Democratic leaders are expressing frustration with the Biden family as both former First Lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden resurface, complicating the party’s efforts to regain control of Congress during the midterm elections.
Jill Biden is stepping back into the public eye with the release of her memoir, set to hit shelves next week. In a recent interview with CBS News, she shared her concern during her husband’s faltering debate appearance, which eventually led to his withdrawal from the presidential race. She believed he might have been experiencing a stroke.
“Is this a stroke? It felt like we were witnessing an AI hologram malfunctioning. Has he been drugged?” she questioned, according to a snippet shared by The Atlantic.
Simultaneously, Hunter Biden has openly addressed his prolonged battle with addiction during a conversation with Candace Owens and made his debut on the social media platform X.
“I’m Hunter Biden. You’ve never actually heard from me,” he introduced himself in his first post on X.
These developments have left Democrats, eager to capitalize on the positive momentum from earlier special elections, frustrated with the Bidens for stepping back into the spotlight.
‘Why are we talking about this? Why are we talking about Hunter Biden? Why is Hunter Biden talking about Hunter Biden?’ Democrat strategist Pete Giangreco told Politico.
Much like many ex-Biden staffers, Giangreco was angry with Jill for discussing her thoughts on the June 2024 debate in Georgia, which was the beginning of the end of President Biden’s career.
‘Nobody wants to relitigate the worst debate performance since the Greek Republic,’ he added.
Democrats are furious with the Biden family as both former First Lady Jill and troubled son Hunter have made the media rounds in recent days
Biden’s interview with Candace Owens aired Thursday night, a a surprise sit-down with the conservative firebrand who spent years mocking him as a ‘crackhead’
Former White House special assistant Meghan Hays said the situation was ‘not welcome from Democrats’ going into the midterms.
‘We have a lot of momentum in our favor … and when we get pulled back into conversations about age and the election in ’24,’ she told CSPAN. ‘It’s never gonna be a good place for Democrats. I think it’s a tough place to be.’
Hays believes that Jill Biden’s reappearance is out of a ‘need to sell books’ and the First Lady wanting ‘her story out there.’
An anonymous former Biden administration official was much less sparing toward Jill.
‘My reaction was basically: “Welcome to the club,”‘ the source said about Joe Biden’s disaster debate performance.
‘Every person across America and in your administration wondered the same thing, and instead of acknowledging that, we were told for days to ignore it — that it was just a bad night, just an anomaly.’
Democrat New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday that none of this matters in the larger scheme of things.
‘What I need to do is to focus on making a difference in the lives of people,’ Lujan Grisham said. ‘And that’s what I think they’re getting really frustrated about, is all this nonsense. I don’t think the average Democratic voter, honestly, particularly in New Mexico, gives a damn about that book or the debate anymore.’
Much like many ex-Biden staffers, Democrats were angry with Jill for discussing her thoughts on the June 2024 debate in Georgia, which was the beginning of the end of President Biden’s career
One former assistant believes that Biden’s reappearance is out of a ‘need to sell books’ and the First Lady wanting ‘her story out there’
Giangreco added that Democrats everywhere should be ignoring the Bidens and focus on their political enemies.
‘Your time has passed, move on,’ he said. ‘The Republicans and all their super PACs are going to outspend us three-to-one, four-to-one — that’s what we need to be focused on.’
Hunter gave a wide-ranging interview to the right-wing Owens where he also confessed his descent into crack addiction was a slow-motion suicide attempt designed to inflict maximum pain on his family.
‘I was a coward. I didn’t go and just do it. I said, let me do it this way and really, really, really drag everybody down with me along the way,’ Hunter told Owens.
‘Let me figure out the way not only to kill myself, but to maybe kill my dad, you know, really hurt my family.’
Biden’s youngest son became a top target for Donald Trump after the so-called ‘laptop from hell’ surfaced in October 2020.
Just three weeks before the general election, it exposed shocking text messages and photos which showed Hunter smoking crack and posing nude with prostitutes.
Conservatives seized on the material as proof of corruption, while intelligence officials and Democrats dismissed it at the time as Russian disinformation.
Twitter and Facebook suppressed the story in the run-up to the election, fueling Republican fury and lasting doubts over the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
First Lady Jill Biden (center) stands near her husband, President Joe Biden (right), during the June 2024 presidential debate co-moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper (left). Dr Biden now says she thought her husband was having a ‘stroke’ during his disastrous performance
His age and inability to communicate effectively sparked widespread health fears for Biden
Suspicion still surrounds Hunter’s appointment to Burisma’s board in 2014, a reported $50,000-a-month job he held for five years despite having no energy sector experience while his father was Barack Obama’s top envoy on Ukraine.
No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden, as president or vice president, ever accepted bribes.
Jill Biden is on the cusp of releasing her White House memoir, View From the East Wing.
She kicked off the press tour by doing an interview with CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver.
The book comes out on Tuesday, with Jill then embarking on an eight-city tour.
To CBS, she suggested that she was shocked by her husband’s debate performance, along with everyone else.
‘I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,’ the former First Lady said. ‘I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, “Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.” And it scared me to death.’
President Joe Biden (center) and First Lady Jill Biden (right) then stopped by a Waffle House before departing Georgia for North Carolina, where the then President headlined another political rally in Raleigh the next day
The former First Lady also garnered criticism for her performance in the debate’s aftermath, as the 81-year-old President made not one but two campaign appearances directly following the event.
Joe and Jill headed to an Atlanta-area watch party to greet supporters.
‘Joe, you did such a great job,’ the first lady told her husband onstage.
‘You answered every question. You knew all the facts.’
She and the President then headed to a Waffle House to meet more voters.