A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
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.
Timing was everything
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.
Now, a reckoning
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.
The son was his father’s Achilles heel
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.
Many Democrats want the whole thing, including the Bidens, to just go away
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.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
