HUNTER BIDEN Talks Recovery, Gaza, Family

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Get 20% off your first purchase at Viore.com slash T-A-F-S and discover the versatility of Viore clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. And it took a long time to get there, but the gift of being completely and utterly exposed and humiliated in the public square, the global public square. It would have been worse. Yeah, it would have been very worse. Yeah, if it was me, I'd be like, no. It was cold. I was in the pool. Okay, stop. I was in the pool. I was in the pool. I just got out of the pool. Welcome back to the Adam Friedland Show. My guest this week is Hunter Biden. Hunter is a businessman. He's an entrepreneur. He's an artist. And of course, he's the son of former President Joe Biden. This is Hunter's son, Beau, named after his late brother, the former Attorney General of the state of Delaware. And this is Adam Friedland, the greatest interviewer in the English world. And of course, this is James. He helps with the cameras. I'm Adam Friedland. And this is the first interview that Hunter Biden has ever given in his life. Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Hunter Biden, everyone. Give it up for him. Let's make some noise. Thanks for coming. I kept you and your wife on the phone the first time we talked for like an hour. An hour and like 30 minutes. Was it all right? Yeah, it was okay. Was it annoying? Yeah. Why? Because I was being too funny. Not at all. I was being too funny? Yeah, exactly. I went to my first Christmas once at my friend's parents' house. And the dad got mad that I was being too funny because the mom was talking. Is that what they told you? Yeah, that's what he was like. Because you were too funny? Yeah, I was being too funny. That's the reason why you were annoying? No, no. It was the whole killing of Christ situation, I think, probably. But you're like out there nowadays. How does it feel? Good. You're in public life. Yeah. I kind of feel like you're smashing it. Well, I've been in public life, but not by choice for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. But it's on your own terms, I would say. Yeah. Right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, I think you've taken to it really well. Thank you. I told you the first time we talked, you have to get off of Twitter, though. Yeah, well, too late for that. Yeah. Well, you're going to get sick of it. You know, I post, and I do a couple of replies, and then I just leave it. Yeah, it's a really terrible place. It's awful. Oh, my God. You missed it when it was funny. It used to be funny. Yeah. I didn't have it then. You're joining during the Sodom and Gomorrah era of Twitter. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know what's interesting, though? Much as there is, like, this really, really toxic troll environment, every once in a while, you get this really, like, beautiful and, like, important, like, comment, or at least important to me. And, you know, usually around recovery or someone, like, you know, connecting with you over something that is actually deep. Yeah. You read them. You read the comments? Not all of them. Because most of them are, like, Anne Frank wrote the diary in ballpoint pen, which wouldn't have, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, I replied to one yesterday. No, I replied to one yesterday. A woman said, you're so full of shit. This is all, your father is either a hybrid reptile or a clone or he's one of those people that are, that have been replaced that are wearing a mask. And I had a legitimate question, which was, number one is, what is a hybrid reptile? Gas and electric. That's what I said. Is it like a. Prius. Yeah, yeah. You know, or. Dude, it's there. Yeah, you got the Prius there. That's pretty good. And if I get to choose which one I would be, I would definitely be a hybrid reptile. Yeah, yeah. Unless it was, like, a lame, like, garden snake or something like that. Yeah. But so the reptile comes from a different planet or something? That's, I also asked that question. I said, are the reptiles aliens or are they, you know, are they from here? Yeah. On Earth. Do you feel bad for that person? I feel really bad for that person. You know. It's an adult person saying that? Yeah. If it was a 12-year-old fucking with Hunter Biden. Shout out to him. Yeah. Yeah. But, like, if that's in a, a lot of people are like that these days. It's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing. You know, it's amazing that the entire ecosystem of that, that I don't think it is as nearly as many people as we're led to believe because of the way the algorithm, like, you know, pushes that forward. It's a lot of bots, too, from what I understand. I don't know if the bots do that, though. Do they do the whole clone thing? Like, the whole, like, conspiracy theory of. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, they push, they push that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then they make. Yeah. I think it was maybe COVID, probably. Like, the phone existed before COVID, but during COVID, there was only the phone. And I think it made everyone kind of loopy. By the way, I believe that not just as it relates to the way people interact on social media, but I believe that as it relates to our, the way we interact with each other at all. Or we don't. Yeah. Or we don't. And it, COVID broke something. I think it's really important that we haven't even begun to figure out what it is, but you can think about it, like, just in terms of like, you know, if you were, if you were a kid or you were coming to age during that period of time, you missed like three years of your life, you know, really important time, the crucial years of being able to form your own, you know, ideas and opinions and you're stuck in your, you know, in your basement without anybody to really interact with, except some creepy. You know, but on a, you know, on your phone. Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, people don't acknowledge that that's traumatic. It's been traumatic for that generation. Right. Yeah. They just talk about their penises and vaginas and getting them changed. Right. It's like kind of perverse. The only way we talk about kids. You said that to me before. The only way we talk about kids is about their genitals. We don't talk about like, hey, it must have been really hard to be sitting around with your parents for two years. But like genuinely, and this is anecdotal, but like, I don't know anyone personally that died of COVID. But I know so many people that relapsed, committed suicide, overdosed. And like, I think there is a collective trauma that isn't acknowledged like in popular discourse. And genuinely, like if you think of it, like January 6th and Floyd were like the either sides, like kind of like, like kind of like expression of like, we kind of want to get out of the house and like, yeah, you know, yeah, like Floyd was the first moment, I think, that you could like be a responsible citizen and not be in lockdown, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I think part of it was just that incredible amount of pent up energy. But it was also a lot of pent up anger. Yeah. You know, in the way in which I've seen everybody as it relates to, you know, so much of this. And I know that the typical response to this is like, oh, you blame everything. I'm not blaming everything on Donald. But he broke something in us. He I mean, simply the way in which we in every other crisis that I can think of that was universal like that, which impacted everybody. We figured out a way to come together. Yeah. I mean, I think about it. How old were you in 9-11? I was freshman in high school. OK. Yeah. So you have fully were able to absorb what that meant. And it was when America got sad. Yeah. America got sad. But America also. Like everybody hugged each other was just every year was like America sick. Yeah. Well, every year before that in my life was sick. And we're like, this is the best year ever. And next year is going to be even better year. And America was like, we're rocking. And then every year, it feels like after 9-11, it's gotten a little bit worse. Yeah. It feels like it. But after 9-11, my point being is that there was there was a it wasn't a universal crisis in the sense that. Every single person was impacted in their own daily lives. But it was something that was. was universal enough that everybody mourned what happened on 9-11 yeah and it brought everybody together now they kind of ruined all of that but the but my point being is that with COVID he sowed so much division just about in the way in which people should interact I mean he just started he started fights between people that never existed before that never had to exist and like just created this mass sense of confusion yeah and I think he does that with everything because you know chaos is his friend and um he's like Loki what he's like Loki yeah exactly yeah that's exactly right yeah I don't know why I said that yeah the god Loki the Norse god Norse god yeah it just goes and sows chaos and see you know what you you didn't think I would know what you were referring to that's what are you talking about you're smarter than me Hunter you're smarter than me Hunter you're smarter than me Hunter wait okay let's go I want to start the interview but like yeah they're really we're not this isn't it no no no this is me and two best friends just jamming out two alphas just talking about like what it's like to be taught just pack leaders yeah let's let's actually start the interview you know that everyone thinks Delaware is just bullshit you know it is dude yeah it's the first half you guys are sucking up to Philly wait tax-free shopping what do you mean by the way and you get to pay dollars going in and four dollars going out you haven't done anything since the first i think it's up to five dollars on the toll now oh great dude first of all you get traffic every time