Topline
Hunter Biden said former President Joe Biden was taking Ambien before his disastrous debate with President Donald Trump last year that was the catalyst to his exit from the 2024 presidential campaign, making the claim for the first time in a new interview aired a year after Biden’s historic exit from the race.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. U.S. President Joe Biden, looks on from the East Room of the White House … More
Key Facts
Biden’s team would “give him Ambien to be able to sleep and he gets up on the stage and looks like a deer in the headlights,” Hunter Biden said, noting the president’s intensive travel schedule in the lead-up to the debate.
Hunter Biden’s statement in an interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan marks the first mention of Biden taking the medication as Biden’s circle has continued to try to explain his disastrous debate performance a year after he ended his presidential bid.
Hunter Biden also claimed a significant number of Democrats were still behind his father even after the debate, despite more than three dozen Democratic members of Congress calling for him to end his campaign: “The people who came out against him were nobody, except . . . Speaker Emeritus [Nancy] Pelosi,” Hunter Biden said (Pelosi did not publicly call for Biden to drop out, but reportedly worked behind the scenes to urge him to make the decision).
Then-President Biden said in a post-debate interview with ABC News he was “sick” and “feeling terrible” and was diagnosed with a “really bad cold,” also attributing what he described as a “bad night” to his travel schedule while speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Virginia.
Biden traveled to Europe in early June, then Los Angeles, before returning to Washington on June 16, 2024 and heading to Camp David a week before the June 27 debate.
Crucial Quote
“I know exactly what happened in that debate,” Hunter Biden said. “He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as sh–. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like a deer in the headlights.”
Tangent
Biden announced in May he was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer that had spread to the bone, leading to new allegations he covered up his health issues during his presidency.
Key Background
Biden made the historic decision to end his presidential bid on July 21, less than a month after his June 27 debate with Trump, when he often appeared confused, gave nonsensical answers and spoke in a soft, raspy voice. Biden immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him in a letter announcing his decision. Her campaign failed to gain traction and Trump went on to win all seven battleground states, defying polls that showed Harris was the favorite.
Further Reading
Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Timeline Is Entirely Possible, Doctors Say, Despite GOP’s Cover-Up Concerns (Forbes)
‘Befuddled’ And Exhausted During Debate Prep: All The Allegations About Joe Biden’s Mental Decline In New Books (Forbes)
Biden Admits He Might Be Too Old To Have Served Another Term (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/07/21/hunter-biden-blames-joe-bidens-poor-debate-performance-on-ambien/