Hunter Biden has expressed strong views on the Democratic Party’s role in the 2024 election loss, attributing it to a lack of loyalty to his father, Joe Biden, during recent podcast interviews. On Jaime Harrison’s “At Our Table” and Andrew Callaghan’s Channel Five, he argued that the party’s internal discord and abandonment of Joe after his debated performance squandered the advantages of incumbency and a successful administration. Hunter criticized the rapid turn against his father, suggesting that the Democrats’ failure to unify behind their leader—contrasting with Republicans’ support for Trump despite his legal troubles—cost them the election. He warned of ongoing factionalism, urging the party to rally behind future nominees to avoid repeating the “meltdown” that handed Trump the presidency.
Regarding Donald Trump, Hunter’s comments reflect a defensive stance, implicitly challenging the narrative Trump pushed using the so-called “laptop from hell.” In the podcast appearances, he dismissed conspiracy theories about his father’s decline, asserting that secrecy in Washington is impossible and that Joe’s interactions with hundreds daily would have exposed any cover-up. The laptop, which Trump’s allies leveraged in 2020 to allege corruption, has been authenticated in part, with emails revealing Hunter’s business dealings and personal struggles. Yet, Hunter’s narrative frames these as distortions, denying any direct involvement of Joe and portraying the laptop’s contents—detailing drug use and foreign deals—as exploited by Trump to smear the Biden family, a tactic he believes backfired by eliciting public sympathy rather than condemnation.
On his father’s legacy, Hunter portrays Joe as a wise and effective leader whose achievements rival those of Lyndon B. Johnson, emphasizing legislative successes and party rebuilding efforts. He defends Joe’s health, suggesting Ambien use before the debate was a misjudged attempt to manage exhaustion, not a sign of decline, and highlights Joe’s resilience against personal tragedy as a cornerstone of his appeal. The laptop, often dubbed a source of “wisdom” by critics for its unfiltered glimpse into Hunter’s life, contains messages of Joe’s love and concern, which Hunter cites to underscore his father’s moral grounding. Despite legal and political scrutiny, Hunter sees this legacy as one of integrity, insisting his own distance from the administration protected it, though the pardon Joe granted him has fueled ongoing debates about their relationship.