Hunter Biden: Here's Why the Democrats Lost

Hunter Biden has pushed back against claims of a cover-up involving his father's health, blaming the Democrats' 2024 election defeat on a lack of loyalty to Joe Biden rather than any grand conspiracy. In his first interview since Kamala Harris lost the election to President Trump, Hunter Biden spoke on Jaime Harrison's upcoming podcast At Our Table, the Washington Post reports. He argued that the party squandered its advantages, saying, "We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down."

Joe Biden, 82, withdrew from the presidential race after a debate performance that triggered widespread concern among Democrats. The vice president replaced him as the Democratic candidate. Post-election books, including Original Sin by Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, have fueled speculation, alleging efforts to hide the president's alleged cognitive decline. Hunter Biden dismissed these conspiracy theories in an excerpt from the interview, pointing out the improbability of keeping such secrets in Washington's "fish bowl" environment. "The ability to keep a secret in Washington is zero," he told Harrison, suggesting that if real issues existed, someone would have come forward publicly.

"We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party," Hunter Biden said. He also denied Tapper's claim that he had been his father's "acting chief of staff," the Hill reports. "I was in that White House 12 days over the course of the last two years of the administration—clearly, because I had other things going on," he said. "You ask one person to go on the record that would ever tell you that I was in any way making a single decision about anything, anything in that White House," he said. "I stayed as far away as I possibly could. Which, by the way, broke my heart." The podcast from Harrison, former chairman of the DNC, debuts Thursday. Other guests will include Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate.