By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, said his father’s disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump that led to the Democrat stepping aside as presidential candidate was the result of him taking Ambien due to his travel.
“And I’ll tell you what, I know exactly what happened in that debate. He (Joe Biden) flew around the world, basically the mileage he could have flown around the world three times. He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as shit,” the former president’s son said in an interview released on Monday with YouTube creator Andrew Callaghan.
“They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage and he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights,” Hunter Biden added.
Ambien is a medication used for short-term treatment of sleeping problems. Joe Biden’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Monday.
The former president prepared at Camp David with his aides for several days for the debate. Prior to being at Camp David, the Democrat took two European trips and was on the U.S. West Coast for a fundraiser.
The former president’s debate performance against then-Republican presidential candidate Trump, in which the Democrat regularly struggled to finish his thoughts, triggered a backlash against Biden’s candidacy for the 2024 elections.
Less than a month after that June 27, 2024, debate, Biden stepped aside as presidential candidate after having trailed Trump in the polls. Former Vice President Kamala Harris then became the candidate for the Democrats and went on to lose to Trump in the November elections.
In the days after the debate, the former president blamed his debate performance on jet lag after two overseas trips earlier that month.
In the interview released on Monday, Hunter Biden also expressed frustration with Democratic voices, strategists and lawmakers who abandoned his father’s candidacy following the debate.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Stephen Coates)
