This is Gavin Newsom - And, This Is Hunter Biden Like You've Never Heard Him Before

00:00:00.200 I'm joined today by presidential candidate Hunter Biden.

00:00:04.040 I'll run, but only as your VP.

00:00:06.300 I think everybody's carrying around a bag of heroin in their pocket, and it's called an iPhone. 0.99

00:00:10.660 I'm not stepping off the stage for fucking anybody. 0.99

00:00:14.000 This is Gavin Newsom. 0.99

00:00:16.820 I'm Hunter Biden.

00:00:20.800 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:23.680 Guaranteed human.

00:00:25.300 Last night, a blown call changed the game.

00:00:27.980 This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

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00:00:35.120 I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports, and giving you the real story behind the headlines.

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00:01:00.540 Happy Pride from the Outspoken Podcast Network.

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00:01:40.240 I've been hearing for decades that the markets can solve climate change.

00:01:44.800 Today, we have more incentives for market solutions than ever, and emissions are rising.

00:01:48.900 On this season of Drilled, Carbon Cowboys, the story of three market solutions colliding in one multinational boondoggle.

00:01:58.280 You gotta give Bruce and the guys credit. They're Republicans. They don't give a s*** of money.

00:02:02.900 Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 0.64

00:02:10.160 He left Nigeria, he conquered Hollywood, and he never forgot where he came from.

00:02:14.800 David Ayelowo is one of the most powerful storytellers of his generation.

00:02:20.020 On this episode of 154, we go deep.

00:02:22.840 Nigeria, identity, navigating Hollywood at the highest level,

00:02:26.960 and the responsibility that comes with using your platform to change the world.

00:02:31.260 This is 154, new episode streaming now.

00:02:35.180 Don't miss it.

00:02:36.200 Listen to this episode of 154, available now on the iHeartRadio app,

00:02:40.900 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:02:43.260 I'm joined today by presidential candidate Hunter Biden, 2028.

00:02:49.760 Come on, Hunter.

00:02:51.160 What's going on?

00:02:52.360 No, no, no, no.

00:02:52.940 You got more buzz out there than you got the president of the United States, Donald Trump, talking about your candidacy for president.

00:03:00.500 I had to give you I had to give you a break for just one day at least.

00:03:06.280 Here's the deal.

00:03:07.520 Here's the deal.

00:03:08.100 I'll run, but only as your VP, because the truth of the matter is the vice president's residence is a lot cooler.

00:03:15.860 It's a lot easier job, too.

00:03:18.520 Is it legitimately, is it a better residence?

00:03:22.180 I mean, you were both.

00:03:23.560 You have unique status to be able to actually make that case.

00:03:26.820 The White House is, the grandeur of the White House is, it never gets old.

00:03:32.580 Um, but the, um, but you, you really do feel like you're in a, um, a gilded cage, you know,

00:03:40.260 it's so, and, and, and the grounds of the, of the VP residence are really private and it's pretty

00:03:46.760 cool. I was, in fact, the last time we saw each other, I was, I was with you, your dad brought

00:03:52.080 me upstairs and, uh, in the residence and, uh, to your point, I, that's, you know, it's as grand

00:03:58.140 and extraordinary as it is. No one wants to be, you know, the last thing anyone wants to hear is

00:04:02.200 someone saying, you know, it's not all that. But to your point, that's a little claustrophobic.

00:04:06.880 I mean, everybody around, not a lot of sense of freedom or privacy. Yeah. So get used to it, pal.

00:04:15.720 I was I was hoping when I saw you that we would just dig in, that you would, you know,

00:04:22.080 I'd get you in one of those secret rooms. You'd stay. Your dad brought me up, by the way,

00:04:27.360 Evan, now I'm talking out of school here, but he talked, he was on a tour that I think that was for

00:04:32.900 him. He was walking into closets. He said he hadn't been in, in years and years. And he was

00:04:37.600 discovering, he's like, well, let's see what's behind this door. And there was a bunch of clothes

00:04:41.300 that were stored. He goes, Oh, I think that put that in six years, four years ago. It's, it was,

00:04:46.700 it was what he was in one of those moods where I think your mom had to come up to get him because

00:04:51.700 he was taking too much time with me which was fun well that's that that's a that was a common

00:04:58.980 occurrence and still is yeah so uh look you've been making a lot of news lately and uh and i

00:05:06.480 think surprising a lot of people as well i mean you showed up and and i appreciate you showing up

00:05:11.520 where you've been showing up i spent three hours with sean ryan myself and there you are with sean

00:05:16.640 ryan former navy seal someone who was out there very critical in fact i remember walking into

00:05:21.020 on Ryan's set and right above the door, it said, let's go, Brandon, when I got there. So I understood

00:05:27.220 exactly where his politics were. And then lo and behold, you show up on my feed and you're there

00:05:33.120 with Ryan and you were there with Candace Owens recently and back on X and blowing up the internet.

00:05:40.960 And so, you know, the obvious first question, Hunter, is what the hell is going on? Welcome

00:05:45.700 back uh to uh you know the bright lights and uh and what was what's what was the trigger man what

00:05:52.080 was the inspiration to come back out and really tell your story yeah i i am uh the the way that

00:06:00.500 i number one is you know i learned a little bit and i'm i'm i'm being serious a little bit from

00:06:06.040 you i watched that um uh that interview that you did with charlie kirk and you know he had that uh

00:06:14.020 line uh when you guys were talking about how progressives how democrats are afraid to go

00:06:21.220 into the lion's den of these you know long and i thought shit i'm not you know because um because

00:06:29.400 what are you gonna say that hasn't already been said and there's an incredible freedom to the um 0.93

00:06:35.860 uh to having been uh stripped bare in the public square and and lashed um a thousand times and

00:06:43.400 still be standing and you know it's not by any um you know courage or you know uh you know i i didn't

00:06:52.440 go to reishi cash for seven years and trained to be a monk but um but what i did learn is that um

00:06:59.480 there's an enormous freedom in um in owning your whole story and uh and so i felt more than

00:07:08.280 anything what i had the opportunity to do is talk to the 50 million americans who are suffering on

00:07:14.520 a daily basis from from addiction and you know it's not something that um that any of us are

00:07:22.280 unfamiliar with i mean anybody everybody's got a best friend uh a mom a dad a brother or sister

00:07:30.120 i love family member that or themselves that have um that have suffered from addiction now

00:07:36.520 not everybody was a crack addict but addiction is addiction and it is one of the things that

00:07:41.720 probably one of the uh singular things that um that uh that binds us all so whether it was sean

00:07:49.560 ryan who opened up to me about his own struggle with addiction and um or candace owens who uh i

00:07:57.800 thought that if i had the opportunity to sit with her personally that she would see the humanity of

00:08:03.720 it um and uh because you know i don't think these people are bad people you know i mean they have uh

00:08:13.640 very different political views than i have um and i think that you have but you know what is that

00:08:20.760 we're all just trying to figure it out man you know and i and and i think that that uh

00:08:25.400 that that's the reason and more than anything like I'll tell you what I'm doing now is that

00:08:33.420 I joined a a a organization called Peak Path Health and it's a rehab and but what we're doing

00:08:40.860 they brought me on to build their foundation and the foundation is going to focus on aftercare

00:08:46.720 which I think is the big missing gap in the recovery industry is you get your 30 days and

00:08:52.500 then you go back to the same situation that you were in and your chances of of making it are really

00:08:58.720 really slim but these aftercare programs and um you kind of long-term stays um not where it is a

00:09:06.760 um like a confined space like a rehab in which you can get job training wellness you know a lot

00:09:12.820 of the work that my sister does with people um that are coming out of out of prison or out of

00:09:18.100 rehab in terms of teaching them wellness techniques, everything from meditation to

00:09:23.360 just common nutrition and things like that. All of it makes a difference, particularly in a

00:09:30.100 in a community of people where, you know, recidivism or relapse, whatever you want to call

00:09:36.760 it, is about, you know, 75 to 85 percent. So yeah. So that's the reason I, you know,

00:09:42.620 they gave me a stage, I'm going to use it. And was there, was there a trigger? I mean,

00:09:48.200 was there a conversation? Was there a moment where you said, you know what, I'm done being,

00:09:53.620 you know, my story being told by everybody else? Because you've been sober now. It's been seven

00:09:58.280 years. You just posted that it's been seven years, June 1st, 2019. And, and so throughout the

00:10:04.920 presidency, throughout your father's presidency, you were, you were clean and sober. Yet you were

00:10:09.320 Again, your ass kicked 24-7 to cover New York Post more than any human being in modern history. 0.99

00:10:16.520 You just, you know, these guys just abandoned. 0.99

00:10:18.540 These guys, Gingrich, I mean, well, not Gingrich, sure, but Giuliani, these guys,

00:10:23.940 and the weaponization of that laptop or whatever, you know, all of that.

00:10:27.460 And you were quiet.

00:10:29.220 You were quiet then.

00:10:30.460 You know, what was the moment where you said, I'm going to defend myself.

00:10:34.080 I'm going to write my own story.

00:10:35.220 Yeah. I felt like I had enough distance from the politics of the administration. Why now? Why right now? I needed that year to get my feedback underneath me.

00:10:54.240 the reason you know you know this is that the presidency uh and my choice to be vocal or not 0.96

00:11:03.260 um it wasn't it wasn't about me i know i'm i'm fully aware that nobody really gives a shit about 0.95

00:11:10.280 hunter biden what they gave a shit about was power what they gave a shit about was presidency 0.95

00:11:14.960 and they attacked the one thing that they knew my dad loved the most it's his family yep and um you 0.99

00:11:20.880 You know, I mean, that's a play that is as old as politics, but it was on a on a on a biblical scale for me.

00:11:31.920 But it really wasn't my place. You know, I heard Tim Miller and by the way, who I like.

00:11:36.620 And I mean, I like what he's doing. So I don't want to get into a, you know, a spat, you know, with people that are, I think, preaching and fighting the good fight.

00:11:47.200 And I really do. And but he he made he said, you know, well, Hunter Biden was such a distraction.

00:11:55.160 And why was he such a distraction? And, you know, you know, it's you know, this is partially his fault that we lost because, you know, he just couldn't stay out of the, you know, out of the news.

00:12:05.480 I was like, oh, man. So if I could have stayed out of the news, I sat in my garage in up in Big Rock in our home state of California and and painted for four years.

00:12:18.320 I didn't do a single piece of business or, you know, I went to Yale Law School and I didn't use my law degree one time in the four years that my dad was president.

00:12:26.760 and i painted and you know and i did well in painting i you know i sold some paintings and

00:12:32.860 all to people that everybody uh eventually um through uh subpoenas was able to figure out and

00:12:41.040 you know i made about 220 000 a year but the fact of the matter is is that i stayed to myself

00:12:47.840 and it was never a choice to be a distraction so i didn't feel like it was my place at that time

00:12:55.480 during the administration to, um, to go on Twitter and, um, and, and fire off a few,

00:13:02.420 um, zingers. Um, you know what I mean? Like, you know, it just, um, I have too much respect for

00:13:08.320 the office and the people that work there and, and the, just the, the amount of time that they

00:13:15.220 commit to doing, um, what's best for the administration, what's best for the country

00:13:20.380 and what was best for my dad. So I, I kind of sat it out. And was that, I mean, was that debated

00:13:25.400 Did you have conversations saying, look, they've crossed the line now for the, you know, 10th time enough.

00:13:31.340 It's not about me. It is about my dad.

00:13:33.300 And I need to protect the integrity of our name, our family and just the bullshit that's out there. 0.61

00:13:38.140 I mean, were there moments where you said, you know, OK, now I've got to come forward and say something. 0.69

00:13:43.580 But held held back. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah.

