Hunter Biden made a startling claim about then-President Joe Biden in a recently released interview, where he offered up yet another excuse for his dad’s poor June 2024 debate performance against then-former President Donald Trump.
Hunter revealed that aides had been giving his father Ambien, a sleep aid, which he said left him looking like a “deer in the headlights” during his widely criticized debate performance.
“I know exactly what happened in that debate,” Hunter, 55, told YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan in an interview released on the anniversary of Biden ending his re-election bid, the New York Post reported. “He flew around the world. He’s 81 years old. He’s tired. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep and he gets up on the stage and looks like a deer in the headlights.”
A note released by Dr. Kevin O’Connor following President Biden’s physical exam on February 28, 2024, listed six medications the commander-in-chief was taking—but Ambien was not among them. The Post also reviewed Biden’s publicly available medical records and found no indication of an Ambien prescription, The Post noted.
Hunter Biden did not specify how long his father may have been using the sleep aid prior to the debate, during which Biden’s stumbling performance against Trump triggered a wave of panic within the Democratic Party and ultimately led to his decision to exit the race.
Joe Biden traveled to Italy for the G7 summit from June 13 to 15, 2024, shortly after attending events in France marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. But by June 20, he had retreated to Camp David to prepare for the high-stakes debate that took place June 27.
“He’s tired as s**t. They’d give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on stage, and he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights,” Hunter Biden claimed.
Republicans and conservative commentators quickly pounced on the revelation.
“Not an insignificant question: how much Ambien was Joe Biden taking everyday as president?” asked CNN commentator Scott Jennings on the X platform.
“The Biden White House, Democrats, and their allies in the legacy media LIED. They insisted Joe Biden was ‘sharp’ and on top of his game. Now Democrats pretend the cover-up never happened,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote on X in a post that contained a video clip of several Democrats claiming Biden was “on top of his game” throughout his presidency.
Meanwhile, Biden’s Democratic Party is a mess following former Vice President Kamala Harris’ resounding loss to Trump in November, as well as the Republican takeover of the House and Senate.
That has led some top Dems to offer some rare praise to Trump at the Hill Nation Summit last week.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called Trump “a very talented politician,” and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), who leads Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, gave Trump credit for his foreign policy decisions. including the Middle East, The Hill reported.
The remarks mark a shift in tone as Democrats try to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it before the 2026 midterms. Republicans hold a 220–212 majority in the House, and Democrats are scrambling to close the gap.
“Donald Trump’s a very talented politician, right?” Khanna said. “I don’t agree with him as a leader. He’s a very talented politician.”
Later, Khanna made a sharp admission.
“We acted as if the problem was the voters,” he said. “The problem was the party, and we acted with a condescension and a judgment on voters.”