Political Wire

How Jill Biden Hid the President’s Decline

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Coming soon: The East Wing: Power, Intrigue, and the Untold Story of America's First Ladies by Azadeh Moaveni.

Vanity Fair runs an excerpt: “Biden’s performance during the debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, at CNN’s Atlanta studio, was a historic disaster. Later that evening, at a debate watch party, Jill took the mike. ‘Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts,’ she said. ‘And what did Trump do?’ She led the crowd with a shout of, ‘Lieee!'”

“Jill swiftly became a key focal point for the blame. Surely she had known how diminished he was, and if she knew, why had she not persuaded him to step down? That question could have been leveled against any number of people in the Biden orbit: top campaign aides, Kamala Harris, cabinet members. But as First Lady, she was the most intimate, public face of the campaign persuading Americans that he was fit to serve another term.”

Pre-order · Out November 17, 2026The East Wing
Power, Intrigue, and the Untold Story of America's First Ladies
by Azadeh Moaveni · St. Martin's Press
Pre-order on Amazon
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Trump Rolls Back Fuel Economy Standards

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“President Donald Trump on Saturday said he approved new fuel economy standards, reversing former President Joe Biden’s stricter policies meant to fuel electric vehicle adoption,” CNBC reports.

“It is unclear what the final fuel economy standards will be, although Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy previously said that they would be sharply lower than the Biden-era policies.”

Hunter Biden to Launch New Meme Coin

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“The son of former President Joe Biden is launching a meme coin that takes aim at his family’s nemesis, Donald Trump. And he’s naming it for the most-infamous personal computer in American political history,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Yes, Hunter Biden’s laptop will live on. At least on the blockchain.”

“Biden’s token will trade under the ticker, $LAPTOP, and launch Sept. 9 on Base, a digital ledger built by Coinbase Global, the largest U.S. crypto exchange.”

Hunter Biden Says Kamala Harris Was Not ‘Loyal to a Fault’

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“Hunter Biden on Monday said former Vice President Kamala Harris was not ‘loyal to a fault’ to his father, former President Biden,” NewsNation reports.

Said Biden: “Oh, boy. Let me just state it exactly clearly. I think that she was loyal to my father, and I don’t think that she was loyal to a fault, however.”

He added: “That’s between me and her.”

Joe Biden Considered Pardoning Donald Trump

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“Joe Biden discussed the possibility of granting President Trump a pardon in a bedtime conversation with his wife, Jill, according to Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox,” the New York Post reports.

“In an anecdote from his upcoming book, the governor revealed that he pitched Biden on the idea of pardoning Trump back in August 2023 — only to find out that the then-president and first lady had already been mulling it.”

Biden Derangement Syndrome

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Paul Krugman: “A clear indicator that Trump sycophants realize that they are caught in reality’s snare is how they respond to any question about current economic difficulties. Their first sentence almost always contains the word ‘Biden,’ as they make the false claim that things were worse under Joe Biden, or that Biden somehow caused all of our current problems (including high gas prices and depleted munitions), or that Biden left an economy in shambles. Call it a bad case of Biden derangement syndrome, a desperate and utterly transparent attempt to shift the blame for the gratuitous mess that Trump and his minions have made.”

“Yes, America — along with most of the world — did experience surging inflation in 2021-2022, during the Biden administration. But inflation then proceeded to fall significantly, a case of ‘immaculate disinflation’ – a drop in inflation without a recession. By the end of Biden’s term, the U.S. economy was not only in good shape, but it was doing better than every other advanced country.”

Why Is Hunter Biden On a Media Blitz?

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Wall Street Journal: “After years of hearing his darkest secrets discussed by others, the president’s 56-year-old son has been on a nonstop media tour across podcasts, news shows and Substack essays with interlocutors as varied as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and record producer Benny Blanco.”

“The topics range from the challenges of his sobriety to the addictive nature of smartphones, Israeli politicians and congressmen he said were closeted. One family acquaintance, invoking a word used by Joe Biden’s onetime vice president, described him as ‘unburdened’ now that his family is out of the public’s constant glare.”

Hunter Biden Is Everywhere

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Wall Street Journal: “Hunter Biden is suddenly the one with the megaphone. He’s everywhere: tweeting, appearing on podcasts, talking about America and, often, Trump. He is in front of audiences that in the past might have viewed Hunter Biden as an archetypal villain. Maybe they still do.”

“For much of Biden’s presidency, Hunter Biden’s life, drug use, gun ownership, personal behavior, and personal photographs were put on full display. Hunter kept a mostly lower profile then. He started an account on X in May.”

“Tucker Carlson, in the interview released Monday, pressed Hunter on why he was speaking out in this way (the two said they’ve known each other more than 30 years). Hunter said his life had become so exposed by critics and others that he felt he had nowhere else to go.”

Said Biden: “In that total exposure, there was nowhere to hide. The only way out was through—owning the things that were true and speaking truth to the things that were false.”

The Wrap: Tucker Carlson expresses “deep regret” over years of targeting Hunter Biden’s addiction.

Ex-Biden Officials Plan How to Build Back the Government

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“Former Biden administration officials are contending with a new reality: Future administrations won’t have a choice but to confront the way the Trump administration has disrupted how the government works,” NOTUS reports.

“That’s the premise of a new set of proposals published Tuesday in the law and policy journal Just Security, authored by several former Biden officials and experts at think tanks.”

Hunter Biden Says Pardon ‘Not Good’ for Father’s Legacy

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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.

Biden’s Cancer Has Spread Further Into His Body

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“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.

Contempt Vote Could Test Legal Limits of a Pardon

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“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.

Bidenomics Was More Successful Than People Think

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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.”

Ex-Biden Adviser Says Pandemic Was Likely a Lab Leak

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“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 Blames Cancer for Father’s Terrible Debate

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“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.”

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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