"An Obvious Failure"
The Family Split: Hunter Biden Slams Father's Lax Border Control and Record Illegal Immigration
In a stunning departure from the family’s unified front, Hunter Biden has publicly admitted that the Afghanistan withdrawal was a failure and criticized the administration's handling of the southern border.
Hunter Biden has taken the rare step of publicly criticizing his father’s presidency, focusing specifically on the military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing crisis at the United States border. During a Monday interview on The Shawn Ryan Show, the former first son departed from the Biden family’s typical public defense of the administration’s record. While he maintained that his father performed exceedingly well as president in a general sense, he was candid about what he described as real failures that occurred during the last four years.
The most prominent criticism leveled by Hunter Biden concerned the chaotic exit from Afghanistan in 2021. He referred to the execution of the withdrawal as an obvious failure, specifically noting the tragic deaths of 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation. He stated his belief that there was a better way to do it and that the operation should have been handled differently. The withdrawal was marked by a deadly suicide bombing carried out by ISIS K outside the airport in Kabul, and a 2022 Defense Department report later confirmed that the Taliban seized more than $7 billion in American military equipment left behind by departing forces.
Despite the harsh assessment of the execution, Hunter Biden defended the original choice to end the twenty year war. He noted that his father believed two decades of war was enough and no longer served the national interest. According to Hunter, the former president understood that the buck stops with him and accepted full responsibility for the outcome rather than shifting blame to military commanders.
The interview also touched on the record surge in unauthorized immigration, which reached an estimated 14 million people in 2023. Hunter Biden criticized the lax enforcement policies that have allowed the population of undocumented individuals to grow so significantly. While he stated that the country needs vibrant immigration, he argued that people should not be coming here illegally, draining resources, and being prioritized above people who are actual heroes, such as veterans. He referenced a bipartisan border bill that failed to pass after political intervention during the election year, noting that while his father sought a legislative fix, the end result was a continuation of the policy failures at the border.