' Biden told former DNC chair Jaime Harrison in a podcast. Clooney's New York Times op-ed about President Joe Biden's decline may have energized pressure for him to step down as the Democratic nominee in 2024, but it was fed by the conventional wisdom, obvious to anyone who watched Biden's fumbling performance in CNN's 2024 presidential debate that he was going to lose the election. Biden's decision to step down after a disastrous debate performance came after the primary process — too late for Democratic voters to pick his replacement, but soon enough for Vice President Kamala Harris to launch a last-minute and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to keep the White House for Democrats. Now Democrats are contending with a lurch to the right engineered by the Trump administration, which has initiated mass deportation efforts; downsized the federal government; directed the Justice Department to investigate the president's political enemies; all but ended foreign aid programs; clamped down on diversity efforts; cut taxes mostly for the wealthy; and engineered cuts to Medicaid spending that will kick millions of Americans off their health insurance in the years to come. In the aftermath of the Democrats' disaster, Hunter Biden has it in for Clooney, James Carville and other Democratic luminaries, all of who he thinks undercut his dad, who got a lot done and is now watching much of it be undone by Trump. He has also been dismissive of former President Barack Obama. And Hunter has an excuse for his dad's bad debate performance: Joe Biden was tired and on the sleep aid Ambien, Hunter Biden said during a three-hour interview about politics and his recovery from addiction on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan. That may be true, but there are also no excuses if your one job — as Joe Biden's was for Democrats — is to stand in the way of Trump's resurgence. And so most Democrats probably, to borrow Hunter Biden's words, don't give a $!@# what he says. Controversy around Hunter Biden, who has been accused of trading on his last name to secure work for foreign companies, allowed Trump and Republicans to impugn Joe Biden. There was never proof that Joe Biden abused his position, but after years of investigations, there didn't need to be. The special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden's illegal ownership of a firearm while addicted to drugs and his tax evasion were sideshows that also probably damaged Joe Biden's presidency. Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son and others on his way out of the White House door will tarnish his presidential legacy, even as it accurately predicted the Trump administration's use of the Department of Justice. All of that makes it easy to pile on Hunter Biden for not seeing that his father's flagging approval rating and the perception that his decline was being hidden from Americans made his reelection extremely unlikely. Hunter Biden is sticking up for his dad's legacy. Clooney's op-ed, on the other hand, seemed to come from a place of genuine concern both for Biden and for the country. An autopsy the party is preparing to assess why it lost the 2024 election will sidestep Biden's decision to bow out, as well as Harris' campaign, according to a report in the New York Times — which almost sounds like the punchline of a joke. 'An autopsy should address the actual cause of death,' Rep. Ritchie Torres of Texas said Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Torres argued a Democratic nominee would have benefited from a primary process and exposure to voters, which is Politics 101. Another Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, told CNN's Kasie Hunt that he's looking forward to the next election, not back at the last one. 'You can't go back in time and change that decision, which, of course, was consequential to the outcome. So why don't we focus on what people expect from us right now,' Swalwell said Monday.
CNN
14 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Analysis: Should anyone pay attention to Hunter Biden?
