James Morrow: Hunter Biden’s bizarre hit job on fellow Dems shows a US left in disarray

In a wide-ranging interview, the former president’s son Hunter Biden has unleashed on everyone from George Clooney to Nancy Pelosi, writes James Morrow.

It’s not just the weather that runs the opposite way in the northern hemisphere. There’s also the politics.

On Tuesday a triumphant Labor was sworn back in to office, a sea of red amid a grey and drizzly Canberra day.

But in the US, things are running in the other direction.

This week in Washington, DC, the weather is expected to be mostly sunny and summery, with temperatures approaching 30 most days.

Yet for the Democrats, Labor’s rough equivalent number in the US, things are as looking as a glum as a rainy early sunset in the ACT.

Because around the same time as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was attending a pre-parliamentary service at Canberra’s Wesley Uniting Church (a “lovely” service, he said), politicos in America were mainlining excerpts from an interview given by former president Joe Biden’s often wayward son, Hunter.

Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen. Picture: AFP

Hunter’s chat with YouTube creator Andrew Callaghan was bitter, bizarre and wide ranging — even Sydney copped a sidelong mention as a bystander to his father’s decline.

How bizarre? Here’s a little excerpt.

“Crack, crack cocaine, and you know, here’s the picture, and here he is smoking crack in a bathroom, and you know I keep flashing that over and over again, and I say Hunter Biden, laptop, Ukraine, China, Ukraine, China, Ukraine, Hunter Biden laptop, bird flu, literally, you keep doing that over and over again …”

US President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden hug on stage at the conclusion of the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 2024. Picture: AFP

That’s a direct quote from the junior Biden complaining about the media and Republicans’ treatment of him and his dad, though the only thing it really established is that the former first son would be hell to sit next to on the bus.

The rest of the interview was just as odd. Speaking of crack cocaine, once his drug of choice, Hunter had this to say in the substance’s defence.

“People think of crack as being dirty. It’s the exact opposite,” he said.

“When you make crack, what you’re doing is, you’re burning off all the impurities so that it can bind with the sodium bicarbonate, which makes it smokable. That’s all.”

“Does crack cocaine make you act any differently? No, is it safer than alcohol? Probably,” Hunter continued, adding that he’d been clean and sober since 2019 while still sounding like every stoner who’s ever claimed that a morning bong is a health food compared to an after work schooner.

But it was when things got to politics that the interview really got interesting, and underlined the fault lines within the Democrat party.

His father’s horrific debate performance? Hunter blamed it on the president’s having taken an Ambien sleeping pill, though why you’d take a sleep aid before the debate and not after is anyone’s guess.

US actor George Clooney.

Donald Trump’s crusade against illegal migrants?

He made it clear what side he was on: “People are really upset about illegal immigration? F*** you.”

“White men in America are 45 more times to commit a f**** violent crime than an immigrant. If I became president, I would call the f****** president of El Salvador and say, send the illegals back or I’m going to f****** invade.”

As commentator Mary Katherine Ham sarcastically put it, “This whole interview is making me rethink. Hunter is so measured and mature, there’s no way he’s the kind of guy who would leave his laptop at a repair shop in 2019.”

He also was full of bile for those he claimed undercut his dad’s presidency, including actor George Clooney, the left wing Hollywood star who last year penned an op-ed for the New York Times revealing the true state of the then-president’s condition.

While lashing out at Clooney over his supposed betrayal in revealing the true state of Joe Biden’s mental condition to The New York Times, Callaghan recalled an incident in Sydney last year when Jack Black cancelled a Tenacious D tour after a band member made an inappropriate comment about the attempt on Donald Trump’s life in Pennsylvania.

Callaghan claimed that Clooney was “blowing (Black’s) phone up”, urging him to kick the band member out.

“F*** him!”, Hunter shouted about Clooney, saying “he’s not a f****** actor, he’s a brand.”

And through it all he dropped bombs on the entire Democrat establishment, from the Obamas to Nancy Pelosi.

All of this is worth mentioning for a few reasons, beyond the morbid interest in Hunter Biden’s behaviour.

One, it shows how far the Biden family has fallen, and how desperate they may be to get someone on the road given Joe’s inability to do big money speaking tours like other former presidents.

But it also shows the vapidity and lack of leadership in the entire Democrat party where, absent anyone with any real support in the polls, Hunter Biden’s ramblings can occupy a news cycle.

Meanwhile in Australia, at least the Coalition can console itself it at least has a leader instead of a wayward son.

Originally published as James Morrow: Hunter Biden’s bizarre hit job on fellow Dems shows a US left in disarray