00:13:47.320 I mean, the honest answer to that is is. Yeah.

00:13:49.980 Yeah. You know, one of those times was when they were, you know, they played that game

00:13:56.640 where they wanted me to come testify before Congress. And I said, sure, I'll come and

00:14:02.360 I'll do it publicly. And the only way that I'll do it is if you do it in front of the

00:14:07.580 cameras in committee, you know, and we can broadcast it live. And people inside the White

00:14:16.820 House were really opposed to that. And, um, and that was probably the one time in which I said

00:14:23.060 too bad, because the, at that point, you know, it just, it, it, it, it so bothered me that they

00:14:32.440 were able to get away with and continue to get away with this thing. Like right now, what they're

00:14:36.420 doing with the, um, this Epstein, you know, uh, investigation at the oversight committee, which

00:14:41.160 is no investigation, you know, they're not even, you know, I'm, I, they released transcripts four

00:14:46.100 days later people come out and you know they characterize it the way they can characterize it

00:14:51.520 and the press has already moved on to something else and that's exactly what they did um but at

00:14:56.760 that time that's remember i went up to um i went up to the hill and uh i went over to the uh to

00:15:04.040 actual live committee hearing and i walked in i sat and sat in the audience and all of them i

00:15:10.120 remember uh nancy mace was saying this is the um this is the the epitome of of privilege you know

00:15:18.860 and i said he won't even tell i said i'm right here i'm right here i'm ready to go and of course

00:15:24.980 they didn't take me up on it but there were times that i was very very frustrated um but again

00:15:32.340 it wasn't my call

00:15:34.400 and

00:15:34.900 I'm really

00:15:38.220 grateful for exactly where I am

00:15:40.920 right now though because

00:15:42.440 I don't know in that

00:15:44.840 maelstrom whether I would

00:15:46.900 have been out there

00:15:48.740 and would have been all defensive

00:15:50.920 you know what I mean? It would have been like

00:15:52.800 oh well that's not true and that's not true

00:15:54.700 and I can't admit to that and I can't do this

00:15:56.940 and this. Now

00:15:58.480 I'm not running for anything as much as

00:16:00.940 um, you know, the, um, I think that the trolls on our side are, are triggering a hundred

00:16:06.220 derangement syndrome. I call it now HDS it's, it is replaced TDS. Um, but I'm not running.

00:16:13.380 And you know, like, so I, I did a post today about, you know, like it's, uh, the idiocracy

00:16:20.300 2.0, you know, I mean like this and, and I thought it was funny. By the way, I saw it today. I was,

00:16:26.480 I thought it was one of our posts and they said, no, it's, it's Hunter's post. I'm like, Jesus.

00:16:30.940 It got me thinking, seriously, maybe, you know, maybe on, you know, Monday, the president's birthday, I may want to take a day off.

00:16:38.180 Maybe you can take over my feed.

00:16:40.180 I 100 percent.

00:16:42.080 I'm all in.

00:16:43.300 I'm all in.

00:16:44.480 You know, it's funny.

00:16:45.300 Everybody thinks that there's like this, you know, like I got the DNC is working on my behalf.

00:16:51.720 I feel like saying, when is the ever the DNC ever worked on it on anybody's behalf, let alone mine?

00:17:00.940 but the um uh it's just me with the my my uh two little thumbs here um but it's liberating you know

00:17:09.020 i mean and part of it is this you know i think that i i somebody wrote an article in the american

00:17:15.740 conservative about uh that somebody sent me about this little run i'm having on uh twitter which

00:17:21.660 you know all all good things come to an end i can't keep up this pace on my own but um and they

00:17:27.740 said you know and it was actually um pretty insightful in many ways and it just said it's

00:17:33.180 all about authenticity yeah it's like what what are you going to do to a guy that basically

00:17:38.060 claims it all you know what i mean that that takes ownership for all of the things and fights back

00:17:43.180 when you know you are you know uh when you when you open yourself up for a punch what are you

00:17:48.300 going to do and that's kind of like how trump was back in you know and they make the connection

00:17:53.100 And where I think they really fail is in that part, is that the difference between being audacious and authentic is real.

00:18:11.100 Donald Trump has the audacity to say that he's 6'3 and weighs 224 pounds when we both know he's 5'11, 300.

00:18:19.100 You know, Donald Trump has the audacity to say, there's very fine people on both sides.

00:18:25.840 Donald Trump has the audacity to say that he's going to end the war in Iraq in one day. 0.71

00:18:31.640 Donald Trump has the audacity to lie to your face and, you know, piss on your leg and tell you that it's raining.

00:18:38.560 That's not authenticity.

00:18:40.500 And I think that the American people have fundamentally confused that.

00:18:44.820 And it's not their fault.

00:18:46.360 god i i look i think everybody's carrying around a bag of heroin in their pocket and it's called

00:18:53.480 an iphone okay it is the dopamine hit of uh of choice for for 350 million of us and what we do

00:19:02.780 is that we are fed this lie that this country is divided that everybody hates everybody that

00:19:09.100 they're never going to be able to get along that you know if you believe this then then you're a 1.00

00:19:13.880 traitor and this is treason and Hunter Biden is a is a pedophile rapist blah blah blah and 1.00

00:19:20.020 Governor Newsom is is you know uh turning every school into a trans blah blah blah it's not real 1.00

00:19:26.820 man you and I both know it it ain't real it's literally what we're being fed by a handful of 0.93

00:19:34.900 oligarchs that control our technology companies I mean I always give the example do you remember

00:19:41.020 this when the whistleblower came out from facebook and uh and she testified in 2022 or 2020 23 1.00

00:19:48.440 and she testified that facebook knew well uh knew full well that their algorithm um was almost

00:19:56.580 directly responsible for this for the exponential spike in um in uh suicides among girls between the

00:20:04.560 ages of 13 and 17. Exponential. A 330%, I think, increase in that, which, by the way, continues

00:20:12.060 to this day. And you know what we did about it? Not a thing. By the way, all of us. I don't mean

00:20:18.640 just Congress. I mean, all of us. What did we do about it? You know what? We still got the phone

00:20:25.340 in our pocket. And by the way, I'm as guilty as that as anybody. And I just think, like,

00:20:30.300 if we can get people to realize that is that we don't hate each other we're being told to hate

00:20:36.200 each other and so that's why i want to go on candace owens i want to go talk to tucker i even

00:20:42.180 want to go to talk to people that i literally i mean my first question in dubious why he's such

00:20:46.500 a nazi to nick fuentes you know what i mean i want to talk i because gov i'm i you know this

00:20:52.720 and i'm talking too much but that's my job as a biden is is 18 to 30 35 year olds draft age um 0.99

00:21:04.560 generation they're angry man they're really angry and um and we can sit here and say they're stupid 1.00

00:21:16.220 and they don't know what they're talking about and they're so dumb that they fall into the trap of 1.00

00:21:22.120 like these, like these people and these people that are online. They're not, man. They just 1.00

00:21:28.240 want to belong. They want to feel like they have some control. And I'll tell you what,

00:21:36.100 a generation of people that lost two years of their life, the most important years of their

00:21:42.420 life in COVID. And we don't even remotely recognize the trauma of that. And I think

00:21:48.060 that that's what we're living through and at the same time the exact wrong person came along

00:21:56.920 to the stage and literally lit the match that's right and that's who we have right now so you know

00:22:04.880 I think it's um I think what you're doing in the way that you're talking I mean it's inspiring to

00:22:12.140 me. So. I appreciate all that and so much to unpack, Hunter, what you were just saying. And

00:22:18.580 I'm curious, you know, just in the context, just in a contemporary space, you know, we're talking

00:22:23.340 day after the main primary. What do you think in the context of authenticity versus the audacity

00:22:30.100 frame of Plattner as a as, you know, an example? I mean, you know, the Democrats struggling a

00:22:35.940 little bit to reconcile. You mentioned Nick Fuentes and obviously the Plattner tattoo and,

00:22:40.060 you know some of the prior comments what do you what do you make of him in the context of

00:22:44.840 of all this that you're describing take him at his word that um uh that and which by the way

00:22:55.020 is not something he's not saying something new today that he wasn't saying four months ago or

00:23:02.580 five months ago, which is this. He was a veteran, a combat veteran. And when he came back,

00:23:12.220 you know, he had some real issues and with PTSD and that trauma and whatever way that he was

00:23:23.860 working it out, I think has been really, really open about is that he wasn't a good person.

00:23:29.200 And here's what I know. It takes a lot of stamina, at least. I'm not going to say, I think courage, too. I'll give myself that. To get back up and build a better life.

00:23:47.980 and i don't uh i i'm i'm 99.9 certain is that grand plattner is no nazi um you know and and

00:23:58.920 i don't think that he's a racist in any way i hear the way that he talks i think that um uh

00:24:05.420 his relationship with his wife is his relationship with his wife um uh the entirety of that 0.99

00:24:14.300 controversy is you know it's all about you know leaked consensual um you know stuff i mean stupid 0.99

00:24:21.520 maybe um you would have a problem uh not you i mean anyone would would have a problem but like 0.99

00:24:29.760 you know i always say to people like show me your phone give me access to your iCloud

00:24:36.160 let me let's let's let's go through it and pull everything that we can that is inappropriate

00:24:44.340 that is um off color that is um you know uh that selfie that you took when you're drunk off your 0.99

00:24:52.500 ass and you know you sent it to your blah blah blah like show me your phone and if that's the 0.99

00:24:59.360 standard by which we are going to judge people particularly people in elected office then i 0.96

00:25:05.240 don't think we're going to have many people in elected office. And so as it relates to Graham

00:25:10.140 Plattner, I focus on this, is that I have not heard anything in any way that would say to me

00:25:20.140 that he is an abusive, misogynistic,

00:25:28.640 or anti-Semitic, or racist person.

00:25:32.720 And I have heard this from Grant Plattner, though,

00:25:36.640 that he thinks we should all have free health care.

00:25:39.420 I have heard this from Grant Plattner also,

00:25:41.980 that he thinks that we have to radically change our politics.

00:25:45.020 I have heard this from Grant Plattner, 0.99

00:25:47.120 that working people are getting fucking screwed. 0.99

00:25:49.040 I have heard this from Grant Plattner, that they have us at each other's throats and we should be at their throats. 0.99

00:25:57.320 I have heard this from Grant Plattner, that he thinks the oligarchs and the tech overlords and billionaires are really, really, really making it the playing field unfair for working class people.

00:26:12.140 That's what I've heard from Grant Plattner. 0.96

00:26:13.960 And so I hope I'm right about that because, you know, I look at somebody and I know you probably have a personal relationship with him, but, you know, I watched as Zorah Mandani kind of came up and I thought, holy shit, like, I like what I'm hearing, you know. 0.76

00:26:37.300 And then when he got elected, I thought, I hope, I hope he can deliver. 0.79

00:26:42.140 And you know what?

00:26:43.980 Like, talk about delivering.

00:26:46.560 I mean, talk about delivering.

00:26:48.580 And you think about things like, you know, you know what I would do?

00:26:52.320 What I'm going to advise you to do on your first day as president is this.

00:26:57.800 Do something about rent.

00:27:00.240 Rent.

00:27:01.060 Amen.

00:27:01.380 Do something about the algorithms that create a system that is completely unfair because of companies like BlackRock and these giant hedge funds and private equity funds that have come and bought up all of the housing and now are basically in collusion with each other to increase rent by 8% a year across the board, almost nationally, without any state or governor being able to do anything directly about it necessarily.

00:27:31.380 And you know what people are most concerned about?

00:27:35.380 Real people, like 95% of us, is rent.

00:27:39.760 You know, more people rent today as compared to ownership than any time in history.

00:27:46.800 And so if you're 35 years old, married, and you have two kids, and you rent a house, that 8% that goes up the next year because of some guy.

00:27:55.400 By the way, I'm not talking about small landlords.

00:27:58.000 I'm talking about these private equity companies that come and you got to make a choice between whether you can stay in your house or whether you're going to, you know, be able to buy food or whether you're going to be able to get diapers and you're working two jobs and your wife is working two jobs.

00:28:16.060 It's just, you know, people are just trying to make a buy.

00:28:19.420 Yeah, you got it.

00:28:20.780 Anyway.

00:28:21.720 No, look, I appreciate that.

00:28:23.240 And, you know, without going down that rabbit hole, though, as substantive as it is, I think it connects things in more ways in more days and explains more things, to your point, about the nihilism a lot of young people feel and this sort of belonging deficit, dignity deficit, where people don't feel connected, respected or protected broadly.

00:28:45.640 the algorithms sort of dialing up that outrage and people dialing back now and giving into that despair.

00:28:53.740 And many people and going back to sort of the origin story here, self-medicating and many people, you know, struggling in historic ways.

00:29:01.720 And I want to go back to that a little bit because, you know, this really is, you know, your journey is shared by, as you suggest, upwards of 50 million people.

00:29:10.140 And, you know, I just wrote up, finished a book and talked about, you know, I learned so much in the process of writing a book.

00:29:16.420 You wrote a book in 2021. And I imagine you went through the same process of, you know, learning about yourself and discovering things that you never knew about yourself,

00:29:24.440 your own motivations on the basis of your parents' bio, your grandparents' bio, how they were born and raised.

00:29:30.400 And my grandfather spent four years prisoner of war after marching in Corregidor, came back broken, alcoholic, and ultimately took his own life.

00:29:39.960 And so this notion, you know, that you share that journey, that Plattner and others, there's grace in terms of empathy and understanding some humility of the journey that people, all of us, are on in different ways.

00:29:52.940 But your journey for the last seven years has been pretty remarkable.

00:29:56.860 And you talked about painting.

00:29:59.200 And I think a big part of the origin story of the painting, if I'm not mistaken, was that was also part of your journey, a catharsis.

00:30:06.460 Your ability to sort of substitute the habitual nature of an addiction with a creative outlet and the dexterity, the sort of routinization of that art literally and figuratively helping you with that recovery.

00:30:22.140 And so the focus, I know Tim and others focus on, well, all the art that you sold and you talk about it, $220,000 a year, hardly becoming a multimillionaire as a distraction.

00:30:32.740 But for you, that was about your life.

00:30:36.460 Yeah, it was. And, you know, I painted my whole life and since I was a kid and making art since I was a kid.

00:30:47.000 And it was something that always gave me a relief and a release.

00:30:54.660 And part of that is about, you know, people that have suffered from addiction before and can understand this,

00:31:01.680 which is the need to get out of your own head um is much um more acute i think in addicts than any

00:31:11.120 and then than the rest of us and you know and painting is is that because painting for me

00:31:17.120 is that the the complete and utter focus on the um it's something that requires your mental and

00:31:26.400 physical coordination at the same time and melissa and i just had gotten married i was newly

00:31:33.840 clean and sober and uh and she went out and she bought me this table um uh that is back in uh

00:31:42.000 malibu and and she um put it out in this little kind of shed that we had in the house that we

00:31:47.520 were staying at um they're beautiful had windows and she bought me some painting supplies and from

00:31:55.200 that day you know i i i paint you know hours a day uh um i wake up you know usually like uh five six

00:32:07.280 and and i'm at that table when i'm back there i'm in my studio and i and i paint as long as i

00:32:14.800 possibly can and it was um it it has given me a um an incredible sense of of purpose because the

00:32:27.840 other side of painting is this is that the creative act in and of itself is a beautiful thing but when

00:32:33.200 you share it with somebody else it becomes almost an act of courage and i don't mean that in the

00:32:37.760 sense of um whether you're either you play music or you sing or you um or you're a dancer or you're

00:32:46.960 a painter or is it is really amazing to do that in the confines of your own you know room but

00:32:55.680 there's this really thrilling and enthralling and scary thing to do then share that with anybody

00:33:02.480 else and um and that's what i did it it really was a beautiful thing you know that the name of

00:33:09.680 the book that i wrote was that and the title came from beau who when he was dying said um

00:33:16.560 he had lost a lot of his ability to speak because of um the aphasia that occurred because the the

00:33:23.680 cranial resections and but we had a little like

00:33:28.480 like code together, and he would just say beautiful things.

00:33:32.780 And he didn't mean beautiful things like possessions.

00:33:37.080 He meant beautiful things like family,

00:33:41.480 beautiful things like nature,

00:33:44.140 beautiful things like my love of painting.

00:33:50.720 And that's kind of where I've ended up.

00:33:58.480 as my entire focus is on trying to focus on those beautiful things which sometimes can come off as

00:34:07.360 zingers on x when i'm talking about don jr that's a beautiful thing though it's a beautiful we'll

00:34:12.940 get to him later yeah yeah i think about you and i mean obviously you know and you've talked a lot

00:34:20.500 about it you've written a lot about it your dad's spoken so extraordinarily openly about bow and

00:34:25.640 But, you know, growing up and you guys, you know, just the tragedy, both of you survived and the bond that you guys had and the relationship that was, you know, brotherly relationships are, you know, often close, but this was a next level relationship in terms of what you guys were forged and the experiences you both shared.

00:34:47.300 But what was it like just growing up in the spotlight of a father who, you know, before he's president, vice president, before he's vice president, was a candidate for president, was a dominant force for decades and decades, youngest senator in history and going to get sworn in when he was originally elected.

00:35:05.920 But what was it like growing up in a political family?

00:35:08.300 I mean, was it, was it just, you know, peaches and strawberries?

00:35:12.400 It was, you know, fantastic and privileged or was it, you know, man, uh, held to a different

00:35:17.540 standard?

00:35:17.920 How was that growing up?

00:35:19.600 No, you know, growing up in, in, um, uh, I always say that, that, uh, I, I, in part

00:35:27.980 because of my dad, but also in part because of the state of Delaware, you know, Delaware

00:35:32.360 is a small place and um i think it's population just you know south of a million still right now

00:35:40.840 even you know smaller 1972 when dad first got elected probably around 600 000 or so

00:35:47.720 and by virtue of that like you know my dad was joe to everybody and by virtue of the accident when my

00:35:54.840 my mom and my brother and i were in when my mom and my sister were killed is that the whole kind

00:36:02.120 of state, you know, adopted us. And we had, you know, literal, you know, everybody was an aunt

00:36:10.600 and uncle. And, and which was a really was a beautiful thing. And so Delaware always felt

00:36:19.060 like family and felt like home and with the same kind of treatment. Like if I got pulled over by

00:36:24.460 a cop for speeding and, you know, the cop didn't go, well, you know, Mr. Biden will let you off

00:36:30.620 this time. They said, your dad's going to kick your ass. I can't wait till I see him down at 1.00

00:36:34.480 the train station. And, and, um, and so that we didn't grow up in DC. You know, I said something

00:36:41.460 the other day, I said, you know, um, my, the way in which they treated dad on, at the end of, uh,

00:36:51.300 of, uh, 2024, after the debate, I said, is part of the reason was, is he was never a part of that

00:36:58.460 elite insider dc press and somebody said you know a lot of people said well that's the most

00:37:05.800 ridiculous thing i've ever heard you're trying to tell me that somebody that spends 50 years in

00:37:09.940 washington dc that was chairman of the foreign relations committee that was a vice president 0.88

00:37:13.880 that was a president wasn't inside dc and that and and what i wanted to say is like well you don't

00:37:19.080 know dc if you don't know that my dad went home every day and that means something he did not show

00:37:24.880 up at the Georgetown cocktail parties. He was not at the, um, you know, the, uh, the Aronson's

00:37:32.160 house on Sunday with the other Supreme court justices. And, you know, I mean, like there

00:37:37.520 is a, and I know that world because I've lived there for myself for a while, uh, which he never

00:37:43.000 did. And, um, and so for that reason, my childhood was, uh, was, was normal in, in, in as much as it

00:37:55.060 possibly could be, even though dad was a United States Senator. And, you know, now did we get to

00:38:01.920 do some cool stuff? Yeah. I mean, we used to go down on the train and, and hang out with my dad

00:38:06.820 anytime that we wanted to in the Senate and, and, uh, you know, which was one of the most

00:38:12.260 incredible. I love the Senate. I love the history of those buildings. And I love being there to

00:38:18.500 watch. And also because of my mom's death, a lot of the old, like really 1.00

00:38:25.900 names nobody will remember now, except in their home states, but like Mike Mansfield

00:38:33.160 and Danny Inouye, who was my hero.

00:38:39.400 And, you know, and the list goes on.

00:38:41.560 Teddy Kennedy took us under their wing,

00:38:45.080 which was an incredibly privileged thing to do.

00:38:47.420 I got to meet men and women that I think embodied Bob Dole,

00:38:53.520 you know, who was an acerbic guy, but he loved me.

00:38:56.800 I mean, me and Bo.

00:38:58.640 And we got to go in the cloakroom and do things

00:39:01.420 and see that and see history unfold.

00:39:05.300 And it was an incredible childhood from that perspective.

00:39:07.960 And what I learned in that is that politics done nobly is a noble thing.

00:39:16.920 And I really believe that.

00:39:19.020 And I think everybody goes, ah, you know, politics.

00:39:23.160 I don't like politics.

00:39:24.100 I don't like politics.

00:39:25.720 I think it's such a cop-out.

00:39:26.820 Because the truth of the matter is that the only way that we can sustain a constitutional republic and this democracy is if we engage in politics.

00:39:38.000 It doesn't mean that we have to engage in no-holds-barred partisanship where it's a zero-sum game.

00:39:44.040 But we have to engage in politics.

00:39:46.720 And my dad was the master of finding a way through legislatively with people that no one would have thought that he could have done that.

00:39:56.300 I mean, for instance, the, you know, like PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

00:40:03.780 I mean, if it were not for my dad with Jesse Helms, being able to bring him on board for that, that would have never gotten done.

00:40:14.480 And all the credit goes to, you know, well, by the way, as you and I both know, all the credit goes to Bono and Bobby Shriver.

00:40:22.040 Which is true, which is true, yeah.

00:40:24.460 mom i want to sign up for soccer and lacrosse oh maybe hip-hop actually robotics sounds fun too

00:40:32.520 piano no no drums activities change but eggs stay the same packed with protein and nutrients they're

00:40:39.080 the perfect fuel for any activity and thanks to dedicated ontario egg farmers and the eqa mark

00:40:44.520 you can count on them to always be fresh local and held to the highest standards is there such

00:40:49.560 a thing as competitive scrambled egg eating i'd rule at that egg farmers of ontario get cracking

00:40:55.440 last night a blown call changed the game this morning the internet lost its mind highlights

00:41:00.260 are trending opinions are flying and nobody's telling you exactly what happened that's where

00:41:05.200 sports slice comes in i'm timbo every episode we're cutting through the noise breaking down

00:41:09.600 the plays the controversies and the stories behind the headlines we go straight to the source

00:41:14.180 the athletes themselves their locker room stories their reactions the stuff nobody gets to hear

00:41:19.480 The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

00:41:23.940 From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls,

00:41:28.140 we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

00:41:32.760 Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

00:41:37.260 Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:41:42.280 And for more, follow TimboSliceLife12 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

00:41:47.540 Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is.

00:41:50.880 Getting a racist statue removed.

00:41:53.080 And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is.

00:41:56.280 Getting a new one put up in its place.

00:41:58.720 As long as there's a politics of race in America,

00:42:01.080 there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War.

00:42:03.960 To get to school, I had to go down Robert E. Lee Boulevard.

00:42:06.500 To get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway.

00:42:09.260 If you're a historian and you leave out half of what the history is,

00:42:13.200 you're not doing your job.

00:42:14.580 I'm Akilah Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things.

00:42:18.660 The fights, the politics, the people who won,

00:42:21.780 and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky Statehouse

00:42:25.240 that's actually worth the wall space.

00:42:27.800 We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit.

00:42:32.560 How do you represent that?

00:42:34.260 They are just fueling a fire that is really catching.

00:42:37.860 You'll see what I mean.

00:42:39.260 Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

00:42:43.680 or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:42:46.800 Your husband is not who you think he is.

00:42:49.680 Your body is not what you thought it was.

00:42:51.900 Your identity is formed by a secret history.

00:42:54.760 I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories

00:42:58.620 I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.

00:43:02.660 And just then, we felt the plane turn in the air,

00:43:06.600 so much so that the bags that were under people's seats

00:43:10.080 just kind of flew into the aisle.

00:43:12.020 Each week, we dive headfirst into the complex power of secrecy,

00:43:16.220 how it shapes our identities and relationships,

00:43:19.100 and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves.

00:43:23.160 My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know,

00:43:25.360 but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive because I wasn't eating anything.

00:43:29.500 And me pretending like everything was fine.

00:43:32.740 He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move.

00:43:34.840 And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off.

00:43:38.180 And that was the last time I saw him.

00:43:39.480 Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:43:47.100 But that was my childhood, you know.

00:43:50.680 What was it like, Hunter?

00:43:52.200 I mean, it must have been radically different as vice president, meaning all of a sudden now it's secret service, different level of scrutiny.

00:44:02.160 Yeah, yeah, completely different.

00:44:03.700 Was that, I mean, was that, did that, was that more of a shock of the system or was it, you know, because of all those reps and because of your deeper understanding of, you know, the ways of, of, you know, within that corridor at least of DC and the hallways?

00:44:17.260 It was a radical difference and not one that I was very comfortable with.

00:44:23.660 The pomp and circumstance of it can be intoxicating, I think, at first.

00:44:32.300 And then it can be very overwhelming when you fully understand that you're very much not,

00:44:41.280 particularly as the son, the second son of the vice president of the United States.

00:44:47.180 It's like, you're not, you're not in, you know, you're not, you know, like in the mix,

00:44:52.640 you know what I mean? With the understandable assumption from people on the outside that

00:44:56.320 somehow that, you know, that you are. And, and I think one of the mistakes that I made

00:45:04.580 is that, um, I, I stayed in DC. The girls were in school, um, by that time. Um, we had been in

00:45:12.860 Delaware. I'd moved back down to DC because I had started my law firm. I tried to commute like Bo

00:45:17.580 did, but I had taken a, um, uh, a job as adjunct professor at Georgetown university's, uh, master's

00:45:25.860 program in the school of foreign service, because at the time I was the chairman of the board of

00:45:29.920 the World Food Program, U.S.

00:45:31.680 And so I was traveling all over the world,

00:45:33.400 like going to hot spots like Lebanon and Beirut

00:45:36.780 during the Syrian refugee crisis

00:45:38.740 and the typhoon Haiyan and all these things.

00:45:42.500 And I was teaching at Georgetown and I had my business

00:45:45.040 and the idea of commuting back and forth

00:45:46.860 just became too much for me.

00:45:48.660 As I always said to my dad, I said,

00:45:50.140 when I'm late to a meeting, people leave.

00:45:51.680 When you're late to a meeting, they wait.

00:45:53.500 And it was a mistake on my part, though,

00:45:56.320 because I really, I don't,

00:45:59.680 I don't dislike DC, but the, the, um, but it's a company town.

00:46:04.600 It's very much a company town and everything is about, you know,

00:46:08.900 proximity to power and, um, and people, um, are not, um,

00:46:13.760 are not shy about it. And, um, it just, it,

00:46:17.300 it kind of saps your soul to, to a certain degree, you know?

00:46:22.160 I mean, that was my experience. And again, though, is like, what an honor,

00:46:26.980 um like to be able to say what it's like inside the vice president's residence yeah like like who

00:46:33.180 gets to say that and i don't and like or to be able to even have remotely a criticism of being

00:46:39.700 able to stay over at your dad's house and it happened to be the the white house of course

00:46:43.800 like i only stayed in the i was only in the white house um uh probably 40 nights because we were out

00:46:50.980 with the um uh in in the great state of california which by the way i will tell you this

00:46:57.640 i've had so many people say when are you coming home and i say to them are you out of your mind

00:47:05.600 there we go there we go i wake up every day it's 75 degrees and sunny and i'm looking out at the

00:47:13.940 pacific ocean and i you know and i'm i'm going to lunch in the hollywood hills and i think like

00:47:19.760 where would you ever want to live other than maybe you know a couple hours north of there

00:47:24.560 i mean i it's amazing but anyway the the it was tough not tough in the sense of like oh it was a

00:47:31.360 hardship but it just wasn't my style um and and uh and anyway you know it it it uh it kind of all

00:47:42.960 fell apart at one point after beau died so yeah and then you started i mean that's when the the

00:47:48.620 this sort of spiral of addiction started to take shape and have your best

00:47:52.060 friend to call every day. Your father's devastated, you know,

00:47:56.340 you know, everybody, you know, people even, yeah. Yeah. It's when the, I mean,

00:48:00.760 forgive me, but now I'm looking back just, that was a time,

00:48:03.500 obviously the marriage came to an end as well.

00:48:07.520 Yeah, exactly. All, all almost simultaneously. And, um, uh,

00:48:13.760 Uh, it was, um, I was, I was adrift. I was totally adrift. And I say this not for the

00:48:23.700 shock value of it. I was trying to commit suicide, but I didn't have the courage to

00:48:29.560 do it in a way, um, uh, that would have been immediate and final. It was when I first

00:48:38.820 smoke crack it was a conscious choice i'm going to do the single thing that is probably the most

00:48:46.680 destructive thing that i can do and um and i walked out of a of a um of a rehabilitation center

00:48:56.480 an outpatient program that i had been in for a period of time because everybody was worried to

00:49:00.800 death for me and um and uh it's a whole long story but i they wouldn't let me back in the program

00:49:08.060 And then I walked to Lincoln Park, which was, you know, about two blocks from this program.

00:49:15.600 And I knew a woman that had been, you know, I had known her because I'd worked in the area for, you know,

00:49:22.300 worked or lived in the area for 20 years, and everybody called her bicycles. 0.99

00:49:26.080 And she was crack addict, and everybody knew she was crack addict, and she was funny as shit. 0.99

00:49:30.080 And she, and I walked up to her and said, can I buy some crack? 0.99

00:49:35.720 And she said, sure.

00:49:36.820 and that was the um and then you know that was it became a at that time a three-year odyssey

00:49:43.780 um like no other yeah and for you you know it was and you can imagine for people i'll speak for

00:49:50.800 myself but i imagine millions of others just to hear you especially you know i mean on the

00:49:56.140 kendis owen podcast to just say it own it and say quote unquote yeah i was a crackhead which is a

00:50:04.000 hell of a thing to say it's what was said about you but your willingness to just own that again

00:50:11.480 yeah is that i mean was there a moment when it just you're like you know and i keep going back

00:50:19.520 to this question because it's a it's a hell of a statement just to to you know to to claim something

00:50:25.920 talk about courage yeah and and humility in that respect so unlike most people that are you know

00:50:33.660 publicly humiliated um uh because of something they've done something they've said that or you

00:50:41.040 know whatever it might be um justifiably so or or um unfairly is that it didn't happen in a drip

00:50:50.260 drip for me it all happened at once all the pictures were out all 130 000 emails that were

00:50:57.120 stolen, all 30,000 text messages, all, you know, 98,000 photographs and videos, every voicemail

00:51:05.060 that I'd ever left anybody. They had hacked my iCloud and several devices, including a laptop,

00:51:15.720 including another laptop that was stolen in Las Vegas, including a phone. And by the way,

00:51:20.060 this isn't like conjecture on my part. They all, it's all out there. They all,

00:51:24.580 that each one of these people

00:51:26.480 that participated in this

00:51:28.520 operation, they ended

00:51:30.660 up getting in a fight with each other

00:51:31.980 about who got what.

00:51:34.140 And Hunter, for those that aren't

00:51:36.880 familiar, I mean, who are the

00:51:38.180 was it this? I mean, there was a lot of

00:51:40.460 conversation with Russian disinformation.

00:51:42.640 I talked earlier about Bannon

00:51:44.300 and, you know, obviously Rudy.

00:51:46.780 So, you know, there's this whole thing

00:51:48.620 about

00:51:49.200 this idea that

00:51:54.420 when those 40 intelligence officers wrote that this has all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation

00:52:01.100 and you know Twittersphere kind of in MAGA is you know like you lied to us this is you know

00:52:10.680 the laptop was real the laptop and I keep saying it is all a red hearing is that what the what

00:52:18.200 What those 40 intelligence officials were talking about is that they were talking about

00:52:22.980 an ongoing Russian operation that was identified by the Justice Department under Donald Trump

00:52:31.360 that involved a guy named Andrei Derkacz, Konstantin Kulik, Telizhenko, a guy named Dmitry

00:52:40.480 Furtash, who Rudy Giuliani was taking information from, literally dossiers. He filmed it on OAN.

00:52:50.260 He did a documentary in real time with him and Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman and about searching

00:52:57.940 for my laptop that was being offered for sale inside of Ukraine and Russia and Austria by a

00:53:05.220 named Dimitri Furtash. That all was happening before the laptop repair shop guy was a twinkle

00:53:11.940 in Rudy Giuliani's eye. And what happened was, is that the only thing that the laptop proved,

00:53:18.740 quote unquote, laptop, hard drive, iCloud hack, whatever you want to call it, the only thing it 0.79

00:53:24.180 proved is that I was a degenerate crackhead doing degenerate crackhead things. And when I say that, 0.80

00:53:31.700 all consensual things. Because what happened next is this. I did the New Yorker interview

00:53:40.020 right in 2019. Right when I got sober, I got a call from Adam Antos, from The New Yorker.

00:53:48.420 And I loved The New Yorker. I mean, when I was a kid. I always thought that I would be able to be

00:53:54.180 be a poet and have my art, my poetry in The New Yorker. And the only reason I took his call was

00:54:02.980 because of that. And I ended up making one of the best decisions of my life because Adam is a really

00:54:08.800 fine writer and he listened. And the story ostensibly started about Burisma and it ended up

00:54:16.940 being about the fact that I was coming out of a deep addiction. And that came out in July,

00:54:24.180 of 2019. And the first call that he got was from Steve Bannon, who said, you MFR, you scooped us

00:54:31.480 because that was their plan. What they were going to do is they were going to release all of the

00:54:36.840 images from the laptop of me, you know, in compromising sexual positions and, you know,

00:54:45.400 people taking pictures of me with a crack pipe in my mouth and things like that. And that was 0.55

00:54:50.980 going to be the October surprise. But I took it away from them. And so what they did is they

00:54:57.400 concocted this other thing. They held on to it all the way up until October of 2020.

00:55:03.980 And in the meantime, what had been happening is all of those, Dmitry Furtas, Konstantin Kulik,

00:55:12.140 Telizenko, all of the, Andrei Dirkas, had all been sanctioned by the U.S. government,

00:55:19.000 by the Trump administration for running an election interference operation inside of the United States

00:55:26.760 because they were feeding to a guy named Alexander Smirnoff a bribery charge.

00:55:34.160 Hunter Biden took a bribe on behalf of his father from the Ukrainians.

00:55:39.020 And that's what Rudy did.

00:55:41.380 So Rudy walks out onto the Newcastle County Courthouse steps in Delaware, and he does two things.

00:55:47.580 He said that this is evidence of criminal activity and Hunter Biden is being paid by the Ukrainians, like the government, and the Chinese, like the government, of which neither one of those things is even remotely true.

00:56:01.360 And he said, and this contains evidence of inappropriate images of children, which obviously is not true.

00:56:11.560 No.

00:56:12.280 Which is like beyond.

00:56:14.340 But you know what it is?

00:56:15.280 It's the oldest trick in the book. 0.63

00:56:17.580 It literally was started by the Nazis, and Putin then deployed it in 2000.

00:56:22.640 Rachel Maddow talks about this all the time.

00:56:24.920 It's called eliminationist rhetoric.

00:56:26.720 If they can get anyone to believe that you're a pedophile, then the ability for them to get – they go out and they say that.

00:56:38.900 It doesn't bear any resemblance to anything.

00:56:40.940 If 10% of their community can believe that, then 60% can believe that you're capable of bribery. 70% think that you're capable of undue influence. I mean, and so that's what they did.

00:56:57.000 and it's like everybody else dismisses that part about it but then when you had the new york post

00:57:01.960 come along and they literally all all they did didn't matter what the headline was what it was

00:57:07.800 about it was a picture of me in a motel room smoking a pipe or or and with my shirt off with

00:57:13.960 a woman that was blurred out and it's like this is your degenerate and tell me that he's not also

00:57:22.360 capable of, you know, you know, uh, taking a bribe. And, and that's what they did. And to

00:57:28.560 great effect, you know, I mean, people forget is that I had a, a, I, my criminal prosecution

00:57:37.100 was completely, um, uh, sewn up after four different U S attorneys investigated crim

00:57:45.040 tax at the Department of Justice, Maine Justice, the FBI, the IRS, the IRS Criminal Investigations

00:57:54.220 Division, and they'd all come to the conclusion that I had not committed a felony offense in any

00:58:01.600 way, and I was getting a, I entered into a plea agreement in which I had, I was going to plead

00:58:08.880 guilty to two misdemeanors, which were failure to file my taxes on time, because I had paid all

00:58:14.960 my taxes with penalties and interest. And a diversion agreement because they say that I had

00:58:19.640 purchased a gun at a time when I should have known that I was addicted to a controlled substance.

00:58:27.440 Which, by the way, is the correct thing, is the correct result. And so I signed that agreement

00:58:34.360 and they signed the agreement. And so I have a signed agreement with the U.S. Attorney in the

00:58:39.460 state of Delaware. Approval with crim tax, completely independent from main justice or

00:58:44.940 anybody in main justice making a decision. And I go to court and they blow it up. They bring in

00:58:51.060 these two prosecutors from Baltimore that had never been a part of the case. And there were

00:58:57.500 four amicus briefs sent into the court, not before any decision was made, that said, like from the

00:59:05.200 Heritage Foundation, everybody that, you know, a list of 4,000 crimes I had committed, Fox News

00:59:10.780 and the Murdoch Empire and everybody in the Magosphere, like, went full force for 46 days,

00:59:22.020 which is totally unheard of that I would have been, had a plea agreement and not be arraigned

00:59:28.300 on that agreement within 72 hours. But they delayed it. And when it came to the court,

00:59:33.240 the court said, Mr. Biden, you have an immunity clause in here, which is normal for a plea

00:59:39.700 agreement. Of course, you don't sign a plea agreement without an immunity clause, because

00:59:43.780 you don't want the government to come back and say, oh, no, we decided that. And it sounds to me

00:59:50.020 like the U.S. attorney is saying that that immunity would not apply to X, Y, or Z. And I said, well,

00:59:58.960 it's it's a signed agreement we're all we're done here your honor like this is over and she said

01:00:07.000 well I don't think so um and she um and they and they purposely blew up the agreement completely

01:00:15.620 and then they charged me with things that they've never charged anybody before with but that was the

01:00:21.140 whole kind of trajectory of of all of this and your original question though was um this long

01:00:29.780 lost in my my 56 year old brain and i don't know if i'm gonna be able to get back to it

01:00:36.200 mom i want to sign up for soccer and lacrosse oh maybe hip-hop actually robotics sounds fun too

01:00:43.360 piano no no drums activities change but eggs stay the same packed with protein and nutrients they're

01:00:49.900 the perfect fuel for any activity and thanks to dedicated Ontario egg farmers and the EQA mark

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01:01:00.400 a thing as competitive scrambled egg eating I'd rule at that egg farmers of Ontario get cracking

01:01:06.260 last night a blown call changed the game this morning the internet lost its mind highlights

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01:01:55.300 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it

01:02:00.980 is. Getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than

01:02:06.200 it is. Getting a new one put up in its place. As long as there's a politics of race in America,

01:02:11.900 There's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War.

01:02:14.780 To get to school, I had to go down Robert E. Lee Boulevard.

01:02:17.320 To get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway.

01:02:20.080 If you're a historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job.

01:02:25.440 I'm Akilah Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things.

01:02:29.480 The fights, the politics, the people who won,

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01:02:57.620 Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was. Your identity is formed by a secret history.

01:03:05.080 I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.

01:03:13.540 Just then, we felt the plane turn in the air, so much so that the bags that were under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle.

01:03:22.820 Each week, we dive headfirst into the complex power of secrecy, how it shapes our identities and relationships, and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves.

01:03:33.560 my daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know, but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me

01:03:38.380 alive because I wasn't eating anything. And me pretending like everything was fine.

01:03:43.580 He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped

01:03:47.720 in a car and drove off. And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family

01:03:52.240 Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:03:58.120 No, but Hunter, I mean, was it just the external political pressure

01:04:03.240 that that the surround sound that sort of grievance the weaponization of that grievance

01:04:07.640 against you your dad that was coming out of you know newsmax one american news fox murdoch inc

01:04:13.640 i mean it was just 24 7 that just created the pressure on the justice department to reconsider

01:04:19.100 the judge i mean where why did that why the sudden shift after a plea agreement period it was just

01:04:24.780 political pressure pure pure pure pure political pressure yeah um you know they literally the um

01:04:32.140 There were so many death threats against the U.S., the assistant U.S. attorney who was a 20-year veteran at the U.S. attorney's office in Delaware for entering into the agreement and the U.S. attorney that she had to go into hiding.

01:04:44.200 And they brought in these two guys from Baltimore, the same two guys that, you know, prosecuted the Democratic mayor in the city of Baltimore and the district attorney.

01:04:57.680 And like they, you know, they were riding high on, you know, this thing.

01:05:00.700 And and and that's exactly why. And the U.S. attorney got just absolutely excoriated until the point where he then, you know, ripped up the plea agreement, which you can't do.

01:05:19.780 And and and applied for didn't apply. He said he's going to be special counsel, which is unheard of, by the way, that a sitting U.S. attorney was also a special counsel.

01:05:27.260 It's in complete violation of the statute as written. And so he becomes special counsel. And before the statute of limitations is up on both of those things, they charge me with six felonies.

01:05:40.660 And like, you know, what are you going to do? I say to everybody is that the idea that the chances of beating the federal government, you know, in a criminal case are really, really, really slim.

01:05:57.760 I mean, that's why they have, you know, 95 percent conviction rates.

01:06:03.600 The full force of the Justice Department, when it descends upon you, is an awesome thing to witness.

01:06:11.700 And it's impossible to hear this.

01:06:14.960 And just I mean, it's I mean, most folks listening or watching know this, but it's important to remind everybody this was happening when your dad is president of the United States.

01:06:25.360 This is happening at Justice Department with his handpicked attorney general.

01:06:30.320 And and yet your father continues to be criticized for tipping the scale of justice and weaponizing the Department of Justice against, quote, unquote, his enemies.

01:06:44.240 Meanwhile, his own son is being prosecuted along these lines after a plea agreement was already signed. 0.99

01:06:50.400 where i'm from what you say said something like that is you can't make this shit up 0.94

01:06:57.260 i'm glad you you put it in terms all of us can understand you can't make this exactly but by the 0.97

01:07:04.480 way dad gets so mad at me he's like you gotta stop cussing you gotta stop cussing well i never

01:07:09.380 heard you cuss like you did with with andrew when you did that first podcast that was oh yeah

01:07:13.760 level, man. By the way, all earned, all earned. Yeah, all earned. And don't think I'm going to

01:07:21.380 let you go without getting to a little bit of those more contemporary topics that triggered

01:07:25.400 you back then. Not that I'm here to trigger you necessarily. No, no, I'm not triggered by it.

01:07:30.220 But a lot of it is worthy of some additional commentary. But it's a good segue then,

01:07:37.560 just the Department of Justice, this notion of weaponization. Of course, we've seen now Trump

01:07:41.080 back in office, your father feeling, you know, I don't want to get down the rabbit hole of,

01:07:47.340 you know, your father, you know, shifting his own mindset as it relates to the pardon at the end of

01:07:51.320 the day, where, you know, he was sort of holding the line against it and ultimately realized on

01:07:56.620 the other side of this is, is, yeah. So is this, is this, is this is another thing that I really

01:08:05.160 feel that if I sat in front of a lot of these people that are an outsized voice within a

01:08:13.580 conservative communities, there is no more MAGA, in my opinion. Okay. And if it is, it's a very

01:08:19.280 small percentage of what used to be called the Republican Party. But there is still a genuine

01:08:26.000 conservative movement out there. And who's going to take the mantle of the intellectual

01:08:30.680 forefront of that. I don't know. But I can't imagine not sitting in front of Tucker Carlson

01:08:37.060 and looking him in the eye and saying, you know, Tucker, my dad said that he wouldn't give me a

01:08:42.160 pardon. And he was absolutely 100% genuine about it when he said he wouldn't give me a pardon.

01:08:47.160 And he said it at a moment in time where he thought that he was going to be the next president

01:08:51.240 of the United States and there would be a Justice Department that would treat me fairly and there

01:08:54.840 would be a court system that would not be intimidated by a tyrant, that would not have

01:08:59.400 an attorney general that is willing that is to own personal attorney or at that time if you

01:09:05.040 remember correctly is that matt gates was going to become the attorney general of the united states

01:09:09.980 cash patel is the head of fbi i would have been under the supervision of the of the bureau of

01:09:16.200 federal prisons and probation the idea that they would not have violated i would not look for

01:09:22.020 everything i was convicted for the idea that i would have gone to jail is zero zero under any

01:09:26.780 circumstances. None. I was a first-time offender. I had never, like, non-violent victimist climbs on

01:09:33.320 both of them. I paid all my taxes with penalties and interest. Anybody that was in my position

01:09:38.660 would have been in a payment plan with the IRS through a settled, a settlement. There's over

01:09:45.920 1.6 billion dollars in taxes owed by over a million people that make over a million dollars a year in

01:09:54.040 the United States right now, every year, that have voted for over five years. By the way,

01:09:58.720 I'm going to win the gun case. It's going to get overturned in the Supreme Court, I believe,

01:10:03.600 unfortunately, in the Hamani case that is about to come out. So whether it was a Biden administration

01:10:11.860 or whoever, and by the way, if it was in a Mitt Romney administration, if it was in a John McCain

01:10:20.040 administration if it was in anybody that was an actual republican and not a tyrant or a fascist

01:10:26.600 my dad would not have pardoned me because i could i could fend for myself in that system

01:10:32.280 i could take the lumps i could continue on and i would be okay but the idea that you would leave

01:10:39.520 anyone and particularly your son just i mean think about it from that respect literally you

01:10:46.200 all your fourth amendment rights are gone search and seizure is no longer a constitutional right

01:10:51.800 that you um that you have an advantage of if you're a convicted felon the ability for a probation

01:10:57.820 officer at any time to enter your house without a warrant to go into your room to do anything that

01:11:02.980 they want to do to violate you in any way they choose at any time of day or night and it would

01:11:09.360 have been like having a gun to my family's head for the next four years at least and so that's

01:11:15.440 why he pardoned me. I mean, it's a really incredibly rational decision. And it was a really difficult

01:11:20.420 decision. And you know how proud of my dad I am? It's the fact that the matter is, is he chose me

01:11:24.840 over his legacy. Because no matter what you say, that's going to be the one of the first things

01:11:30.580 that is written about him. And that's how, you know, I say to people, that's how much you know

01:11:36.680 my dad loves me. He chose me over his political legacy for that reason.

01:11:43.680 Hunter, I was with him the day you were indicted.

01:11:45.680 We had a press conference out here in San Francisco.

01:11:47.700 I was driving with him in the Bayer, and that's a private story I'll share with you,

01:11:52.000 him talking about you.

01:11:53.300 And he cut me off.

01:11:54.580 We were talking about something else, and he was not thinking about anything else

01:11:57.820 except you in that day, understandably.

01:12:00.080 And he was trying to indulge me and said some things, man,

01:12:03.700 that have hardwired me, imprinted on me.

01:12:09.800 That's where my loyalty will always be with your dad, just the love he has.

01:12:13.680 for you and you know forgive me just as a parent thanks anyway man so i just that's you you know

01:12:19.260 that but boy uh you know just to be there at that moment and to hear that expression and the depth

01:12:24.380 of that um was was as a father um and as someone who lost my father was uh yeah pronounced brother 0.98

01:12:31.980 but let me just look and it segues to you know just to the you know all that shit you took 24 0.76

01:12:40.980 4-7, surround sound, weaponization, all the, you know, all of that. 0.98

01:12:46.060 And here we are, fast forward, with the Department of Justice.

01:12:49.100 We can, you know, we don't even need to, we can just blow past the January 6th stuff.

01:12:52.980 Obviously, this $1.776 billion weaponization fund and all the misogosh there.

01:13:00.100 But, you know, come on, man.

01:13:01.680 You brought up Junior, Eric, Kushner's, Albania, Witkoff's, Board of Peace, MemeCoins, USC.

01:13:11.900 I mean, you were tweeting about that today.

01:13:13.420 Now there's a coin related to the USC.

01:13:15.780 We've got, you know, forget the days of Cologne.

01:13:18.340 It's Bibles and it's, you know, First Lady Bibles, not just Trump Bibles.

01:13:22.860 You've got sneakers.

01:13:24.980 We've got phones. 0.99

01:13:26.280 I mean, this grift is the likes of which we've, you can't even, can't make this, back to this, you can't make this shit up. 0.99

01:13:32.840 They ruin it all. 0.98

01:13:33.420 And everything you went through.

01:13:35.040 Let's talk about that.

01:13:36.880 Yeah, they literally, they ruin it all.

01:13:40.780 Like, you know what?

01:13:41.720 I like UFC.

01:13:44.320 I mean, I like watching it.

01:13:46.200 They ruin it.

01:13:47.480 They ruin it.

01:13:48.260 It makes it hard.

01:13:49.620 Now, you know what I mean?

01:13:50.740 It literally does because everybody's got to choose a side. 0.92

01:13:53.000 They have to put it on the goddamn South Lawn and I'm in the midst of the 250th anniversary. 0.93

01:13:57.940 I mean, I can't understand what Dana White. 1.00

01:13:59.500 I don't have anything against Dana White, but what the fuck, man? 0.99

01:14:02.880 Like, it's your brand. 0.99

01:14:04.460 Like, how are you doing this?

01:14:06.380 How are you doing this?

01:14:07.500 How is this appropriate?

01:14:09.480 How is this appropriate?

01:14:11.020 And I just don't get crypto.

01:14:13.680 Let me take it as crypto.

01:14:14.900 I was red pill a long time ago as it relates to Bitcoin.

01:14:17.300 I don't care.

01:14:18.180 I'm not, you know, meme coins.

01:14:20.460 If you talk to anybody between the age of 18 and 35, meme culture and tokens are something that they fully, completely understand.

01:14:29.340 And you know what?

01:14:30.360 There was a lot of promise in that, a lot of freedom in that, a lot of an idea in which your level of attention could be something in which you could monetize, that you could do microtransactions and create communities with.

01:14:42.040 They've totally distorted it and made it a total grift.

01:14:46.700 I mean, look at Bitcoin.

01:14:47.540 I love the idea of Bitcoin not coming from, I don't own any Bitcoin.

01:14:51.300 I don't have two nickels to rub together.

01:14:53.360 But the fact of the matter is, is that you have a, I went, sorry, sorry to get off on

01:15:00.260 this tangent.

01:15:01.780 When I was the chairman of the board of the World Food Program, the US UN World Food Program,

01:15:07.040 largest humanitarian organization in the world.

01:15:09.400 I ran the US part of it, okay, which was responsible for 60% of its budget, which we went from,

01:15:15.100 when I was chairman, from $1.6 billion a year to $2.4 billion a year, in which we were able to

01:15:20.920 raise income out of U.S. interest. Fed 80 million people in 73 different countries on a daily basis.

01:15:30.900 Okay. So I would go to these hotspots. So when there was a typhoon or was it a natural disaster,

01:15:36.900 whether there's a war, and we would, and World Food Program is always the first on the ground

01:15:42.620 because they have all the airlift of the UN.

01:15:45.560 And so they bring in everybody else.

01:15:47.260 And so it was critical.

01:15:49.040 And one of the pieces was, 1.00

01:15:50.280 is that when you bring in refugees into these places, 1.00

01:15:52.800 is that they cannibalize the local economy, 1.00

01:15:56.100 which is usually really unstable at the time anyway.

01:15:59.300 And so you bring in all of this free food

01:16:02.540 and all of a sudden,

01:16:04.060 then you are these subsistence farmers

01:16:06.840 and these local shops and things,

01:16:09.260 they get that nobody's going to them anymore.

01:16:12.020 And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to bring money into the communities, into the economy. 0.98

01:16:17.760 And rather than making the refugees a drain on it, is that they're actually adding to it. 0.98

01:16:22.360 And we had to figure out a way to be able to do microtransactions that could go through cell phones. 1.00

01:16:29.820 And the pilot program was incredibly successful.

01:16:34.020 And you realize like in places like Kibera and which is the largest, you know, former refugee slum in the world in Nairobi.

01:16:43.320 And it is an entire working economy in which you can go into a shack that is the size of a closet to buy a Fanta soda with a flip phone and for the equivalent of 17 cents.

01:16:57.880 that's what cryptocurrency is the the true promise of it outside of a banking system which you have

01:17:04.620 to go through vat or you have to go through um you know uh like by the way like do i trust that

01:17:11.940 or jamie diamond you know what i mean like you know what i mean like what's the i i i and so

01:17:19.020 anyway my point is is they sully everything they sully everything they tarnish everything i mean

01:17:26.660 he made 37 000 trades in the first quarter of this year 37 000 trades more than most

01:17:35.100 multi-billion dollar hedge funds make uh in a single quarter and i'm talking about like i mean

01:17:41.480 like he is a hyper um trader and and and he's trading stocks in large numbers of companies like

01:17:48.820 Dell and NVIDIA and Apple and what she's handing out billion dollar contracts to. And by the way,

01:17:57.100 those trades directly coincide with whatever action that he's taking. And we'd all sit here

01:18:03.120 and go like, well, you know, and sorry to do this, but I have too much fun doing it. And,

01:18:10.680 you know, Jay Brick Tamlin Tapper sits and goes, but you know what? Jill Biden just wrote a book 1.00

01:18:17.440 that said that she believed in her husband.

01:18:19.460 It isn't that a crime. 0.99

01:18:20.860 And it's like, what are you all fucking talking about? 0.96

01:18:23.280 Excuse my language. 1.00

01:18:24.080 Sorry, he's going to kill me. 0.75

01:18:25.620 I swear to God. 0.97

01:18:28.420 I told him, I promised I would try to stop cussing.

01:18:34.200 But, you know, to your point,

01:18:36.280 it's, I think, you know, it's Steve Bannon thing, though, okay?

01:18:41.960 Is that, and you know this,

01:18:44.520 and you're about to feel it in a way that's even more intense,

01:18:51.880 which doesn't seem possible, but I promise you it is,

01:18:54.900 than it has been, is the fire hose of falsehoods.

01:18:59.020 They are just opening the spigot,

01:19:01.320 and it becomes so overwhelming that even a captured press

01:19:06.560 doesn't have the, you know, it makes it hard on any of them.

01:19:11.440 I mean, what do you focus on?

01:19:13.000 Do you focus on the gold shoes or do you focus on the new coin that they just released?

01:19:17.000 Or do you focus on the $620 million Pentagon loan?

01:19:20.960 Largest ever made to any single company in the history of the United States of America,

01:19:25.720 to Don Jr. for a startup company about rare earth minerals.

01:19:30.340 And they say that I wasn't qualified to be on a board.

01:19:33.200 I mean, Jesus Christ.

01:19:34.840 I mean, how in the world?

01:19:37.760 Jared Kushner, $6.2 billion from Gulf State.

01:19:42.020 all of it from Gulf state 80 million dollars in fees annually at a minimum before you get

01:19:48.600 to carry on that investment and he's taken it from people in which he's negotiating a war on

01:19:54.780 behalf of the United States of America that nobody wanted with Iran that their interests are directly

01:19:59.480 tied to Eric Trump 100 a 1.5 billion dollar Israeli drone company that made its um that made

01:20:08.960 its mark in gaza with their drones selling in going public and selling into the the dod

01:20:15.760 because they merged with one of uh uh eric's um you know like uh golf companies or something i

01:20:22.560 don't know i mean i don't even know what the hell is but they're open about it they're standing

01:20:26.400 there ringing the bell at the wall you know they're not on the front page and meanwhile new

01:20:32.880 New York Times had me on the front page for, I don't know,

01:20:36.380 seeing like 4,680 days street with, you know,

01:20:40.320 Ken Vogel doing these, you know,

01:20:42.080 writing long form books about, you know,

01:20:45.180 whether or not the influence, you know,

01:20:48.840 what they're talking about is 85% of that.

01:20:52.800 None of it had to do with any time when my dad was president.

