Former first son Hunter Biden faulted Democrats’ disloyalty to his father for the electoral drubbing they suffered last year and President Trump’s rise back to power.
The younger Biden argued that Democrats squandered their advantages of incumbency and “an incredibly successful administration” — despite its record-low approval numbers — when they turned against his father in dramatic fashion last summer.
“We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party,” Hunter Biden said on former Democratic National Committee boss Jaime Harrison’s new podcast, according to excerpts.
“That’s my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down,” he added in what appears to be his first public interview of the year.
Harrison, who helmed the DNC from 2021 to 2025, is launching a new podcast, “At Our Table” on Thursday.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running-mate, will be among his podcast debut guests as well as Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), another close Biden ally, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D).
The younger Biden underscored that Democrats need to coalesce behind a leader and griped that because his father was sacked, the party will be mired by internal fighting for most of President Trump’s second term.
“You know what, we are going to fight amongst ourselves for the next three years until there’s a nominee. And then with the nominee, we better as hell get behind that nominee,” he argued.
Hunter Biden also fended off speculation that he held a pronounced role in his father’s administration, telling the former DNC boss that he “stayed as far away as I possibly could — which, by the way, broke my heart.”
Harrison, who was widely seen as a Biden loyalist, later signaled that he agreed with Hunter Biden’s assessment, telling Semafor that the outcome may have been different if Democrats had the loyalty that “Republicans have for Donald Trump.”
“There are a lot of podcasts out there, but I don’t think any of the folks on our side have the relationships that I have,” Harrison told the outlet about his new podcast as he jumps into a crowded market.
The former first son has largely kept a low public profile and rarely sits down for interviews. Throughout his father’s presidency, his legal troubles and scandals loomed large. On his way out of the White House, former President Joe Biden gave his troubled son a sweeping pardon over an 11-year period.
That marked an about-face from the former president’s public claim that he wouldn’t give his son clemency.
Hunter Biden had been staring down the specter of jail time after being found guilty of all charges in the illegal possession of a firearm case against him and pleaded guilty to charges in another indictment for willful refusal to pay $1.4 million in taxes.
His father has similarly laid low since leaving the White House, though earlier this week, The New York Times published a rare interview with him in which he defended his use of autopen, insisting that he made all the clemency decisions despite aides admitting that he didn’t necessarily approve every single name.
The 46th president had been dogged by questions of his infirmity after his fumbling debate performance against President Trump in late June of last year.
Eventually, as an outpour of Democrats urged him to step aside, the former president did so, paving the way for former Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s standard bearer and lose to Trump.
Concerns about the 46th president’s mental acuity were revived earlier this year following the release of “Original Sin,” by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. But Hunter Biden disputed the premise that there was a cover-up to conceal his father’s decline.
“What sells, Jaime? What sells is the idea of a conspiracy,” the former first son told Harrison, contending that the “ability to keep a secret in Washington is zero.”
Former President Joe Biden shocked the world earlier this year by revealing his prostate cancer diagnosis that had metastasized to his bones.
“Every single day, hundreds of people,” the former first son continued. “And you can’t get one of them to go on the record and say, ‘I saw the president do X?’”
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