yeah right it's you're in jersey you're cruising by the way you hit your bullshit i'll give you traffic as you're going through just stop at the biden service center right there really by the way people don't know it's named after my brother what do they have that roy rogers they got uh no i think i don't think they do have the starbucks wow that's sick actually to have a to have a one of those uh roadside things exactly uh but it's for me my brother and walt whitman he was a pedophile though what nothing oh stop okay so yeah how do you guys think you're feeling yeah you guys should be speaking about wait it's speaking about you have two beaches who it was i don't know if that's the truth at all famous he's he's saying that he he think famous pedophile walt whitman who has a has a off the new jersey i would love that if i was a famous pedophile okay uh no uh oh which was your beach do your robin robin well the gay one no uh yeah yeah yeah but the uh well you know what when i was growing up the the um the the largest gay community of the beaches was lewis really yeah which is on the bay so when did the gays come to yeah i don't know when they the the gay community absolutely made rehoboth like they included incredibly cool cool place to go yeah it's really cool down there it's good for the real estate when the gays show up right so says you it's true adam exactly from the man from brooklyn have you ever been have you ever been a ocean city maryland of course so my aunt had a house in fenwick which is the last beach right before ocean city yeah yeah have you been a secrets that bar that has sand on the floor no yeah that's just like the cops are just ready to arrest they're outside all all night that's all i remember send the arrest any summers literally the delaware state troopers just have a field day down there during the summer do you think every single interview you've ever had has opened up with uh you being asked to recount the greatest tragedy of your early life um it seems to be that like every interview you sit down you're like so my mother and sister died tragically i was at the hospital me and my brother survived yeah you and beau were bonded by that situation yeah and um did forge that bond between the two of you guys i mean it's kind of i mean i'd like to ask that i would like to think that we would have been as close no matter what but you know i mean that uh that made us close in a way that uh yeah it made it it made us much closer um um or we at least a shared experience that that um that was unique to us and kind of informed the way that we felt about the way in which we treated each other for the rest of our lives and and what i mean by that is i mean jesus christ i used to fight with my brother all the time i mean we're boys yeah and and um i mean we were we were brothers and we fought like brothers and we argued like brothers but um but there was never ever a even remotely a question that no matter what uh he was there for me and i was there for him i think you have something that's like kind of there's a concept of the of people in the democratic party as being like kind of there used to be like tough bastard like democrats yeah right i'm from nevada like harry reed was like a boxer you know i think you have something like where you're like you're like you know suck my dick you motherfucker i'm not gonna say i don't know why that came out but like you have kind of a like an edge about you where you're like you're kind of both progressive and you're like also just like like you want to dance go ahead and make my day yeah you're like dirty and you're like you're like you're like dirty harry you're like dirty harry yeah you're you're dirty you're a dirty man uh no i mean i think there's something about you where perhaps also like society has evolved on the concept of uh substance abuse and i think a lot of people in the middle of the country know people or are people everybody does right but like adam you know ulysses s grant was like uh someone that suffered from alcoholism and it was it chased him his whole life and it was a it was a demon yeah and in those days it was a moral failing right we didn't see it as as a disease i think culturally even people on the right have evolved on that subject um and i think that people could identify with you perhaps i had what the the most amazing thing about uh and and i really mean this is that and it took a long time to get there but the the gift of being completely and utterly completely and utterly exposed in um i know dude humiliated in the public square the global public so like exposed like yeah yeah it exposed it every way congrats yeah thank you you're welcome oh oh thanks yeah okay cool it would have been worse yeah it would have been very worse yeah if it was me i'd be like no it was cold yeah i was in the pool okay stop i was in the pool yeah i was in the pool it just got out of the i mean come on what am i gonna i'm gonna sorry for you about your trouble your problems but i'm saying wait let me get back seriously because we all saw that okay let me finish the point okay we'll move on from that all right just it's a nice yeah okay move on is i not now you uh i lost my train of thought i'm sorry dude yeah i'm a dickhead no you're talking about you've been exposed so thoroughly to the world yeah the gift of it the gift of it is that you call there's no there's no barrier between me and anybody on the street right you know even like for me or for you is that for anybody on a at some level of variation when you meet somebody that's famous there's kind of a like a wall between you and them like you want them to be what they are on the screen or what they uh you know what they came off as on the book or exactly and in that there's a little bit of an anxiety to meet the people that you kind of uh like see as separate from you with me there's no separation they've seen everything so so that like writ large i think makes a barrier between me where people come up to me and they just tell me their stories and every single one of them involves some kind of a struggle usually um you know particularly around addiction around recovery around trauma and you realize is that everybody is like everybody's going through it it's not you know 50 million americans suffer from addiction on a daily basis and that means that if it's 50 million people actually suffering from it is that 350 million people are impacted by it i mean there's nobody that's not impacted by it have you ever been in like n.a and someone's doing a share and you're like come on bro yeah you're like that's your rock bottom like jesus christ what a loser yeah i actually say that in your mind you're like this guy dude and he was like and then i was late on my taxes and you're like oh jesus christ exactly tell me when you're like when you tell me when you're a motel off i-95 yeah buster i was like reading about the first rehab you went to i would love to just lie about saying i'm an addict just so it sounded you were in antigua yeah sounded nice no it actually is really like um it sounds like a kind of a prize for being an addict it was really low-key really and it was uh it was like one of the cheapest place to go but that's not what reason the reason i chose it is because it was in in antigua yeah it sounds like it started it was the one eric yeah yeah my uh my friend actually went to a uh place that he started for uh musicians because he's like a musician so yeah he has a yeah uh kind of something in i think tennessee that uh yeah that like uh does eric clapton yeah yeah yeah yeah and so that was this too is that half half of it was um uh like scholarship from people from antigua and did you get scholarship no no no no but that would have been part of the the deal that he had with the id with the island where he built the rehab is that half the beds were reserved for scholarship for free for people anybody in any antiguan citizen could go to the rehab for free oh really yeah yeah yeah did he ever come down chill maybe gig no Well, but he does dominoes, but he does cream. He does. Yeah, really? Yeah, I mean even back then like he would come like once or twice a year and spend like a week there Have you met people? No, no He kind of lost his mind. He's right. Yeah. Well, he's been he's lost his mind before that in the 70s He was like on stage drug and he was like if you're fucking Jamaican get out of here Oh, yeah, he's like if you're a fucking immigrant get out of stuff because I know everything about rock Really? No, no, I know. I mean, I just know like useless up. Do you play guitar? No, no I wish I did. Really? I wish I played some interesting. I mean something you don't play anything. No Come on, bro. A girl never hurt you so bad that you're like I need to learn knocking on heaven's door. No, I didn't Exactly. I just played it over and over again You write about your dad taking you to like the Senate and you and Bo be like two little Irish demons running around Yeah, no, we were we were really Well behaved did you get you were well behaved a hundred percent? No way Yeah, and this is based on prejudice for the Irish that I'm saying that No, but yeah, but like you never got in trouble in the Senate you guys never you know Come on. No, not at all. For real like we had so much love for that place in in You never like push strong Thurman down a staircase. No, not at all. By the way, he was strong battleship attempt I mean, you know what he used to do. He's so he's to bring bow and I into his office Yeah, it was like black people shouldn't vote. You know that little Thank God they did not say that but he had this, you know those little push-up wheels Oh, yeah for your abs. Yeah, and he would he would show us Yeah, I swear to God like in his 80s. Yeah Lindsey Graham was around them the late Lindsey Graham. Yeah, but what that was when I was, you know I think Lindsay came in Senator Graham came When I was Yeah, in or out of college Yeah, you know because he was in the house and Right in 90 93 or 94 so I was already out. Yeah, but he can say that you never settled down at the right girl, you know You know, is that one of the things by the way? I wrote this thing about about Senator Graham Well, he flipped on you, but we gotta find Hunter's laptop. Yeah, exactly committee, but I wrote this thing about him. Is that he? Because I did know him pretty well Bo and I both do him pretty well because he Anywhere Senator McCain was he was really anywhere. I think he was literally attached to him at the hip and From the time he came to the Senate and and he's funny and he's a really personable guy who is he Lindsey Graham? Yeah, and And there was there was never any like real kind of vitriol in the way that in that he would No real venom to him. I mean he you know, he went after Clinton during the impeachment And he's good at the job policy. Yeah, but but again something in Trump broke him and and one of the things and I know that everybody thinks this is I'm kind of joking, but I'm not there is a Yeah, there is a a group of Republicans That everyone in DC knows who they are in power in both the White House now in in the Congress and Senate in the Senate all men all gay that are closeted and I really believe that there is a like self-hatred that happens when it's kind of gay to be like Right-wing. Yeah, and but I mean I'm being totally serious being racist is gay. Like I don't like that color Yeah, you know some of the things you say I literally just think of I think of the clip It is a little day to be racist. I think of the clever preferences on colors when I'm laughing And it's something you're gonna be president that now you can't laugh at me. I'm gonna work and we're gonna put me Yeah, it's like it's like you're where you put me cabinet style. It's good. Oh, you know what? Let's see head of the US. Oh, bro. No, there's there's like these these are like there's these like hidden cabinet positions He didn't count it. Yeah, nobody really knows. I'm nearly part of the cabinet, but not really Oh, yeah, like during was in that at the beginning before he was head of the Luftwaffe cabinet, I'm gonna be during was like he was like a Minister at-large and he was also fat to that. They must have got like like head of OSHA or something Oh, sure. Like I'm not getting hurt at work. Yeah, something like I would be useless. Everyone would get hurt at work. I Everyone I'll make a head of head of NOAA the Department of Commerce. No. Yeah, it's cool No, no, no is the the oceans and it's everything. It's a it's a at oceanic atmospheric in all of that Like you tell the weather and stuff IBM maybe ambassador to a cool place Brazil, maybe who would that be? Yeah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I come back and I'll be like guys, it's everything this It's great Your dad and Jack Kennedy were the only Catholic presidents. Yeah That's right. It's weird. Like in America. They let like us guys like the papers and the yids like be a Supreme Court. Yeah, that's right but like it's just it's kind of like Yeah, it's the it's their country. Yeah. Yeah, it's very it's Like you're dead. There's only two Catholic presidents. Yeah, and they've both given him a rough time Yeah in different different ways exactly, right? What do you have you thought about that before like? Well, I thought about it when he was elected. Yeah, is that it because I it's kind of shocking It's weird shocking in the sense that you know, what is 30% of the country is is Catholic I think is that right? Somebody checked there. I'm not counting. I would never count You would never count know why I count all the time. I just wonder how many Jews are there Yeah, right you count us yet. They're not good. If you count 13 million for Two of them to being my family so it's 30% Catholic America No, I did somebody check that but I think it's close to that is My point being is that there's a rich history of Particularly Irish Catholic Politicians on the east coast to have any more at least that have risen to high levels of state politics and federal politics but the idea that only two have Have become president is interesting to me. Why what why do you think I think because this is their country Because it's their country, right? Yeah when I was watching like the ill the Minneapolis stuff. Yeah, I was a little bit like like we were doing Somali daycare fraud when we came here to We who oh, yes boys. Yeah, we're the lower east side doing a little Somali daycare fraud. No a little bit. No, yeah Oh, like Tammany Tammany Hall like You do a little Catholic yeah stuff they're saying about the Somalis is what they were saying about us Yeah, this stuff. I'm still saying about the Irish. Have you been Ireland? Yeah, it's phenomenal. Yeah. Yeah, I went with my girlfriend's family I went with my dad Yeah, and yes the cool do you like a white Wakanda? I kind of think oh totally yeah, right tracing the ancestors. Yeah, it's exactly what we did we literally do you know that the okay, so from my Grandmother's side might have my dad's mother my grandmother Eugenia Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Kitty was from Her family were the Finnegan's in the Bluets and they came from Mayo and County left Western East Coast in County loud the Finnegan's that Left from there left on the same ship from the same port Within like a six-month period of time of each other that Barack Obama's ancestors on his mother's side of his family came from so they went to Kenya, right? Did the ship go to Hawaii I thought it where was it Indonesia? No, what's he like as a guy? Yeah, you guys are friends got Barack who? Barack It's kind of your dad's boss. I love president. Yeah Obama. Is he kind of goaded, right? Did you have to be a thank you say goaded? No, no, that's the question. Did you have to sit with the like Malia at Thanksgiving my? The my daughters are best friends with Malia and Sasha. Oh, so they let you at the other table. Yeah, they because you're older That would suck if you're like all the kids have to sit down. Yeah, it's just like you're an adult man. You're like, come on God, let me come by the way, you know, I understand that. Yeah. Yeah, you wrote your thesis paper at Law school you're about to talk about the paper that I wrote on the disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine Is that where you discovered crack cocaine when you know your law school essay on it? No, I I discovered crack cocaine like everybody who ever just got would have been funny if you like if going to yell on ruin Yeah, got me wrote me wrote me for life. You wish you were that smart and got didn't go to Yale Law School You would have never tried crack exactly. No But you you wrote about it like its impact on the criminal justice system, right? Yeah, so in 1996 when I wrote it was the the crime bill had been I Think it passed Like a year before which my dad was a principal piece of it but you remember coming out of the early 90s to the mid 90s is that Crack cocaine. I mean just go watch the wire. I mean crack cocaine is You know the the cities and the in the reaction to it was that it was a result of the the, the drug user, you know, so they, so they targeted the drug user because they decided that what they were going to do is they were going to kind of vilify this drug as being so completely different than anything else. Yeah. But it wasn't that like everything in terms of the, the, the vast majority of violence that is the result of, of illegal narcotics is in the trade. It is not in the, in the crimes committed by those people that are users. And so, and there's no, I mean, you know, it was just racist, right? It's like a way to like fuel mass incarceration. No, see, I don't believe in the idea of the conspiracy that what they did was Reagan, Reagan, what Reagan did. You mean? No, no, no. This is past. Reagan was in the lab. I thought with Nancy and they came up with it. No, I thought he invented crack cocaine. No. Well, you know, that, that is, the Gipper is your favorite president more than your dad? The Gipper. Yeah. Well, there's a them. Who's a them? Yeah. The Gipper. The Gipper was, I guess he was, he wasn't a good actor though. Like bedtime for Bonzo? Yeah. What did your dad tell you about a career in politics? Like, I remember my dad was an architect and he was like, you can never be an architect because it's a tough field. Yeah. What did he tell you and Beau about like, uh, about like, his, his, uh, his gig? And he didn't, I mean, did you ever tell dad, like, I want to step up the family business? No, I know. I, I, I, I never, um, that was never my aspiration. Yeah. Did you ever, you had an inkling after Beau died, right? No. You had a little, oh, well, I would, I felt really, um, so many people came up to me after Beau died and kind of, uh, said, you should step into your brother's shoes. You should come back to Delaware. You should run for something. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and I decided, uh, yeah, to completely blow up my life and go smoke crack. Yeah. You, you got clean 2003, I guess the first time and your real problem was alcohol. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. And then after Beau died was, I guess the, is that considered your second relapse or? No, because I, I relapsed in 2010 and then I got, um, uh, then I got sober again and I kind of, uh, I got sober again and I kind of, uh, I got sober again and I kind of, uh, I got sober again and I kind of, uh,. - What? - You're one of the libs. Is there one guy who's got the best stories? - Oh, there's some that have the best stories. - Yeah, yeah. He's like, he's got an eye patch. - Yeah, exactly. - He's like, I've been, I've seen things. - Eye patch, a peg leg. - Oh, I've seen things. - This is something that's defined you. I remember when Beau died, my understanding was Joe Biden's son died, right? And like your introduction to the world was defined by like the way that people perceive, like that guy has problems, right? But like there is this concept, and I think, - Yeah. - But like there is this concept, and I think, when I said before that like now, culturally, we do actually collect, like even on the right and left, view addiction as a disease. I think that there was this concept of a member of a political family, Roger Clinton or Billy Carter, or even Fred Trump Jr., right? Having, like having this in a political family. Have you ever thought about like that correlation or like what that's about? Or is that just a-- - The correlation between the addiction and a political family or? - No, because I think it's universal. I don't know anybody that doesn't have a story from their family of addiction. I literally don't, in one form or another, or someone that is very close to. But usually when I'm in like an audience of people, I've asked them, you know, anybody that doesn't have someone that they love, that hasn't suffered, or themselves, that hasn't suffered from addiction or, you know, struggle, with addiction, you know, raise their hands. And nobody raises their hand. - Right. - I mean, almost, at least by one degree of separation, you know someone whose life or family's life has blown up. And whether it was in your own family or whether it was in your best friend's family or whether it was in your girlfriend's family or some way in which addiction has like impacted their lives in a significant way. Or whether it was just like your best friend or the guy that you went to school with that was your best buddy that committed suicide because, you know, or, you know, overdosed on fentanyl. I mean, it's every, everybody that I know of. - Yeah, I was saying before, but I feel like post-COVID, I know a lot of people who have died. - Yeah. - And it's weird. And I don't know if it's that stage in life I'm at where people start to die. - From what? - From bad drugs. - Yeah, yeah. - Suicide. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I know a couple of people with bad drugs. - Yeah. - Fentanyl. - Yeah. - But we do actually, I thought about it, we do have addiction in our family, but we definitely have codependency and like that. Like that side of the. - Yeah. - Do you think Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is like, is a good idea? - Yeah. - Getting all them horn dogs in one room? - Yeah. - Do you think that's a good idea? - I do think it's a good idea. - That sounds like a disaster. - I do think it is. - You know why I think it's a good idea? I'm gonna answer your question honestly, is this. Is that I think anything in which people don't share and they keep kind of personal to themselves because they're ashamed of it is really, really destructive. - Yeah. - When they're able to go in and they're able to talk about it with other people that have suffered from it. - Yeah. - Or suffered from it, or afflicted by it. Whatever word you want to use. They realize that they're not alone. And they then can, you know, like drop the shame. You know, as I always say. - Also crack is like, has a class implication, right? - Class. - Yeah, that's like for poor people. - And by the way, the shocking thing, I think it still jars people. - Like a crack head. - Yeah, exactly. And that's why they use it all the time. - Yeah. - Like if you go on Twitter. - Yeah. - You told me about that every single thing. - The stigma attached to that. So like, you know, it's not an uncommon thing. It's not a, you know, it is, you realize you're not alone and in that, you're able to kind of set down the shame. And the shame is the thing that like eats you out, you know, from the inside. The inside out and it creates such an enormous amount of anxiety and you can't share it with anybody. And you keep these secrets and you keep, you know, and you keep going back to those same behaviors. And it just becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy and, you know, cycle. And the only way to be done with it is to actually like, realize you're not alone in it. And realize that, you know, holy shit, like that person made it through. Like, so that's my number one thing is I'm starting this thing where I'm, you go to HunterBiden.com/recovery. And the only purpose of it is for people anonymously to be able to share their stories about, you know, you know, people that are still, their experience, strength, and hope. And that's the thing. And, and because that's what saved me is realizing you're not alone. - The internet has been the, I guess, adoption of the internet as a platform has been way easier for Republicans, basically 'cause they can say anything, right? They can lie, they can say a slur, they can do whatever they want. Like progressives, there's a lot that they can't say. And I think there's this value nowadays of authenticity. I think by virtue of the fact that we all know everything is laid bare to the world about you, I think that's what's coming across to people, perhaps, is that there's an authenticity about you. - I wish I, I wish I could say yes. It's because I'm- - 'Cause you're a real, you're a real motherfucker. - I'm a real motherfucker and it's all about the courage, my, and- - Well, you're also a handsome guy. - Yeah, thank you. - If you were busted, - Thank you. - Do you think that people would be, no, if you're a busted guy, no. - I don't think like- - I don't even know what that means. What does that mean? - Let's go back to Donald Trump, right? Like- - Well, we never were there. - No, no, but like- - So going back is gonna be a new thing. - Knowing about Fred Trump, knowing about Fred Trump and having that in his family, what could you speculate like about like what the impact of that's had on him, right? Like, do you think that there's, to me, to me, I think he shed his humanity once the brother died. - Yeah, no. - I think that that's when the monster came out and he was like- - He's what, what you call in recovery, he's a dry drunk. All of his, all of his behaviors are that of a, an alcoholic or an addict, that like megalomaniacal narcissism, the aggrandizement, the delusion, the obsession with self, the thinking that everything that you do is right and that you're always the victim, you know? I mean, literally, those are all of the traits of somebody that's in active addiction. - Yeah. - You know, I remember when I was in like active addiction and my, and I had all the love in the world. So my three daughters, the arranged in age at the time, the worst of it at the end, between like 16 and 22. And, and they were constantly trying to save me, constantly. constantly constantly trying to save me and and and save me from myself and you know because i was very very much a part of their lives like a an a an everyday dad in every way and and when i the greatest sin of my addiction was not any single thing that i did in addiction other than removing myself from their lives is not being present is not being uh not being available not being there to pick up the phone not being able to respond to a text and they tried to save me over and over and over again and what you do is you you know you create this this alternate reality where you're the victim like i can't believe they believe that about me i can't like i'm going to get angry and you push back on them and you say what the you know what the hell do you know and and you get you know and meanwhile you know that you're you know you got a um a handle of vodka in the car and you're going to buy crack but you're really angry that they would ever call you on it and you become so self-righteous in your anger and because you don't want to admit that you're a crackhead probably right yeah because you want to protect the thing that you think is the only thing that matters which is that you be relieved from the pain and suffering that you think you need to alleviate by using a drug the thing about drugs is this the question is always why why do you continue to do something that is not only destroying you but it's destroying everything you love it's burning it to the ground why do you continue to use because at first it works like that hole in your chest for whatever reason from the time i was four years old to be the the kid that didn't that was afraid to ask the girl to dance to the i mean to the trivial to you know all of it all of it fear-based alcohol solved that the first time i took a drink eight years old yeah well you know i mean i had a glass of champagne but it impacted me to the degree that i remember it i remember it distinctly but my point is is that it was the exact crutch that i needed until it became like my the ball and chain right yeah i had a friend that was a addicted to heroin and he told me that like at first it seems like it was great but then you have to do it just so you don't get sick yeah exactly right so let's see there was just you're dependent on the substance that's exactly right right and that's yeah what's the funniest thing you ever saw on crack the funniest thing there had to have been something hilarious happen or you had to be some characters yeah i i don't know you're right you know i don't you're both yeah i'll rephrase it i'll tell you the point not the funniest is that so the person that i originally first bought crack from and there was a woman and she was at her 60s but she had survived on the streets in dc for her whole life and she's one of the most tenacious and incredibly resourceful human beings i've ever met in my entire life and um and they called her bicycles because she would ride around on a bike um and she would sometimes deal crack and sometimes she would get a little to be able to sell and um and most of the time she would try to rip you off bicycles moved into my apartment with me okay and she was literally the funniest human being she became your girl she was your friend she she was my buddy yeah yeah and and and she she had this she had these rules the rules of crack and she said the time crack commandments the crack commandments it was not only that she was she had her phd in crackology she literally she we started to write down the rules we were going to write down the 100 most important rules of of being a a proficient an efficient crack addict and so every every day she would add one uh more uh rule to the thing and it was probably we probably laughed more than uh we deserve to laugh at ourselves before this there's this as you celebrate the game take a deeper look at its roots the people grow in the grass paving 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visit chevy.com trucks to explore the lineup this episode is brought to you by ea sports fc27 welcome to the world's game fc27 is introducing the grounds where the streets meet the stadium connect with friends gopro and play on play fc27 with the ultimate edition september 18th learn more at ea.com rated e for everyone includes in-game purchases including random items the grounds is only available on playstation 5 xbox series x and s pc and nintendo switch 2 versions do you think that like just like is there anyone you missed from back from the from the wild days i imagine there are people that you think about there's not anybody i miss there is one person that um i wish i could save was was her yeah um because i really mean it she had the most amazing amazing uh stories of survival uh and not only that is that there was a there was a throughout it all her whole life by any standard was a complete and utter show and um from the time she was a little kid and i mean she survived from the age of 12 she was homeless and and on her own and she used to what she used to do for periods of time is she would she would uh sleep she would sneak into police office like police stations and she would um hide under the benches at night and go to sleep there she used to and she used to do the same thing in uh motel rooms like she would go and uh as the cleaning people were coming and she would go and she would crawl under the bed and that's how she lived and she and she survived and she survived with this deep sense of what is right and wrong and um what she would do and a total and complete fearlessness and but like a real incredible humanity to her like there's so many times in which she could have just taken her life she could have taken her life she could have taken advantage of me in a way that um would have been like so many other people did and she never did she had an incredible beautiful humanity to her you just reminded me like we had ilhan omar on the show right and she's like you and her probably top five but like uh most death-threatened people in the country probably right yeah she was in a refugee camp for four years as as a kid yeah like she like left yeah left uh like walked to kenya like literally it was didn't go to school i've been there four years yeah um yeah i think like because like and republican candidates for office have like called for execution there are people in jail for plotting assassinations yeah in like federal custody um they hate her and i'm like how like this is so scary and she's like i think she's like because she was eight years old a refugee camp she's like these guys like she's not afraid right and like i think that when you were describing that woman i think probably yourself like you yeah you uh people look at the past as like in trauma as like something that holds you back yeah but what i found as an adult is like all like of the stuff that wasn't great about like growing stuff growing up or like in my past has only made me more developed as a human being and like stronger and more like uh honestly like kind of has been an advantage in certain ways a hundred percent yeah if you make it through yeah if you don't break you yeah you know and if you don't let it warp your sense of who you are yeah if you don't let it diminish you and that was the choice i think that you ultimately at the end of the day you it becomes your choice yeah and the way that i put it is at one point uh when they'll kind of when i when i got um uh clean and sober um and the world just kind of collapsed around me um uh and the exposure began is that i had a choice either get out of bed in the morning and live or just curl up and die and um and when you choose to get out of bed and live um you know i it you know i mean it's such an overused saying but you know whatever doesn't kill you you know can make you stronger and and I and I am definitely that exactly that like your sense of that is that is is I fully accept that as the why why I'm doing why I'm doing what I'm doing right now go ahead let's do the Catholics thing again like there's is a notion of like culturally of like keep it in the family right yeah oh in terms of like the protecting people that are suffering like when your brother had glioblastoma yeah you know like I think part of you protecting him was probably being on the campaign trail with him right yeah and giving him something as a brother like giving him something to look forward to as if like yeah he wasn't declining yeah and what was that like to deal with like your brother had brain cancer yeah it was awful it was it was was there a moment where you're like you shouldn't be running for governor well he wasn't so he didn't announce and that's the thing is like that whole Jake Tapper fucking whatever his name is who wrote this book and like the whole premise is that we we that we didn't divulge Bo's diagnosis and you know it he was no longer Attorney General okay and the the election for governor was two years away also it's Delaware it doesn't matter it's a relevant state okay well I will disagree with you on that okay okay but one or the other okay it but it in between that period of time it was just a matter of whether he was gonna make the decision to run or not and so he gets diagnosed with a with the terminal disease that gives basically a point two percent you know survival rate um past two years but we would go into the doctors and he didn't he would literally leave the room and and let me absorb what those prognosis like the the estimates were because he didn't want to hear it he literally he refused to hear it but you taking that on is a lot yeah but of course I would take that on and and and and like and so did everybody else in the family and so did I mean so I'm not and you know I'm this is no way heroic for me but so in that is that he just didn't make a decision and I know what his thinking was it was his decision to make and he kept saying I'm gonna run I'm gonna make it I'm gonna survive I'm gonna live this treatment's gonna work you I mean he just kept the attitude that it that like he's not he's gonna be outside that norm and he's going to survive and we're going to do an experimental um you know procedure at um down at MD Anderson from the doctor at Duke and I would go and talk to the person about um you know injecting you know I mean we did it all and every single he had two resections and so every single thing was fully 100 both of us committing to the idea that he was going to make it and encouraging him in that way is like like yeah yeah I run for girl like I have I have I have so much empathy because I my mom had pontine glioma yeah and um yeah so she it was in the puns yeah and she she passed away yeah and I was there and my my sister was there for two years uh taking care of her um and seeing someone like a loved one decline I I think that um like uh I just have a lot of uh I know what that's like to see someone experience cognitive decline and then obviously to connect it like that's what I think when in discussion of the last presidential election it gets Yeah. Yeah. stuck in the like was he experiencing cognitive decline or not oh my dad now we're talking about with your dad yeah but I don't think it's like uh I don't think that like uh that I don't want to go down that road because it's if you're you say like uh if you're saying that that was a mischaracterized in the public or in my people yeah so you I I have every bit of you're you're speaking to me in good faith let me talk about it though right like yeah but a better question is this the debate um yeah I think your dad's Legacy um is uh colored by that uh and his presidency is colored by that and like if you like in your mind if you had like a time machine would you have like interstate interceded if I had a time machine would I would I like stopped it yes 100 and not because of uh anything other than the um what what what happened okay which was a disastrous debate and so you set it up every single thing kind of uh added to exacerbated the um the reaction to it one of them is is that he was a great debater in every other debate in through 50 years well four years prior he did a great job four years prior he did a great job and four years before that he did a great job and four years before that he did a great job and then you know I mean he was always known as a great debater it was so out of character yeah um and if you remember he'd just come off of that uh and they were all saying the same thing about him before the State of the Union which was you know three months earlier or two months earlier and they're saying that you know you remember the whole thing is that Donald Trump said after he gave the State of the Union that he must have been on drugs because it was such a great speech and he went on for so long and you know and everybody before that was saying like oh my gosh you know he's lost a step and is he going to be able to get through it he shows up he does the State of the Union and he has those great yeah one-liners to Marjorie Greene and and then Lauren Bovert when they stand up yeah and and so when he got up on uh and walked out there I mean I looked at it in and um in that moment you know I'd never seen my dad look like he was a deer in the headlights yeah now here's the deal okay God I sounded like him right then here's the deal listen here's the deal man no malarkey but the the it's great the thing about it is this is that um now I know is that less than uh uh nine months after that debate my dad or a little over nine months after that is diagnosed my dad