01:20:56.420 Any of the business deals that they're talking about all happened when my dad

01:20:59.800 was neither president nor vice president. 0.57

01:21:01.720 this whole 10 for the big guy thing i didn't read that email some jackass wrote it to me trying to 0.57

01:21:07.700 get me to be a part of a deal while my dad was out of office even if it was true which it was not

01:21:13.700 there's no there's not even anything unethical about it but all of a sudden it becomes the

01:21:19.760 tagline and people catch on to it and you know if you're ken vogel or or peter baker or you know

01:21:26.980 these guys is like this this false gospel of balance in the media is just it's like you know

01:21:36.340 a scale has two pans all right and when you put a weight on one side the other side goes up and

01:21:46.240 that's a fact and we're supposed to believe that it's always an even weight and it's not

01:21:53.480 there are facts and there is truth and the truth is they are more corrupt than any single

01:22:02.460 administration of all the competent and i'm talking about andrew johnson corrupt

01:22:07.940 more than andrew johnson i mean go back and read your history and i've read it

01:22:12.900 no one even remotely comes close i my line is is if they ever leave the white house

01:22:20.220 they're going to steal the copper pipes we've already he's already got the declaration of

01:22:27.660 independence on uh in the oval so i'm not sure he distinguishes whether or not it's ours or his

01:22:33.180 yeah and by the way he doesn't even know what it is remember when he pointed to it and he said you

01:22:39.240 know this i forget he like referred to it as the constitution he really doesn't he doesn't know the

01:22:45.340 significance of that document and what it means to the american people just like he doesn't know

01:22:50.000 the significance of what it means to that South Lawn, what it means to me, what it means to a

01:22:55.820 normal person that has never been able to walk on that and never had the privilege of walking out

01:23:02.300 those doors to that South Lawn and thinking about that's where the helicopter took off with, you

01:23:07.620 know, with Lyndon Johnson when he left. That's where, you know, that's the same lawn that Abraham

01:23:13.880 lincoln there's the tree that um uh that teddy roosevelt um planted and he's putting a fucking 0.98

01:23:20.580 cage and he's putting on a show bread and circus bread and circus and by the way that's all it is 0.97

01:23:29.360 to him the gold the rose garden the oval office it's bread and circus he knows what he's doing

01:23:37.960 he knows that people are absolutely enthralled by it and again what it is it's audacity versus

01:23:45.840 authenticity and i am um and i'm certain you know it can only last so long the question is is what

01:23:54.760 are we going to have to rebuild with that's really what i think and in in hunter to that you know

01:24:00.340 and again i'm mindful of our time you know the democratic party you made a bleak reference early

01:24:07.140 in the conversation about the party i mean what is what is to you the democratic party what is it

01:24:12.260 is there a party what what is the party is it the party is your dad is it is it bill and hillary is

01:24:17.740 it barack i would be interested in the party yeah nancy yeah it's all of it okay it's all of it

01:24:23.560 it's it's the it's the one thing that i always say it's that will rogers line i'm not a part of

01:24:28.280 i i'm i'm not a member of any organized party i'm a democrat and that's so true and you know it is

01:24:33.920 this, is that I've never known in my life, and you've been doing this your whole other wife,

01:24:38.920 when have we ever had a Democratic Party before we had a nominee? Until we get a nominee,

01:24:46.220 until we get somebody deleted, we do not have a Democratic Party. It's never existed. It's

01:24:51.060 never happened before. And you know why? It's because we always are trying to find a way. And

01:24:55.120 it looks like absolute chaos. But I'll tell you what, when we get a nominee, we'll have a direction.

01:25:00.980 take 2020 everybody sits around and particularly these guys that i know that you're friends with

01:25:07.100 and i'm not going to name names and i'm not friends friends with but i do you don't want

01:25:12.680 to be enemies so you don't want me to do something as they're so smart and they're all the ones that

01:25:18.420 you know the reason they're the reason that barack obama won so you're oh yeah so you're going right

01:25:23.940 you're hitting axelrod right now yeah no yeah i mean he's the one he broke the speeches he did

01:25:29.020 this he did that you know he's the the nominee um you know in 2020 would never be joe biden never

01:25:35.960 gonna joe biden would never win he's by the way it wasn't because he was too old it was because

01:25:40.120 that you know you needed you know uh you know new fresh blood and this that and the other thing and

01:25:44.860 and uh his policies are old and he doesn't he doesn't understand washington anymore he'll never

01:25:49.740 be able to get anything done he's delusional he's living in a time that's gone by you know what my

01:25:54.580 dad was my dad was joe biden and everybody knew joe biden he was the most authentic man in politics

01:25:59.820 at that time 100 joe biden may have misspoken but very rarely the truth of the matter was his gap

01:26:06.420 was his was was everyone else's truth it didn't matter what he said and everybody would go but

01:26:12.620 you know what it was never a lie it was never fake and he was never pretending and that's why he got

01:26:18.020 81 million votes because you know what joe biden knew joe biden or what you knew about joe biden is

01:26:23.440 is, is that if you were a waitress, let's say, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and you're raised a Catholic,

01:26:30.440 and you were a practicing Catholic, and you worked two jobs, and your husband worked at

01:26:35.740 one of the auto factories down south of there, okay? And you look at Joe Biden, and you see all

01:26:45.280 these ads about transgenderism, okay? You know what you knew about Joe Biden? Was he as confused

01:26:50.660 about it as you are but you know what he also you knew about joe biden is that if he told you that

01:26:56.540 it's not that that that we are america and we are diverse enough that we can have a that that

01:27:02.100 this isn't an issue the issue is whether or not you're going to be able to send your kids to school

01:27:06.780 or you know what if you were a truck driver in um scranton okay you're a teamster in scranton

01:27:13.940 and um uh you're you're you're a pro-life but you're a democrat in terms of the principles

01:27:20.720 that you have in terms of working man and you know union jobs and everything like that

01:27:25.040 you know what you know joe biden's not going to shove his religion down your down your throat or

01:27:29.860 the lack thereof it that's why he got 81 million votes because he was one of them and he really

01:27:36.800 was one of them it wasn't it wasn't made up he you know this he is that and they knew that and

01:27:45.960 that's why he got 7 million more votes than anybody that has ever run for president not

01:27:50.300 because he was purely Barack Obama's vice president not because people look if it was

01:27:56.380 because people hated Trump so much then what changed in four years in 34 felony convictions

01:28:02.360 a you know the E.G. Carroll case you know stealing documents from the you know classified

01:28:10.280 like people's views didn't change on Trump any more or less but he got 81 million votes because

01:28:17.260 of that he got 81 million votes because my dad believed that everybody should have a fair chance

01:28:25.100 and you know what that meant in terms of everybody it meant the people that he even disagreed with

01:28:30.740 and so they were willing to come out to vote for him for that reason and i don't know what these

01:28:39.220 guys uh that are all the smart guys in the room are um uh in terms of uh they're not and never

01:28:47.300 will be the leaders of the democratic party you will be i i i believe or whoever wins the

01:28:57.080 nomination. I'm not saying that you're running and I'm not doing any of this and I'm not doing

01:29:00.720 any of that. I promise you, I'm not putting you in a position, but I'm saying if you do and you

01:29:05.400 win, then you become the leader of the democratic party and people fall in line just bleak, just

01:29:10.720 like they fell in line with the message of Joe Biden in 2020. And we won by, um, 8 million votes.

01:29:17.060 Um, and so that's what I think about, um, you know, you're not as panicked about the democratic

01:29:25.760 party brand in that context that that it starts to resolve itself as we move through the midterms

01:29:32.320 and then get to the other side yeah well you know what i mean uh i i i no i'm not because you know

01:29:42.060 what you know who's a democrat zora mamdani you know who's a democrat grant platner you know who's

01:29:48.020 a democrat abigail stanberger you know who's a democrat you know i mean i just can keep going

01:29:52.280 down the list. You know who's a Democrat? AOC. You know who's a Democrat? Bernie Sanders. You know

01:29:56.340 who's a Democrat? Is James Tallarico in Texas. You know who's a Democrat? Is Javier Becerra in

01:30:02.600 California. You know, I mean, the diversity of the number of people that I just named, but all

01:30:07.880 believe in one thing, is they believe in a constitutional republic. They believe in a

01:30:12.980 democracy. They believe that people should have a fighting chance. They believe that the billionaire

01:30:18.000 class should not be completely in control of all of the policies that we're making now do i think

01:30:23.280 that we need radical change in leadership once those people get into positions of power absolutely

01:30:29.220 we gotta break the cycle of us being beholden to the corporate class in this party and you know and

01:30:36.440 i think that'll happen but you gotta add um some of these new voices in there and and um and i

01:30:42.700 I think it'll benefit itself.

01:30:45.200 Can I order three eggs scrambled?

01:30:48.960 Maybe poached?

01:30:50.760 Should I get over medium?

01:30:52.220 Over hard?

01:30:53.160 Actually, actually, over easy, but not too over easy, please.

01:30:57.260 Orders change, but eggs stay the same.

01:30:59.800 Thanks to dedicated Ontario farmers who deliver fresh, high-quality eggs every day.

01:31:04.860 And with the EQA mark, you know they come from local Ontario farms that meet the highest standards.

01:31:09.840 Oh, I know.

01:31:10.800 Soft-boiled with toast for dipping. 0.99

01:31:12.700 Egg Farmers of Ontario, get cracking.

01:31:15.380 Last night, a blown call changed the game.

01:31:17.720 This morning, the internet lost its mind.

01:31:19.800 Highlights are trending, opinions are flying,

01:31:22.020 and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

01:31:24.660 That's where Sports Slice comes in.

01:31:26.180 I'm Timbo.

01:31:26.920 Every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

01:31:28.940 breaking down the plays, the controversies,

01:31:30.880 and the stories behind the headlines.

01:31:32.700 We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves,

01:31:35.480 their locker room stories, their reactions,

01:31:37.600 the stuff nobody gets to hear,

01:31:39.380 the laughs, the drama, the triumphs,

01:31:41.420 the moments that never make the highlight real.

01:31:43.740 From viral moments to historic games,

01:31:45.900 from buzzer beaters to controversial calls,

01:31:47.960 we break it down, give you context,

01:31:49.940 and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

01:31:52.580 Sports Slice brings you closer to the action

01:31:54.680 with stories told by the people who live them.

01:31:57.060 Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeartRadio app,

01:31:59.520 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:32:02.060 And for more, follow TimboSliceLife12

01:32:04.280 and the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

01:32:07.240 Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is.

01:32:10.700 Getting a racist statue removed.

01:32:12.900 And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is.

01:32:16.080 Getting a new one put up in its place.

01:32:18.480 As long as there's a politics of race in America,

01:32:20.880 there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War.

01:32:23.760 To get to school, I had to go down Robert E. Lee Boulevard.

01:32:26.300 To get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway.

01:32:28.960 If you're a historian and you leave out half of what the history is,

01:32:33.020 you're not doing your job.

01:32:34.480 I'm Akilah Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 goes deep on both of those things.

01:32:38.460 The fights, the politics, the people who won, and my personal campaign to add something to the Kentucky Statehouse that's actually worth the wall space.

01:32:47.600 We are more than our bodies. We contain essence. We contain spirit. How do you represent that?

01:32:54.060 They are just fueling a fire that is really catching.

01:32:57.680 You'll see what I mean. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:33:05.160 your husband is not who you think he is your body is not what you thought it was your identity

01:33:12.260 is formed by a secret history i'm danny shapiro and these are just a few of the stunning stories

01:33:18.420 i'll be exploring on the 14th season of family secrets just then we felt the plane turn in the

01:33:26.060 air so much so that the bags that were under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle

01:33:31.840 Each week, we dive headfirst into the complex power of secrecy,

01:33:36.160 how it shapes our identities and relationships,

01:33:38.900 and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves.

01:33:42.960 My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know,

01:33:45.160 but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive 0.95

01:33:47.600 because I wasn't eating anything,

01:33:49.300 and me pretending like everything was fine.

01:33:52.540 He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move,

01:33:54.640 and he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off,

01:33:57.980 and that was the last time I saw him.

01:33:59.280 Listen to Season 14 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:34:06.780 I have faith that with some truth and reconciliation in 2028, or even beginning in 2026, now in November,

01:34:19.700 that we can stem, not just stem the tide, but I think that the most incredible changes always occur.

