Hunter Biden has launched a scathing attack against George Clooney and says his father’s poor showing at the United States presidential debate in 2024 was due to taking Ambien.

In his first interview since the 2024 election, Hunter Biden criticised Democrats who turned against his father, former US president Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden spoke candidly about his previous addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol, but denied the cocaine found in the White House in 2023 was his.

The interview with YouTube creator Andrew Callaghan lasted for more than three hours.

Hunter Biden became a target of Republicans during his father’s presidency, and despite saying he would not do it, Joe Biden granted his son an unconditional pardon in December 2024.

The interview started with Hunter Biden saying he was feeling “great” despite a difficult personal journey in recent years.

He said he “survived certain death” and “having survived that hell, it kind of prepared me for making it through the public humiliation” he had experienced.

Here are some key moments from the interview.

Hunter Biden was with his father Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House when he announced he would drop his reelection bid. (Evan Vucci via Reuters)

‘F*** you’, Clooney

Hunter Biden lashed out at actor George Clooney for leading the public charge on calling for the elderly president to bow out.

“F*** you,” he said in reference to Clooney.

“What do you have to do with f***ing anything? Why do I have to f***ing listen to you?”

Clooney was one of the first high-profile Democrats to publicly call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, just three months before the election.

He wrote an article in the New York Times called: “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee”. It was published on July 10, 2024.

Joe Biden posted this photo to social media after a fundraiser in Los Angeles in June 2024. (X: Joe Biden)

In it, Clooney wrote, “In the last four years, he’s [Joe Biden] won many of the battles he’s faced”.

“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.”

Hunter Biden said Clooney tried to “rationalise why he attempted to cut the knees out from a sitting president” in the article.

“What right do you have to step on a man who’s given 52 years of his f***ing life to the service of this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out basically a full page ad in the f***ing New York Times to undermine the president,” Hunter Biden said.

White House cocaine not mine, Biden says

A bag of cocaine was found in the West Wing of the White House in July 2023.

At the time, there was no sign who the cocaine belonged to, but investigators said it was in a “well-travelled” part of the building.

The FBI launched an investigation into the matter, which sparked Donald Trump to speculate that it belonged to Hunter or Joe Biden.

“Well, either Joe or Hunter,” Trump responded when asked who it belonged to.

People were evacuated from the White House grounds after the cocaine was found. (AP: Anthony Peltier)

Hunter Biden denied the accusations.

“I have been clean and sober since June of 2019. I have not touched a drop of alcohol or a drug, and I’m incredibly proud of that,” Hunter Biden said.

“Why would I bring cocaine into the White House and stick it into a cubby outside of the situation room in the West Wing?”

Sleep medication blamed for dire debate

Hunter Biden said his father’s disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump was the result of him taking Ambien due to his travel.

Less than a month after that June 27, 2024, debate, Joe Biden stepped aside as presidential candidate after having trailed Trump in the polls.

“I know exactly what happened in that debate,” Hunter Biden said.

“He [Joe Biden] flew around the world, basically the mileage he could have flown around the world three times. He’s 81 years old. He’s tired as shit,” he said.

“They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage and he looks like he’s a deer in the headlights.”

Ambien is a medication used for short-term treatment of sleeping problems.

The former president prepared at Camp David with his aides for several days for the debate. Before that, he took two European trips and was on the US West Coast for a fundraiser. In the days after the debate, the former president blamed his debate performance on jet lag. 

The debate in June 2024 torpedoed Joe Biden’s election campaign. (Reuters: Brian Snyder)

At various points throughout the YouTube interview, Hunter Biden took aim at the Democratic Party for how it dealt with his father.

“We watched Joe Biden turn 80 and 81 and then 82,” Hunter Biden said.

“We watched him get old in front of our eyes. That does not mean that you’re incapacitated.”

ABC/Wires