Aggravated and unleashed, former first son Hunter Biden is on something of a grudge tour, lashing out at those who pressured his father to sub out of the presidential race in the fourth quarter of the 2024 presidential election. 'I don't give a shit what George Clooney thinks,' Biden told former DNC chair Jaime Harrison in a podcast. Clooney's New York Times op-ed about President Joe Biden's decline may have energized pressure for him to step down as the Democratic nominee in 2024, but it was fed by the conventional wisdom, obvious to anyone who watched Biden's fumbling performance in CNN's 2024 presidential debate that he was going to lose the election. Biden's decision to step down after a disastrous debate performance came after the primary process — too late for Democratic voters to pick his replacement, but soon enough for Vice President Kamala Harris to launch a last-minute and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to keep the White House for Democrats. Now Democrats are contending with a lurch to the right engineered by the Trump administration, which has initiated mass deportation efforts; downsized the federal government; directed the Justice Department to investigate the president's political enemies; all but ended foreign aid programs; clamped down on diversity efforts; cut taxes mostly for the wealthy; and engineered cuts to Medicaid spending that will kick millions of Americans off their health insurance in the years to come. In the aftermath of the Democrats' disaster, Hunter Biden has it in for Clooney, James Carville and other Democratic luminaries, all of who he thinks undercut his dad, who got a lot done and is now watching much of it be undone by Trump. He has also been dismissive of former President Barack Obama. And Hunter has an excuse for his dad's bad debate performance: Joe Biden was tired and on the sleep aid Ambien, Hunter Biden said during a three-hour interview about politics and his recovery from addiction on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan. That may be true, but there are also no excuses if your one job — as Joe Biden's was for Democrats — is to stand in the way of Trump's resurgence. And so most Democrats probably, to borrow Hunter Biden's words, don't give a $!@# what he says. Controversy around Hunter Biden, who has been accused of trading on his last name to secure work for foreign companies, allowed Trump and Republicans to impugn Joe Biden. There was never proof that Joe Biden abused his position, but after years of investigations, there didn't need to be. The special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden's illegal ownership of a firearm while addicted to drugs and his tax evasion were sideshows that also probably damaged Joe Biden's presidency. Joe Biden's decision to pardon his son and others on his way out of the White House door will tarnish his presidential legacy, even as it accurately predicted the Trump administration's use of the Department of Justice. All of that makes it easy to pile on Hunter Biden for not seeing that his father's flagging approval rating and the perception that his decline was being hidden from Americans made his reelection extremely unlikely. Hunter Biden is sticking up for his dad's legacy. Clooney's op-ed, on the other hand, seemed to come from a place of genuine concern both for Biden and for the country. An autopsy the party is preparing to assess why it lost the 2024 election will sidestep Biden's decision to bow out, as well as Harris' campaign, according to a report in the New York Times — which almost sounds like the punchline of a joke. 'An autopsy should address the actual cause of death,' Rep. Ritchie Torres of Texas said Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Torres argued a Democratic nominee would have benefited from a primary process and exposure to voters, which is Politics 101. Another Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, told CNN's Kasie Hunt that he's looking forward to the next election, not back at the last one. 'You can't go back in time and change that decision, which, of course, was consequential to the outcome. So why don't we focus on what people expect from us right now,' Swalwell said Monday.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Senior Democrat rips into Hunter Biden's 'regrettable' claims about Joe being on sleeping pills
A senior member of the U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus had some choice words for Hunter Biden after the former first son made an astounding claim about the state of his father's health last year. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Capitol Hill Tuesday that Hunter Biden's comments were 'regrettable, because we need to be looking forward and focusing on the past really makes no sense.' The younger Biden appeared in an interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan which aired Monday, during which he made shocking claims about his father, former President Joe Biden. Hunter revealed that the sleep aid Ambien was to blame for his father's disastrous presidential debate performance, which became a turning point in the 2024 campaign. Monday's interview marked the one year anniversary of the presidential debate between then-incumbent Biden and current President Donald Trump, after which Biden withdrew from the race. 'I know exactly what happened in that debate,' Biden's son said. 'He flew around the world. He's 81 years old. He's tired. They gave him Ambien to be able to sleep and he gets up on the stage and looks like a deer in the headlights.' The then president blamed his lousy June 27, 2024 performance on a cold, though had spent several days at Camp David resting up ahead of the Atlanta showdown. As Republicans in the House and the Senate have been conducting investigations into the usage of the autopen by former President Joe Biden, Democrats have had to toe a tough line. Blumenthal has called the GOP investigations 'performative and theatrical' and told the Washington Examiner last month that he was 'not super interested in' attending a hearing on Biden's presidential pardon power. Yet, one of the actions taken by Biden via autopen during the last few days of presidency was the decision to commute the prison sentence of Adrian Peeler, a man who planned and committed the murder of an eight-year-old boy and his mother in 1999. The crime happened in Connecticut, Blumenthal's home state, and the senator remarked back in January that somebody had 'dropped the ball' with that particular decision. Hunter Biden's bombshell interview made numerous headlines Monday as the former first son unleashed f-bomb-laden rants and made shocking revelations about his family. Hunter also attacked prominent Democrats such as his father's former ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who criticized Democrats performance in the 2024 election, and actor George Clooney who called for the elder Biden to drop out of the Presidential race last year. Hunter even went as far to say that he would invade El Salvador if they refuse to send back deportees sent to the country by the Trump administration. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz remarked that the rant was 'unhinged.' 'This is the current state of the Democrat party,' he added.
