Hunter Biden Furiously Scolds Obama for Turning His Dad Into a Meme
Barack Obama yanked then-President Joe Biden offstage at a Hollywood fundraiser in Los Angeles in June 2024.
Hunter Biden is still “p----d off” about Barack Obama turning his dad into a “meme.”
In an interview for ABC News’ Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming book Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America, Hunter said he was furious with the former president for pulling Joe Biden off stage at a Hollywood fundraiser last year—a moment that quickly went viral.
The clip showed Obama lightly taking the president’s arm and guiding him toward the exit while Biden lingered, waving to the audience. Within hours, it was everywhere online, replayed by conservative commentators and turned into endless GIFs suggesting the 82-year-old commander-in-chief needed help finding his way.

Biden and Obama onstage during a campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15, 2024.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
“I almost jumped up on the stage and said, ‘Don’t ever f--king do that to the president of the United States again—ever,’” Hunter told Karl, according to excerpts obtained by Axios.
The younger Biden said the viral moment had nothing to do with confusion or frailty and everything to do with his father’s habit of staying behind to greet supporters.
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“He was taking a minute to acknowledge the crowd,” Hunter said. “I knew that that was going to be a meme. That really, really, really, really p----d me off.”
Karl writes that Hunter’s anger lingered for months after the event, emblematic of how the president’s family has bristled at portrayals of Biden as too old or too slow for the job.
The fundraiser, held in Los Angeles in June 2024, featured Obama, Biden, and a host of Hollywood stars, including George Clooney and Julia Roberts. It was meant to showcase Democratic unity in the heat of the election campaign. Instead, it became a social-media spectacle.

Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in November 2024.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
At the time, the Biden supporters downplayed the clip, and others used it to needle the president. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the videos of Biden “freezing” at public events as “disinformation” promoted by “right-wing critics.”
“They are cheap fakes. They are done in bad faith. And some of your news organizations have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing… critics of the president have a credibility problem because the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation,” she said.
Karl’s book, set for release next week, chronicles the chaotic 2024 campaign season and the political fallout that followed.
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