could diagnose with not just stage four prostate cancer but stage four metastatic bone cancer which means that that cancer has been with him before that for two years probably yeah and so whatever was going on was was that now did my dad lose a step a hundred percent he's 82 years old at the time like when you're when you're 80 years old you literally your game changes the your speech pattern changes but was he cognitively capable and completely aware and able to be president of the United States well that's in the record right so there's not a single person not a single decision that was made when he was president of the United States in which anyone would say that Joe Biden didn't make that decision personally himself as president of the United States as per the Constitution and that he was engaged in every single major in uh uh decision everyone yeah because there's one that's not what's that one I mean like yeah the genocide you know oh oh we're gonna no I mean I'm just saying like that to me I would say this now I'm 39 years old yeah in terms of the volume of of legislation that he passed yeah the performance of the Democrats in the midterms like there's I think that they're with the exception of let's go for it with the exception of that yeah potentially that's the best president of my lifetime yeah yeah people don't recognize that people remember the debate yeah they think of him as a Mr Magoo yeah it's like Gerald Ford uh falling down yeah but that's not what he played but that's not his legacy you're right the bigger part of his Legacy is going to be explaining as what happened um in uh in Gaza okay so let me go let's go there I think that that's the bigger thing that's going to be yeah and here's my explanation for that and I don't speak for my dad and I don't want to get into debate with you about it I don't think I disagree with you about it okay I believe that what Bibi Netanyahu did and is doing particularly since my dad left office is genocide okay yeah all right I believe that when my dad was President of the United States in the wake of October 7th yeah is an incredibly valid explanation for the support for Israel at the beginning of their effort to remove Hamas if you remember is my dad got all of those hostages and he had a deal for the rest of them in um in the summer of 2024. and Netanyahu literally worked with Trump I mean it was it was straight out of Reagan and um you know the Iranian hostage deal to keep those hostages in um in captivity until Trump came into office yeah that Bibi Netanyahu I believe that I still want an explanation for why it took 10 hours for the IDF to um to make it to um uh the the incursion from Hamas where the where a hundred and however many hostages were uh were brought back over the line into Gaza I guess like why are these people occupied for 60 years as someone that grew as someone that grew up in a um in an environment in which I was led uh what and people do deeply believe this I deeply believe that everybody's got to be really careful and I'm not here to you know uh uh I there's no place for me I wasn't intending on this but it's an interesting conversation and this is the thing that I don't think anybody talks about because they don't want to say what they really believe Sure. And what I really believe is that, you know, the first trip my dad ever took me on when I was a, and my brother too. So when my brother turned 16, the first, he took my brother alone. He, my dad and him flew to, to Berlin and saw the Berlin Wall. No. He's such an asshole. He saw the Berlin Wall. Okay. They went through Checkpoint Charlie and then they went to Auschwitz. Yeah. In Poland. For 16. Yeah. For me, the, the, the year later, I went with my dad to Munich and we went to, and we went to Dachau. And then from Dachau, we went to Berlin and saw the Berlin Wall. And his point being the two most defining things. Of his generation and, and, and probably mine were, um, were the Holocaust and, uh, in the Soviet Union and, and the, and the rise of the Iron Curtain. And what I learned, wait, for real. Okay. In that is the story of the, of the creation and, and the, and, and the, and the moral explanation for the creation of the state of Israel. Sure. Okay. Bibi Netanyahu has made a lie out of it all. He. He has put, in my, um, humble opinion, more Jews in the world at risk than ever before in my lifetime. And this idea that we're still going to sit here and have an argument about, but, but I, but I, I, I say to all my friends who think that they're, that, that it's still incredibly important. Yeah. That you recognize that there is such a thing as antisemitism. That has been a part of the, of the, of the, of the ancestral trauma. Sorry for using a phrase like that because it sounds so silly sometimes, but ancestral trauma going back 2,000 years, if you were a Jew. Okay. That's the 2,000 years thing is ridiculous. Say it's 1500. Because the emperor Vespasian kicked us out 2,000 years ago. We can come back. Whatever it means. That's a little ridiculous. But by the way, but maybe ridiculous. Yeah. For whatever it means. If you don't have to go back 2,000 years. No, they just, there was a. I know somebody who's sitting right here. I know somebody right here whose family came, Jewish family came from Lithuania. Me too. Yeah. We're all Lithuanian. Yeah. I know somebody. I know another one. Well, Melissa and my parents knew Holocaust survivors. They grew up around them and it terrified them. Yeah. And they, they were told that you have to protect Israel so it doesn't happen again. Exactly. But I think that if you go to Auschwitz, if you don't connect that with what's happening to the Palestinian people, if you connect that to antisemitism, but you, like, because the truth is this. A hundred percent. We agree. So, and I've heard you talk about it before. And I don't disagree. If you, if you're, if you're forming a state. Yeah. In order to, to protect against a genocide. And then by definition, doesn't this under, undermine the very, like, thesis of the state of Israel, right? I'm, I'm totally with you. So, so that's, that's all I'm saying. I, I wanted to get back to the debate because I remember watching that and, and really feeling empathy for Joe. Like, everything was so funny watching, like, political debates for a long time, especially with Trump, like, the zingers. And you should be in jail to Hillary and, like, him doing, like, the Joan Rivers stuff, like, to, like, little Marco and lying to, I mean, we had fun with it. And that was the first time I was like, this isn't fun. Yeah. And. Everybody felt that way. See, when you have a parent get older, right? Yeah. Your relationship changes with them. Like, Beau, for instance, like, you related, you were taking care of him as your brother. Your dad, when they get older, like, as a son, I can't imagine seeing what. It's like, to see your dad struggling, you naturally want to protect them from, and the fallout of, like, the ridicule that he received, I imagine as a son must have been quite difficult for you, you know? No, I mean, I was used to that. I mean, that, that part wasn't difficult for me because we've been through it in so many different ways and so many times, and I had been through it in, in such an incredibly significant way. I appreciate the question, though, and I really mean it in the sense of, you're right about the other part of that, and the other part of it is, is that it is. It is really difficult to, you know. You want to protect them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Just in, in, in the same, and, and, and what, what, what I realized, though, is that he doesn't need my protection, but, you know, one of the, the, one of the conspiracies during that time that was promoted by Jake Tapper and others, and I really mean this, and, and I, and part of the reason why I, I, like, harp on Jake Tapper, and I use him as almost like a. You know, the avatar for, you know, the, the insider Georgetown media elite, you know what I mean, but the real reason I talk about is because he's a fucking asshole, and, and, and personally, and in his estimation was this idea that, like, I was on the inside saying, you got to run, and you got to stay in this race, and fuck everybody else, and things like that, which literally, or, or that, like, I moved into the White House, and I, like, took over. I took over the, you know, the West Wing, and I, you know. High school. Yeah. I wish I had, had, had the power to do that, and that the reality was, which is factually true, is that, number one, is that I wanted him to do whatever he thought the best thing would do, but I really was hoping that he would withdraw. Yeah. For my, just selfishly. I have to imagine, as a son, that. Selfishly. That, that makes sense to me. I wanted him out. I wanted him back. I wanted him how I have him now. Was your mom encouraging him? What? No. No. You should have. Oh, God. And so, and neither one is, everybody, and, like, literally, and so, what they did is they set up all of these, like, hurdles for him. So, he had to do the interview with George Stephanopoulos, which he did, and he got over that hurdle. And then he went to. NATO. And then he did the NATO summit thing, where he talked for an hour and 35 minutes, and took 27 questions from the international press about the existence of NATO, and he gave this tour for us. And he did that. And then he went, and he got COVID. Yeah. And there's a picture of him getting back on the plane from Las Vegas, where he'd gone out, and I was with him just that one day at the NAACP, and it was incredible. He walks out in the NAACP, and you have the black caucus behind him, and you have the Hispanic caucus behind him, you have the progressive caucus that are 100% behind him, and who's opposed to him? The corporate elitist wing of the Democratic Party, who answered to all the donors, who basically are saying. They're saying that, you know, there's, like, you're never going to get over this. But anyway, he gets