In the days following a disastrous debate against Donald Trump in the first U.S. presidential debate last summer, then-president Joe Biden eventually blamed fatigue for his poor showing that night.
His son Hunter, in
a rare one-on-one interview posted this week
, said there was good reason for his father’s fatigue in the “absolutely horrible debate”: staff had given the president a sleeping pill.
“I know exactly what happened in that debate,” the younger Biden told Andrew Callaghan, host and creator of Channel 5, an independent, crowdfunded U.S. news outlet on YouTube, explaining that his father had recently flown around the world multiple times in the weeks leading into the debate.
“He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as s—. 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.
“And it feeds into every bulls— story that anybody wants to tell.”
The prescription drug is predominantly used to treat insomnia by helping people fall asleep faster and sleep for longer. According to the
, common risks for older adults can include confusion and memory problems, as well as next-day drowsiness.
Biden later clarified to
that he was not implying his father was given Ambien directly before the debate and had “no idea whether or not he used Ambien while travelling through multiple times zones in the weeks leading up to the debate.”
“My point was that his debate performance was completely out of character then and now,” he said.
According to the
, Joe Biden was prescribed the medication to help him sleep following trips to Europe. A spokesperson for his office declined to comment on Hunter’s interview.
Prior to a week of debate prep spent at Camp David between June 20-27, Joe Biden had travelled to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, then back to the U.S. to continue his campaign, according to
He returned to Europe for the Group of Seven meeting on June 14 and was back in Los Angeles for a fundraiser on June 15 — 12 days prior to the tête-à-tête with Trump.
“I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate,” he said at a campaign fundraiser in Virginia days after the debate.
“I didn’t listen to my staff … and then I almost fell asleep onstage,” he quipped.
His performance in the June 27 televised debate added to the existing concerns about and cognitive ability to carry out the duties of president for another four-year term. In the early goings, he struggled to complete thoughts and sentences, and he spoke in a quiet, almost raspy voice throughout, which
and
later attributed to a severe cold.
A day after the debate, however, a much more alert Biden reaffirmed his commitment to the race at a rally in North Carolina, telling supporters
for him to drop out. “I know I’m not a young man. I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t talk as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth,” he said, per
.
“I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job, I know how to get things done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Days later, in an
interview, he said he’d only step down if “Lord Almighty” instructed him to do so.
Come July 21, and still recovering from a
days earlier, Biden resigned from the race and endorsed then vice-president Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
Hunter Biden said, “the vultures descended” after seeing the video of his father slowly walking up the steps to Air Force One while sick with COVID. At the time, the president was still committed to seeking re-election.
The younger Biden, whose convictions on tax and gun charges were unconditionally pardoned by his father before leaving office, contended that people need to accept that age alone does not dictate ability.
“The thing that we’re going to have to grapple with as a society that’s bigger than Joe Biden is how we handle people that age in front of our eyes and recognize that they may have lost a physical step, but that does not mean they don’t have the mental capacity to continue to do their job and whether there still should be to be valued.
“So my dad grew old in front of everybody’s eyes, and the difference between whether or not you thought that he was politically viable, based upon your own biases, or whether you thought that he was politically capable based upon his accomplishments.”
Hunter Biden’s over three-hour sit-down with Callaghan is also making headlines this week over expletive-laden comments the former president’s son made about actor George Clooney. The Ocean’s trilogy star wrote
an op-ed in the New York Times
after the debate in which he encouraged Biden to drop out.
“F— him and f— everyone around him,” Biden said pointedly.
“What right do you have to step on a man who’s given 52 years of his f—ing life to the service of this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full-page ad in the f—ing New York Times to undermine the president?”
Much of the interview, published on the anniversary of Joe Biden announcing his withdrawal, focuses on Biden’s recovery from alcohol and drug addiction and includes a discussion about the laptop scandal. The matter involves a personal computer allegedly owned by Biden and containing contents that raised questions about his foreign business dealings and whether his father was involved. Officials eventually confirmed much of the material was real, but found no evidence directly implicating the president.
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