01:34:26.760 at the the this is always the case throughout history you need to go through the pain to it's

01:34:32.920 just like recovery i believe that we all need as a nation be in recovery and in that recovery what

01:34:40.260 you realize is that all the pain that you went through is all the power that you have now i think

01:34:45.640 the country can do the same thing i truly do believe that the autopsy what did you make of

01:34:50.540 the whole autopsy? Well, number one, I think that the criticism of the, uh, of the chairman,

01:34:57.960 um, uh, is so unfair. I mean, I think that he's trying to do a job and I, I mean, he just getting

01:35:05.420 ripped, you know, ripped both ways and backwards and forwards. I, you know, I know, understand

01:35:10.760 this idea that it is, you know, that, um, uh, that it's important to do a, um, you know, an

01:35:18.840 internal uh review of your process and and what happened and um how you can do better but why that 0.97

01:35:26.460 has to be a um you know like a a a public spectacle i mean what a bunch of bullshit what 0.54

01:35:32.860 company would ever do that like if you're a company okay and you had a goal and uh so you 0.98

01:35:38.240 know what it is a new coke okay new coke comes out it was a spectacular failure okay the ceo of coke

01:35:46.600 didn't wasn't forced to then go out and say you know okay how did it go so wrong well we're going

01:35:52.380 to go to the market and what we're going to do is we're going to lay we're going to pull down 0.87

01:35:55.340 our pants and we're going to tell you how stupid we were to you know uh to brand ourselves new cook 0.99

01:36:00.600 and you know and and kill you know almost kill this brand no company's ever expected to do that 0.99

01:36:06.600 because it's completely counterproductive to the brand so all these people calling for like 0.51

01:36:13.000 a public lashing because what do they want you know it's gaza well you know what a bunch of 1.00

01:36:19.700 bullshit it's not just gaza it's israel no what a bunch of bullshit it's not just israel 1.00

01:36:25.360 you know it's leadership it's not what we we as democrats are going to figure it out but we're 1.00

01:36:34.000 only going to figure it out when we find a leader and we find a leader of the party when we end up

01:36:40.280 going through this primary process. And I think then that, um, that leader is going to be

01:36:46.580 determinative on them and, and, and their team of people and the people that they bring along

01:36:51.500 to embolden us with a message that I hope includes action in some, in, in some real radical, um,

01:36:58.080 plans for, for, uh, for changing things, uh, reform. People are angry and people are angry

01:37:03.720 for good reason. Uh, and I, you know, I, I love the tonality and you've sit, you've been saying

01:37:08.720 And I cannot agree with you more in terms of just, you know, we can't pave over the old cow path. 0.87

01:37:14.340 You know, we can't be sort of, you know, manage the decline more efficiently or effectively. 1.00

01:37:19.040 I think people notably and rightfully are demanding something.

01:37:23.640 And you use the word radically, which is a loaded word, but something dramatically different.

01:37:28.860 Let me ask you just.

01:37:29.640 You can't say it, but I can.

01:37:31.320 Yeah, you can say it.

01:37:33.120 And that's the beauty, by the way, and that's the completely unfair advantage that I have over you.

01:37:38.720 is like, and I really mean this. It's not fair. It's like, I can say it because I don't then have

01:37:44.040 to do it. And, and, um, but I really, I, I think that, um, I think people are ready for radical

01:37:49.960 in the best sense of the word in the best sense. Uh, when's your book coming out? Come on, tell

01:37:55.280 me, you don't, you're not thinking about another book. Okay. Yeah, no, I am. I, and I've, and I've

01:38:00.300 written it and I'm, and I'm, what I'm going to do is I'm going to release it on sub stack

01:38:04.040 in serial form how cool is that like once a week or once every few days and so I wrote two books

01:38:10.800 I want I basically wrote one book about the like the internal experience like from um from the end

01:38:18.480 of the last book um for those like past seven years and then I wrote another book which is kind

01:38:23.320 of like a like a like a thriller um unfortunately the the leading characters are like Rudy Giuliani

01:38:30.580 and steve vannon like what was happening in the rooms um that i was not in um which is really

01:38:35.780 fascinating and interesting um and i'm going to do that on substack and i and and more than anything

01:38:42.260 this is what i'm doing is that this uh uh um organization that i'm working with now peak path

01:38:49.920 health is um their their rehab up in um up in the hollywood hills and they have about 40 beds and

01:38:56.260 And the two people that run it and are the day-to-day, Dustin and Glynis, they have like 25 years of recovery between them.

01:39:08.140 They've been to many rehabs, as I have, and they're just wonderful people.

01:39:11.800 And they do an incredible job.

01:39:14.340 And this idea of a free aftercare in L.A., and there's, I think, a property that this incredible couple may donate to us.

01:39:24.900 And that's what I really want to build. And then the other thing that I'm doing in L.A. is around rent is is Basta Universal, which is you probably know Basta is a Basta Universal is the largest tenants rights, free tenants rights and homeless prevention group in southern L.A.

01:39:46.380 And I'm their development director there because I think that there's a real link between people staying in their homes, homelessness, and addiction that is not always a straight line one way or another.

01:39:59.120 And so those are the two things that I'm most focused on.

01:40:02.020 I love it.

01:40:02.620 So Substack, you know, reminds me, one of the few things, my inheritance from my father was hardly his wit and witticism.

01:40:09.620 It was a few books and poetry from Yeats.

01:40:13.380 And he said he did leave me one extraordinary book, which is Pickwick Papers from Dickens.

01:40:18.600 And it was done in pamphlets, how they originally published books.

01:40:22.680 It was done on a monthly basis and you would just wait for the next pamphlet.

01:40:26.940 So you're you're bringing back a little bit.

01:40:31.200 That's how I got the idea of doing it.

01:40:33.140 And John Irving used to talk about that, you know, the, you know, world occurring garb and stuff.

01:40:38.460 He did this whole thing about how Dickens used to write his books.

01:40:42.580 that would come out in serial form and you know there's this thing with sub stack where like it's

01:40:48.580 kind of really cool like you you're waiting for the next chapter whether it's you know every week

01:40:53.840 and if it's every week it won't there's too many chapters it'll be in the next year but um i'll do

01:41:00.660 it a little bit faster pace but um i think it'll be really cool i love that so last question i mean

01:41:06.380 just for all the cynics out there and by the way i want you and tapper to you gotta if you're gonna

01:41:10.780 to show up on Candace Owens and you want to be on with Tucker, everyone, you and Tapper have to

01:41:15.280 have it out. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. But that may not happen. Yeah. May not.

01:41:23.380 It may not. But to the cynics out there, and you named Tapper in terms of just, you know,

01:41:29.860 your mom's book and, you know, your dad's coming out with his book later in the year.

01:41:33.760 I mean, what do you say? Because I have strong opinions on this, but just in closing,

01:41:37.700 And I'd love to hear yours. You know, this idea that somehow it once you're once, you know, we turn the page on one administration and family, we're supposed to just move on and never hear from them again.

01:41:49.180 This idea that that they don't have a voice. Yeah. What do you what do you make of that?

01:41:55.700 Why are the Bidens writing books? Why are they talking?

01:41:57.900 never look okay i was what i said is it like oh you know what what they were going to do

01:42:06.220 is they were going to go and and and um and uh gin up the sneaker factory um the gold sneaker

01:42:12.880 factory in vietnam and um that uh business was taken so they were going to then go into um

01:42:19.760 into crypto but you know that was a little bit cornered so they decided on gold-plated mobile

01:42:26.180 phones but dad had a better idea he thought maybe they could sell biden branded bibles

01:42:32.240 and that's how they could make a living all of those things were taken and so you know what

01:42:36.540 they decided to do they decided to do with every first lady and president in modern history has

01:42:44.060 done they both decided to write a book one has to come out before the other and so mom went first

01:42:53.360 and you know who did that also michelle and barack obama you know who else did that hillary and bill

01:42:58.080 clinton george bush and the first lady and george herbert walker bush and i mean and barbara bush

01:43:05.060 and ronald reagan and nancy and i mean like what are we talking about here i mean it's like i like

01:43:13.400 oh he should should what what what what are they supposed to do other than that by the way and i'm

01:43:18.880 really proud of that. You know why? You know what my dad didn't do? He didn't go and join the board

01:43:25.960 of 16 different corporations. My dad decided what he was going to do is he's going to stay true to

01:43:32.400 himself like he'd always done. He'd never made a penny off of his, off of being a public servant

01:43:39.300 other than the salary that he got. When he became, when he left the vice presidency, he wrote a book

01:43:44.540 and he had money for the first time in his life and he bought my mom a little house in

01:43:49.020 Rehoboth Beach Delaware that's what he did with it and now you know what he's back at his house

01:43:54.700 the same house that he spent in for 30 years in Wilmington Delaware with my mom and he's writing

01:44:00.540 his book and that's how they are paying the bills and like and it's great and for them it's great

01:44:07.880 but what do they want him to do what did they think that he should do go join the board of

01:44:14.360 Carlisle? No, I'm not, you know, you know, start a, you know, a multinational, you know,

01:44:21.940 think tank organization and fly around the globe. You know, I mean, like, my dad is my dad. He's

01:44:28.540 in Delaware. He's writing a book about the most, his history, incredible journey from a kid

01:44:37.700 from Scranton, Pennsylvania that had a stutter, whose dad was a car salesman

01:44:44.680 that became the president of the United States. And I tell you what, the thing about my dad

01:44:54.100 is this. I think that he is unique, unique as president for just one reason,

01:45:01.300 is that I don't know of any president that I've read about in history in order to to to take that

01:45:11.200 job and this is not a criticism it is a just it's a fact is that there has to be some level of

01:45:17.020 narcissism and you you have to have a you have to have an outsized ego to be able to balance that

01:45:24.580 with the level of empathy that my dad had yeah I found it was almost unique I love it I love and

01:45:30.780 and i'm so proud of him i'm so proud of him i'm so proud of my mom you know it's not been easy

01:45:37.960 cancer is not easy you know the way that we left was not easy and um and my dad grieves every day

01:45:47.840 for um uh the the the loss of the opportunity to save this country from what it has to go

01:45:55.060 through right now and um and you don't think that we care as a family more than anybody more than

01:46:02.880 anybody about this we have given not by choice but by but by choice in my respect not because

01:46:12.660 of anything that i have earned but this family has given our lives our whole lives

01:46:18.080 to this whatever you think about us given our my dad has given his whole adult life

01:46:27.720 to this not for personal gain not to become a billionaire not to even become a millionaire

01:46:34.760 not to make more than the salary that he was paid given his whole life to this i've given up my life

01:46:40.940 for it you all of it they took all of it and here we are and you know what i'm not stepping

01:46:49.820 off the stage for anybody because more than anything i want to make my dad proud

01:46:58.860 well hunter i and i i you you know this and i'll just add my voice you you know you know how proud

01:47:07.020 is of you, brother. And I'm proud to have had this opportunity to share all this with you and

01:47:13.520 to have this conversation, at least share this time with you. And I'm really just, I'm so pleased

01:47:19.680 that you're so willing to be so open and talk so authentically about your journey and how it

01:47:27.700 attaches, I imagine, to how so many other people are struggling and feeling. And thanks for being

01:47:33.940 And so, Rod, thanks for being here.

01:47:36.180 Okay, wait.

01:47:36.800 One thing is this.

01:47:37.940 You've heard Dad say it a million times is I'll come campaign for you

01:47:44.160 or against you, whatever helps most.

01:47:48.380 And, you know, he would say it.

01:47:49.720 He's put his finger in my stomach. 0.90

01:47:51.140 Yeah, and he would say it, and you'd be like, you know, it was silly

01:47:54.700 because, of course, you'd want him to come out.

01:47:56.520 In my case, it's for real.

01:47:58.280 It's for real.

01:48:03.940 This is an iHeart Podcast.

01:48:06.960 Guaranteed human.

This is Gavin Newsom - June 12, 2026

And, This Is Hunter Biden Like You've Never Heard Him Before

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