COVID, and he makes the decision, like, you know what? They're going to fight me all the way to the nomination. I can destroy the Democratic Party and not give anybody a chance to win, or I can do what I think is one of the most courageous things anybody in a position of power of the presidency has ever done in the existence of the office, and say, I'm going to hand over the reins without them being taken away from me. And he did that. Do you think it's regrettable? It felt like just, like, Kamala, I guess by virtue of the fact she was vice president, made sense. But, like, a lot of people were like, you didn't get to choose the candidate. I know. Yeah, I know. But what else could you do? Anybody could have run against my dad. He tied up the nomination faster than any single person that's ever been an incumbent in the Democratic Party in the existence of the presidency. Well, he was an incumbent, right? So RFK was going to run against him, and then you had Dean Phillips was going to run against him. RFK. By the way, though, for real. I mean, you know, you can't think of anybody that could start off with a. With more money and name recognition than RFK. If you wanted to challenge the sitting president, Teddy did it to Jimmy Carter, and Jimmy Carter beat him. And so my point. Well, his dad did it after, I guess, I guess Johnson dropped out of that race, right? Yeah. So Johnson, his dad announced against Johnson, and then his dad, I think his dad would have won, probably, had he not been assassinated. You think that RFK Sr. would have won? Yes. Well, yeah, I mean, coming out of California is that. Everybody thought that he was going to win. Johnson was already out, so he was going to beat Humphrey, and it looked like he would have gotten the nomination. Anyway, back to your dad, though. Yeah, back to my dad is that. Was it just difficult to see him go through that and like. Oh, of course it's difficult. It's difficult every time my dad. Like, I was on some other show, and somebody said, what would you say if Donald Trump came and sat down? What would you like to say to him? And, you know, my response is, go fuck yourself, you motherfucker. That's what I would say to him. Like, what other. Like, son, what kind of man would you be if you looked at, if I were to look at Donald Trump and not say exactly that? Yeah. I mean, the way in which he talks about, demeans and treats, not just my father, my family, and the people that I love. Like, what kind of man would you be if you had anything to say to him other than that? And so, that's the way that I feel about my dad. I always say, you can disagree with my dad on politics. You can disagree with my dad on policy. You can disagree. As it relates to what his legacy will say, as it relates to his support or lack thereof of Israel. Because he gets it from both sides. But, what I can say is this. I know him as a man. I know him as a father. I know that there has never been anyone that has ascended to that office with more empathy, heart, and humanity than Joe Biden. I think that the presidency requires two things that almost every president has exhibited. One of them is an incredibly healthy ego, okay? And the other one of them has always been a narcissistic ego. narcissism that is borderline delusional, okay? Yeah, it's crazy to run for president, right? Crazy. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy to think you can do the job. Crazy to believe that you can be that one person out of 250 years to be one of 45 or 46 or now 47 or 48. Crazy to think that. Crazy to think that you can control and be the most powerful human being in the world without that level. Yeah. My dad does not have that narcissism. I think he's the only person that has sent it to the presidency. He has the ego, but not that narcissism. And I don't care whether people believe me or not, but it is seen in this one thing, is the way in which he chose at the end of the day, he chose the country, he chose his party, and particularly he chose his family. Yeah. That's what he chose. Yeah. Because when I picked up the phone and said, like, what are we doing here? Yeah. And he said, I'm, uh, you know, I'm out. Yeah. I'm going to make an announcement. He said, fuck this. And so what, what comes next, right? In what world, in what world does your vice president, who's the first woman ever to ascend to the executive office of vice president, happens to be half Indian, half black. In what world does a sitting president not say, I, I endorse her. Yeah. And, and, and in what world does the democratic party pass her over for who, who, who, who did, who did Tommy Vetter and Bernie's only like 104. So maybe, well, by the way, but, but my point being is like, in what world does that not happen? And I have to imagine also that the polling probably on your dad was, he was probably the most favorable of anybody, of anyone, anyone available. Right. So the, the, the question becomes is, I always said to everybody at that point right after is that if you looked literally at the people that were saying, you got to get out, he's got to get out, you know, um, like I said, I don't have, I don't have a beef with George Clooney. George Clooney. Oh, you're good with him now. No, I'm not. You squashed it. No, no. I'm saying I didn't, I don't have a beef with him as a, as a human being from, from everybody's telling. Yeah. He's an actually, really, really decent human being and he's good to his friends. He's good to the people that he works with. He is really smart. He is, um, is really dedicated. He believes a lot of the things that I believe in. And you know what? Still, I say, fuck you. And, and, and, um, and yeah, that, that, I'm sorry to cut you off, but like, that's, I think what I was feeling, I was like, you know, what is the DNC? Right. Like who, like, I know there was like Jamie Harrison, maybe was the guy back then, but like, what is the organization? Because it felt like, why is George Clooney involved? Why are people, like as people's wives and people's families, like, shouldn't it be like, there should be like a structure to the party right now? So the structure to the party always like, you know, the, the one thing seems like chaos. Yeah. Well, I say this to everybody because it's, and it's not original to me. It's Will Rogers, literally Will Rogers said, Will Rogers said, I'm not a part of, I'm not a member of any organized party. I'm a Democrat. And that's always been true. It's always been true about the Democratic party. Yeah. Is that, the organization only comes into fruition once you have a nominee and then maybe president. Otherwise it is a completely disparate group of people that are jockeying for, you know, authority as it relates to messaging until you get a nominee and then it all comes together. Is it a bunch of families that don't like each other? No. Is that what the Democratic party is? No, it's exact opposite. It's like shul? It's like synagogue? It's like, I didn't like the way she was looking at me. I think it is. Yeah. The wives are mad at each other? No. I don't know. Yeah. That's my impression that it's like shul. Yeah. You were out in the world, right? During, your dad was running, right? Wait a second. Let me ask you a question. Wait, wait. No, wait, wait. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. Because you're here. Is this, is the Democratic party Zorhan Mandani or is the Democratic party James Tallarico? Here's what I say. I don't know. Yeah. Here's what I say. It's, it's both of them. Both of their messages work where, where they are. And I love Zorhan Mandani for what he's been able to do, the competence with which he's governed. I don't like the idea that he has to call himself a Democratic socialist because I think it's self-defeating, but I'll tell you this. He's won. Yeah. And he won because he is a once, he's a generational communicator, but you know who else is a generational communicator in my opinion? Joe Biden. Oh, Joe Biden when he was there. But no, James Tallarico. Oh, James Tallarico. I mean, he, he, in, in Texas. Zorhan's more popping right now, I think. Oh, he's 100% more popping. Maybe I live in New York. He's really popping. By the way, like I was pointing out to somebody, like. Yeah. He's really popping. He's really popping. You're going to, like, you're going to criticize me for, for going after Netanyahu for being a war criminal? Who criticizes you for that? Zorhan Mandani is more popular with Jews in America than Bibi Netanyahu. I know. It's not me saying it. It's not. Yeah. Yeah. I love, I love the mayor. Well, I think that, uh, I've never seen a mayor that's popular here before. The mayor used to be just, I told you on the phone, the mayor used to be a guy that gets booed everywhere. Yeah. Like, uh, you're out in the world, right? The White House could be just, uh, like. Yeah. Like, like you could be insulated, or D.C. could be insulated, is very insulated sometimes from the outside world. Oh, 100%. You being. I wasn't there, though. Someone that wasn't there, right? I guess the question is, like, I don't know what was going on with your dad. Your dad, like, it's not worthy of me being, like, actually he was, uh, seeing Niles. Like, what the fuck do I know? And it's not, like, that's where this, this conversation always goes. Yeah. But the sense, did you get a sense that out in the world people had, had, uh, were feeling the opposite? Feel, 100% feeling the opposite. And did you, like, kind of communicate back to your family, like, guys, people, this is, like, you're trying to win votes, it's an election. Yeah. It's kind of like, maybe, like, this is, like, uh, we're losing the faith of the electorate. Even if it's not true. Yeah. Like, maybe this is, like. Wait, wait. No, I, I, I meant in terms of completely the opposite. What do you mean? Is that people would come up to me, I was out in California, okay? Yeah. And people would come up to me, and they would be, go, your dad's gotta stay in. And particularly in the, in, in, in the base of the. In the party. No, not really. No, because you're so handsome. Sorry, I'm not to get you off, but, like, the impression I got was that most people have had, especially after the debate, like, most people had lost faith in his cognitive abilities, and, like. That's not what the polling said, but regardless. Okay, fine. Enough people had lost the debate, and we lost the, we, we lost the communications war on that. And the, the, um, regardless of whether it was the establishment, or, um, or, you know, the D.C., um, you know, uh, inside elite kind of thing, we had lost the, um, uh, we had lost our, uh, ability to break through. Yeah. The question then became, who had a better chance of doing it? And. And it was a shit election, too, with post-COVID inflation, right? Like, incumbency around the world lost. Everywhere. Right? Yeah. In the U.K., labor won. I think he would have won. Right? I still think he would have won. And the reason I think he would have won. Because he's running as a retard. Is because, number one. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, sorry. Exactly. Yeah. But, but for real, is because he had done it before. Who's your dad's least favorite guy ever in the, in the government? The least favorite person ever in the government? Who's this fucking, he's like, fuck, oh, this fucking guy. Oh, I mean, that's easy. And he didn't serve that long with them, though. Is Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz. I, I'm, and I'm not exaggerating. Yeah. There's 99 other senators. Yeah. And I, and I 100% can tell you that 99, 101 out of the 100 think that Ted Cruz is a, is a smacked asshole, as my uncle Jimmy would say. And I'm really like, oh, my God. I'm like, oh, this guy. Yeah. No, I mean, really. Yeah. Like, you know, I mean, he, he is a, he, he is one creepy dude. Yeah. I, I kind of want to like, I want to talk to you about, in more, more general about a couple things. I thought you were going to say immortality. Do you believe in that? Well, I don't know. What other questions are there? Oh, yeah. You joined the Navy at 42? Oh, dude, come on. Dude, that feels stupid. Yeah, that didn't go well. Did you, how stupid did you feel when you realized you could just download Grindr? He, he was waiting for that joke the whole time. It's in the app store, dude. By the way, it's kind of true. You had to go to the Navy? Yeah. You idiot. Well, I did it. The only reason I did it is because. You could have just got Grindr. Seriously, because the uniforms. My brother wanted me. Did you, did you wear the Donald Duck? I'm in the Army National Guard. What? You wore the Donald Duck? Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. That's so funny. There's so much, there's so much cooler than the Army. You got the Donald Duck? Yeah, the Donald Duck. I don't know about the Donald Duck. Did you wear no pants like Donald Duck or you wore the white pants? The white pants. That'd be funny. That'd be a kind of funny bit for all the other sailors. Guys, check it out. I'm Donald Duck. Yeah. And they're like, did you have pinup girls on your? No, I didn't make it that far. Didn't make it that far before they kicked me out. Did a lady come and sing for you and her skirt was coming out? No. That would have been cool. Yeah. You're reentering public life and I think you're doing a great job at it. And I think you're connecting with a lot of people and it's kind of, it must be really satisfying because of like the way people have spoken at you kind of over the last 10 years especially, right? I appreciate that. No, for real. So can I say something? Yeah. Sincere? That means a lot to me that you said that. I mean. For real. I mean, I'm being totally sincere. I mean it. Because I haven't heard that in a long time. Really? So you're saying when I'm reentering public life. Yeah. Okay. Well, the fact of the matter is. You never had it. I never, I never left because they never let me. I haven't, I didn't choose to like, you know, step up on this platform. It's like, I was, I'd like tied to a post on this platform for the past seven years and had the shit beat out of me. And I, and, and then, you know, when the fire died down. I realized I was still standing on the platform and I get to do something with it. Either that or, you know, kind of slink off. And I don't know. It's like, cool. Like, just that experience of you saying that. I've watched you. Like, I think you're funny as shit. And I love this show. I really mean it. And part of it is because it's really smart, but it's also really funny and irreverent. Yeah. And for you to say that just means a lot. I mean it. Thank you. Without being such a sycophant. But, like, I have to imagine, like, you know, look at Beau. He's, you know, you had a dad that was in public life, too. Right? And I think your dad loved it. And I think you loved going to the Senate and running around, you and your brother. Oh, 100%. Pushing Strom Thurmond down the stairs. Yeah, exactly. In the wheelchair. And you're like, Battleship Potemkin. And they're like, that's a smart movie to know. He's like, oh, you little Irish bastards. You little Irish demons. Yeah, no. But people have been unfair to you, I think. You know? Like, people have a concept of, that, like, is defined by your darkest moments. What compels you to want to be in public? One of the reasons is that, so there's this whole concept in recovery. And I think it's truly the thing that, like, sustains you and saves your life. And from my experience, almost having truly died over and over and over again because of my issues with addiction, is that the one thing that keeps you clean. It's like, I don't feel anything. I don't feel any compulsion to drink or use a drug today, okay? And I haven't felt that way in a long time, thank God. Right? But I also know that I went seven years without having a drink, and then I relapsed. And I also know, having been around people in recovery now for 20 years, is that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, is still, it's just for today, okay? The one thing that I know that has worked for people, is when you don't live in yourself. Is that when you're trying to be of service to somebody else. Now, I want to be, first, of service to my family. And being of service to my family is telling the story of our family as honestly as possible. And being a person that is singularly having, able to do that. Right. As that's one. But also, being of service to people that are, that I, like, I meet everywhere I go, people come up to me. Whether in Maisy's age, or whether they're my age, or whether they're in their 80s, like my dad. And they tell me this story of, they lost their son to a fentanyl overdose. Or their daughter was online, and she got sucked into, you know, this hell hole, and she committed suicide. Or, because they want to tell me about, because they think I understand the law. They think I, and you realize, is that, like, there's this deep, incredible connection to people. And with that being, like, completely sincere about it, is, if I just, like, reach one kid, like, one person, and they say, "I didn't drink today because I read something Hunter Biden wrote, or I saw him, you know, tell so-and-so to go fuck themselves." Or say, you know, like, "I don't give a shit, I was a crackhead." Uh-huh. And so that they can go and say, "I don't give a shit, I was a crackhead." Uh-huh. Make it through the day. What a fucking cool thing. Yeah. Why not take advantage of that? Why not do something about that? I don't want to ask you about yourself directly, but, like, do you think, at this point, in the year 2026, what does, does a Hunter Biden have a path to elected office in America today? Not, don't say, "I want to," but does someone that, like, Yeah. "I want to be elected?" Yeah. "I want to be elected?" "I want to be elected?" Yeah. "I want to be elected?" you know we're all just try our best I suppose and the %uh some people need to try harder who who I D no not you think it is a you I think you're trying your best and I really do I'm I a bit more about it seeming that see that you're having a hard time like I'm a walkies out of the show I will say this for real no because you think you were too romantic what do you know the over the rest the roster you but for my job I'm hard right now that's why I got the iPad day I love the show I'm doing it I do got it I do I mean I've been watching I was mom the like and I'm not all but I've watched he's watched all the yeah and the at them the the one which at Hanks in particular as I said to you to live up to that but the the a but truly year year with which is a rare thing with yeah not just be funny but with is a and I really love yeah I really appreciate the time we've had today I mean it I think it's like the I think the yeah I think yeah you got you have sauce just fuck around they just run for the just say I'm just doing it because my alright just as a bit for as they as they look for at all I'm running for president because I'm gonna make him you're so good as a record director a FEMA have a female you want female I want you to make me head of federal booty inspectors the female body inspectors you will be ahead at the FBI the newly minted at the FBI yeah yeah yeah the t-shirt from the from the shore yeah exactly thanks everyone give it up for him thank you guys how's that you enjoyed it yeah that was great did I do a good job yeah you did it was a good show it was a good show yeah This episode is brought to you by chat GPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons podcast. Have you guys heard about chat GPT work? It's the new way to use chat GPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give chat GPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at chatgpt.com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans. Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home road warrior mom. Home of the save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer new members only. BJ's home of the save.