‘It doesn’t make any sense!’: Chris Cillizza torches Hunter Biden’s Ambien excuse for debate disaster

NewsNation political contributor Chris Cillizza said on Tuesday that Hunter Biden was dishonest when he explained why his father former President Joe Biden’s debate performance in June 2024 went so poorly.

Hunter said in a Monday interview on “Channel 5 with Andrew Callahan” that his elderly father’s exhaustion from intense travel, along with Ambien usage, led the former president to appear like “a deer in the headlights.” However, Cillizza, said on his “So What” Substack that Hunter’s explanation did not add up.

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“It’s demonstrably false and I think it’s important to note that,” Cillizza said before reading Hunter’s full quote from the interview.

“Now, the thing that I will say is he’s right about his father looking like a deer in headlights, but he’s wrong about the whole timeline here,” he said. “And again, it’s really easy to disprove.”

Cillizza acknowledged Biden’s extensive travel leading up to the debate, but noted it ended many days before the disaster occurred.

“He was in Paris in early June. Then here’s his schedule leading up to the debate: From June 12th to June 14th, he was in Italy for the G7. He immediately flies from Italy to California. That’s a really long flight,” he said. “That’s about a 13-hour flight to California for a fundraiser with Barack Obama, George Clooney, among others. June 15th and 16th, he’s in Los Angeles. June 18th, he flies back to the East Coast. He’s in Virginia for a fundraiser with Hillary and Bill Clinton, Terry McAuliffe in McLean, Virginia. That same day he flies to Delaware.”

“Okay, so in six days he’s been in Italy, California, Virginia, Delaware. But on June 18th, he’s in Rehoboth Beach, his vacation home in Delaware. Okay? The debate isn’t until June 27th,” he added. “So at a minimum, he has nine days — nine days — June 18th to June 27th, where he is in one place in theory doing debate preparation. Now, the Biden people said he had a cold. He caught a cold maybe during all that flying. So I’m not saying he was in perfect health.”

Cillizza said he believed Hunter about the former president taking Ambien during all the traveling to “keep him on a sleep schedule.” However, he said it was not a good excuse for the debate performance.

“[T]he reality is you cannot blame Joe Biden’s debate performance on the fact that he took Ambien. For lots of reasons. One, he had nine days to recover and get his sleep pattern set back up before this debate,” he said. “Nine days at his home in Delaware. Number two, the debate was at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time on June 27th. Joe Biden was still feeling — let’s say they gave him Ambien on June 26th to sleep — he was still feeling the effects at 9:00 that night?”

Cillizza said his own experience with Ambien suggests that the former president should have recovered from the Ambien by the night of the debate.

“I don’t buy it. It doesn’t fly when you look at the facts … This is not accurate. Hunter Biden is not telling the truth here. And by not doing so, he is not doing his father any favors,” he said. “You can very easily debunk what he is claiming about Ambien. It doesn’t make any sense!”

The former president ultimately dropped out of his reelection campaign in July 2024, weeks after his devastating debate performance. During the debate, he often stood with his mouth agape, seemed to freeze up and tripped over words.

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