President Joe Biden stands with his lad Hunter Biden aft the president arrived astatine the Delaware Air National Guard Base successful New Castle, Delaware, June 11, 2024.
Anna Rose Layden | Reuters
Hunter Biden said successful a caller interrogation that his father, erstwhile President Joe Biden, had been taking Ambien successful the play earlier his first statesmanlike debate past June against then-candidate Donald Trump, and that the medicine sleeping pill contributed to his disastrous performance.
"I'll archer you what, I cognize precisely what happened successful that debate," Hunter Biden told independent writer Andrew Callaghan successful a lengthy interrogation published Monday, precisely 1 twelvemonth aft Biden abruptly withdrew from the 2024 statesmanlike race.
"He flew astir the satellite fundamentally ... he's 81 years old, he's bushed arsenic s---, they springiness him Ambien to beryllium capable to sleep, helium gets up connected the signifier and helium looks similar he's a cervid successful the headlights," the younger Biden said.
Joe Biden's unrecorded statement show was marked by stumbling, meandering answers and a quiet, raspy dependable that took viewers by astonishment and instantly raised questions astir Biden's fittingness to service different term.
A small implicit a period aft the debate, Biden announced helium was dropping retired of the statesmanlike race, clearing the mode for Vice President Kamala Harris to unafraid the Democratic nomination.
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Biden's run unit astatine the clip attributed his hoarse dependable to a "cold."
And Biden himself aboriginal said that his mediocre show was owed successful portion to a packed question docket earlier the showdown with Trump.
Biden had traveled to Europe doubly successful the period starring up to the debate, but helium was backmost successful Washington, D.C., astir 2 weeks earlier the debate.
Hunter Biden's remarks were the archetypal clip anyone adjacent to Biden has mentioned Ambien successful transportation with the erstwhile president's statement performance.
The remarks are besides apt to service arsenic fodder for a Republican-led House Oversight Committee investigation into Biden's intelligence acuity during the last twelvemonth of his presidency.
As portion of that investigation, 3 Biden administration officials — Annie Tomasini, Biden's lawman main of staff; Anthony Bernal, main of unit to erstwhile First Lady Jill Biden; and Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who served arsenic Biden's White House doc — person been called to give closed-door depositions earlier the committee astir Biden's cognitive fitness.
All 3 person invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and declined to reply questions.
It's not uncommon for witnesses to invoke their law close against self-incrimination erstwhile called earlier highly politicized legislature investigations.
During the Democrat-led probes of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol onslaught and Trump's efforts to enactment successful powerfulness aft helium mislaid the 2020 election, much than two twelve witnesses declined to reply questions by invoking their rights.
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