Hunter Biden admits “he was ‘the most privileged person there is’ after receiving a presidential pardon from his father, former President Joe Biden, acknowledging that it was not a good choice for America or his father’s legacy,” the BBC reports.
Said Biden: “It’s not fair… All I know is that I’m grateful that he did it for me.”
Washington Post: Hunter Biden opens up about his pardon.
“Former President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has metastasized into his bones and spread further into his body, his son Hunter Biden said in a late Friday interview with the BBC,” NOTUS reports.
“Hunter Biden said the disease has taken a ‘very painful’ toll on his father, who has remained outspoken on politics since leaving office in 2024.”
CNN: Joe Biden’s prostate cancer getting worse, Hunter Biden says.
“Hunter Biden issued a serious health update for his father Joe Biden, sharing on Friday that the former president’s cancer had spread,” The Wrap reports.
“A Senate committee on Thursday could vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer more than 100 questions last week. In effect, that could amount to a criminal referral to the Justice Department,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“People have gone to prison recently for contempt of Congress. Just ask Peter Navarro and Stephen Bannon.”
“Fauci has something a little unusual in his pocket, though. A pardon granted by former President Joe Biden at the very end of his presidency. This should give Fauci immunity from prosecution.”
“Or does it?”
New York Times: Fauci faces contempt vote. Here are the legal issues involved.
Leah Stokes: “Joe Biden’s signature climate law was not just about climate. The Inflation Reduction Act was also a big bet on a particular theory of politics: Pass a law that creates factories and good-paying jobs in communities across the country, and voters will reward you at the ballot box. Such a law might even become too popular to repeal.”
“The conventional wisdom today is that Biden’s bet was a bust… According to this line of thinking, the IRA poured billions of dollars into left-behind places, only for voters to decisively reject Democrats in 2024… Then, when restored to the White House, Trump partnered with a Republican Congress to effectively wipe the IRA from existence.”
“Every part of that story, however, is at best incomplete and at worst simply wrong. The law did, in fact, deliver votes for Democrats. And key components of it are still on the books—still growing the clean economy and cutting pollution.”
“Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator during the Biden administration, revealed Sunday that he now favors the so-called lab leak theory as the most plausible origin story of the pandemic,” the New York Post reports.
Said Jha: “When I went into the White House, my view was, this was almost surely a natural outbreak, maybe a lab leak. Based on information I learned and based on information I have seen, I have come to conclude that it is more likely to have been a lab leak.”
CNN: Dr. Ashish Jha on Covid-19: “It probably was a lab leak.”
“Hunter Biden said on a podcast episode published this week that he believed his father, former President Joe Biden was unknowingly suffering from cancer during the disastrous debate performance that led to the end of his 2024 presidential campaign,” the New York Times reports.
Said Biden: “He looked blank. And what do I attribute that to? Well, I now know what to attribute it to. My dad had cancer. My dad, he was, and he didn’t know.”
“Audio recordings that former President Joe Biden fought for years to keep private have now been released,” CBS News reports.
“The roughly 70 hours of audio recordings were cited in a 2024 special counsel’s report, which said Biden kept volumes of notes at his home that included classified information.”
At one point, Biden is heard telling his ghostwriter: “Some of this may be classified… So, be careful. I’m not sure… It’s not marked classified but…”
At another point in the recordings he says again: “The next thing I have here is, um, this is classified…”
Washington Post: “Those around Biden describe a post-presidency constrained by illness with his days increasingly organized around treatment, family and efforts to shape his legacy.”
”Unlike some recent predecessors, Biden has maintained a limited public schedule, has yet to build a sprawling philanthropic or policy operation and has struggled to raise money for a presidential library, leaving him with fewer avenues to influence how his presidency is remembered.”
“That frailty is likely to become harder to keep private this fall, when Biden begins promoting a memoir scheduled for publication on Nov. 17, two weeks after the midterm elections. The timing has unsettled some friends and former advisers, who worry not only about Biden’s well-being, but also about how much his visible health struggle could revive the bitter arguments of 2024 just as Democrats are trying to make the election a referendum on President Donald Trump.”
“Former President Joe Biden lost his bid Monday to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with his longtime ghostwriter that were used in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s unlawful hoarding of classified information,” the New York Post reports.
“A divided federal appeals court ruled the 46th president’s privacy claims did not outweigh the ‘substantial’ public interest in the material, though it suspended its decision until Aug. 3 to allow the former chief executive to consider additional action.”
“Hunter Biden‘s ongoing rehabilitation tour is about to take a hard right turn with an unorthodox sit-down with Nick Fuentes,” the Hollywood Reporter reports.
”His conversation with the far-right influencer is slated to premiere on web channel Channel 5 News later this month. The much-discussed interview — which nearly ended in fisticuffs — appears to be part of the former first son’s pivot toward life as an edgy but earnest media personality.”
”Or is it more PR spin from Biden, who is rewriting his chaotic personal story to cast himself as a victim of the Republican smear machine?”
“Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has written a memoir that will be released two weeks after the midterm elections this fall,” the New York Times reports.
“Hunter Biden, the son of former President Biden, was awarded $1.7 million in damages on Friday as part of a defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne,” The Hill reports.
”Byrne, a known denier of Biden’s victory over President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, accused the younger Biden of taking part in an $800 million bribery scheme involving Iran and failed to defend his claims in court.”
The Guardian: Hunter Biden wins $1.7m in suit over Iran bribery claim by ex-CEO of Overstock.com.
Seth Masket: “It is a longstanding tradition among those covering politics that you’re not supposed to appear biased toward a candidate or incumbent. Particularly with presidential candidates, you’re supposed to provide negative coverage…”
“But it also means that when there’s not enough obvious things to criticize, political journalists will try to find some. That is, they have a negative coverage bucket to fill. Now, Trump makes it easy on them, involving himself in countless scandals, lawsuits, and criminal investigations and making multiple statements throughout each day that defy political norms, offend large portions of the country, and threaten the rule of law…”
“But there’s something of a curse if you’re successful at avoiding scandal. Biden’s was hardly an error-free administration, but he did the basic parts of governing well and without major scandals… And for political reporters, that makes filling the negative coverage bucket more challenging. So they ended up focusing on a small number of things that seemed problematic. For Biden, that was a) the pullout from Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers; and b) being old.”
Julia Azari: “The simplest difference is that the Democratic coalition is younger on balance – Democratic presidential candidates have won with younger voters (usually defined as 18-29) since 2004, and the party has an edge with this group.”
“Data bear out the stereotypes: the Republicans do better with older voters, even if this age gap didn’t play out exactly as expected in the 2024 election. Biden’s age was one more thing placing him at odds with the diverse party he was trying to lead, and Democrats seem to have had a uncomfortable relationship with this state of affairs. Watching Biden show signs of age did not help.”
“Former President Joe Biden is in an uphill battle to try to stop the Justice Department from sharing recordings it collected of him speaking to his ghostwriter in 2016 and 2017, during which his speech and memory faltered,” CNN reports.
“Court decisions on Friday and into next month are poised to revive questions over Biden’s mental acuity during his presidency — and even in the years before.”
“A federal judge on Friday rejected former President Biden’s attempt to block the Trump administration from releasing to a conservative group the recordings that Biden made with a ghostwriter,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
ABC News: Judge says DOJ can provide Biden conversations with ghostwriter to Heritage Foundation.
“Hunter Biden has challenged Donald Trump Jr. to a cage fight in an unhinged social media rant attacking the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn,” the New York Post reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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