Hunter Biden has spent the past few years avoiding interviews and public appearances for some obvious reasons — like the whole laptop thing, or the federal charges he faced for improper gun ownership and tax offenses, or the pardon he received from his dad for those offenses. But on Monday, he went long on all the things that have been bothering him. In a three-hour interview with the web series Channel 5, Biden spoke in depth about his substance abuse, his ongoing FBI trouble, and his father’s botched reelection campaign.
Many of the clips from Biden’s interview with host Andrew Callaghan bear similarities to past interviews with former president Joe Biden’s eldest surviving son — talk of his drug use, recovery, and support of his dad. But the interview does reveal some new information, like his suggestion that Joe had been given the sleep drug Ambien before his disastrous debate with Donald Trump that marked the beginning of the end of his reelection campaign.
“I know exactly what happened in that debate,” Biden said, sounding remarkably like his father. “He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as shit. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep, and he gets up on the stage and looks like a deer in the headlights.”
Despite that performance, Biden remained a strong supporter of his father’s presidential bid even as close allies abandoned him last summer after the debate. In the interview, Biden had strong words for some of the loudest voices calling for his dad to drop out last year:
Biden, 55, also discussed his own drug abuse, claiming at one point that crack cocaine is “probably” safer than alcohol. He also denied being the source of the cocaine that was found in the White House in 2023. “I have been clean and sober since June of 2019. I have not touched a drop of alcohol or a drug, and I’m incredibly proud of that,” he said. “Why would I bring cocaine into the White House and stick it into a cubby outside of the situation room in the West Wing?” In May, FBI deputy director Dan Bongino announced that the agency would reopen an inquiry into the source of the White House coke.
Like many political or politics-adjacent people these days, Biden chose a source outside the news media for his biggest interview in years. (Also on Monday: Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on a podcast hosted by the conservative influencers the Nelk Boys, who began their career doing prank videos.) Andrew Callaghan, who is now critical of both the Democratic and Republican Parties in his work, began his career taping drunk people in New Orleans telling him their secrets. Since then, his man-on-the-street interviews exploring weird America have become extremely popular online.
“I am an admirer of your work,” Biden said, for its “interesting commentary on the moment we’re living in.”