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Hunter Biden blames Ambien for Joe's debate performance
Hunter Biden blamed the sleep aid Ambien for his father's disastrous presidential debate performance, which became a turning point in the 2024 campaign. The younger Biden sat down for a three-hour-long interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan, which was released Monday - the anniversary of former President Biden's decision to quit his reelection campaign and endorse his Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden also talked extensively about his own drug use in the sit-down, including how he learned how to make his own crack. 'I know exactly what happened in that debate,' Biden said. 'He flew around the world. He's 81 years old. He's tired. They gave him Ambien to be able to sleep and he gets up on the stage and looks like a deer in the headlights.' The then president blamed his lousy June 27, 2024 performance on a cold, though had spent several days at Camp David resting up ahead of the Atlanta showdown with now President Donald Trump. It wasn't enough to quiet the calls for him to drop out. The former first son remained bitter about what happened to his father, though told Callaghan he was able to remain sober the whole time. Biden said he was just over six years sober after spending about three years, after the 2015 death of his brother Beau, in the pits of addiction to alcohol and crack. 'This is like a PSA - if you want to completely, utterly [expletive] up your life,' Biden said, crack would do the job. 'The only difference between crack and cocaine is sodium bicarbonate and water and heat,' he explained. 'You can go to a your neighborhood convenience store and just get - anyway, I don't want to tell people how to make, how to make crack, but it literally is a mayonnaise jar of [class A drug] and baking soda.' Biden said the high is extremely intense on crack. 'It's vastly, vastly different,' the recovering addict admitted. 'I feel really reluctant to kind of have some euphoric discussion, I know you're not asking me to do that, have some euphoric discussion about crack,' he continued, with Callaghan saying that he was not. 'I don't want to have the experience of some euphoric recall - that's how powerful crack is,' Biden admitted. The former first son said that crack had a dirty reputation but 'it's the exact opposite.' 'When you make crack, what you're doing is you're burning off all the impurities,' he explained. Biden said his addiction in earnest started in 2016, when he left an alcohol recovery program over a row with staff and found his former dealer 'Bicycles' in a downtown Washington, D.C. park who sold him crack. 'Now there are periods where I would stop. I would try and get help or half try and get help or appease people in my life and say that I was getting help. And so I did a whole host of things to try and pull myself out of it. I did try,' he remembered. 'And people would come in and out of my web and try and help me, and my level of toxicity would drag them down until they would disappear. And then people that would come into my life that were nothing but blood sucking leeches that would literally saw vulnerability and latch on and drain me literally of everything that I had, from emotional well-being to my physical well-being to my bank account and that was the ebb and flow for almost three years until I met Melissa,' he continued, referencing his wife Melissa Cohen. Cohen and Biden had a whirlwind romance in 2019, marrying shortly after they met, with the South African filmmaker helping him get sober. Prior to that, Biden recalled a particularly scary moment when he was found in a hotel swimming pool floating face down. 'Someone had given me something,' he recalled. 'And this person saved me and I woke up after about 12 hours where they just held me.' 'My whole point of this story is that this person put themselves at an enormous risk,' he continued, explaining that if he had overdosed and died, the individual could have been blamed. 'They saved my life for nothing other than to be human, because every single other person that was there, literally, they stole my shoes, they stole my clothes,' the former first son recalled.
