Hunter Biden says he nearly lost his temper watching Barack Obama guide his father, President Joe Biden, off the stage at a Hollywood fundraiser last year.
In an excerpt from journalist Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming book, Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America, obtained by Axios Tuesday, Hunter Biden described his frustration at seeing Obama grab the president’s wrist and lead him toward the curtains after he froze for about 10 seconds during the star-studded event.
“I almost jumped up on the stage and said, ‘Don’t ever do that to the president of the United States again—ever,’” Hunter told Karl in an interview months after the incident. “I knew that was going to be a meme. That really, really, really, really pissed me off.”
The moment, which went viral, came amid growing scrutiny of President Biden’s age and mental acuity following several public instances where he appeared disoriented. The Hollywood fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles raised over $30 million for the Biden campaign, about ten days before the president’s debate with President Trump—a debate that preceded his decision to end his re-election campaign less than a month later.
Actor and Democratic donor George Clooney, among other Hollywood figures at the event, later told The New York Times that the president “was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010” and “wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020.” Journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, in their book Original Sin, said Clooney was “shaken to his core” when the president did not recognize him, despite years of acquaintance.
Hunter Biden has previously criticized Clooney for sharing his impressions of the president, a move that fueled calls for Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. In a July interview on Andrew Callaghan’s YouTube show Channel 5, Hunter called Clooney a “brand” and dismissed his comments: “He’s great friends with Barack Obama. F—k you. What do you have to do with anything? Why do I have to listen to you?”