‘Where are they now?’ Hunter Biden blasts protesters of his father’s pro-Israel polices, calls Netanyahu a ‘monster’
The scandal-plagued son of the former president blasted Trump’s alliance with Netanyahu and warned that Iran’s threat is exaggerated
Former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden on August 19, 2024. Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 22, 2025
A year after Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid, his son Hunter is settling scores with critics of his father’s pro-Israel policies and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others.
The deeply personal three-hour interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan, posted online Monday, is making headlines for its unfiltered, expletive-laced conversation and for Hunter’s blistering attacks on Democrats he accused of abandoning his father. Hunter’s past drug use and allegations that he used his father’s name to peddle influence became an issue in the 2024 campaign.
Hunter Biden reserved scorn for the ‘uncommitted’ movement, which recruited more than 700,000 voters who cast a pro-Palestinian protest ballot against Biden in the Democratic presidential primaries and protested Vice President Kamala Harris in the general election.
“Where are they now?” Hunter asked. “More people have died in Gaza between when [Trump] was inaugurated and today than at any time between Oct. 7 and when my dad left office.”
During the presidential election, Trump courted Arab American and Muslim voters in the key battleground of Michigan, vowing to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and promising to deliver peace in the Middle East. His inroads with the community helped him flip the state, which had gone for Biden in 2020.
Since the collapse in March of the most recent ceasefire-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the Biden administration in conjunction with Trump in January, there has been no pause to the fighting in Gaza. In May, Hamas released Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, as a gesture toward Trump, who would soon visit a number of Arab countries, including Hamas-aligned Qatar.
Hunter Biden accused Trump of giving Netanyahu “a free hand” to pursue devastating military campaigns in Gaza, in his “unrealistic” pursuit to turn the territory into a “Trump-branded golf course.”
Trump, soon after his inauguration, envisioned a Gaza emptied of Palestinians and turned into a resort. He has backed off from those plans.
“Bombing the shit out of whatever remains of a mosque in Gaza and turning it into a golf course, like Donald Trump said, is not going to work, no matter what,” he said.
In the interview, Hunter Biden defended his father’s approach to the conflict, pointing to halting the delivery of bunker-busting bombs to Israel — which angered some Jewish voters — and pressuring Netanyahu to open the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid.
“At least, my dad was saying over and over again, the only solution is a two-state solution,” he said. “He put pressure over and over and over again.”
Hunter Biden questioned why the activists who protested on college campuses and outside the White House and who called his dad “Genocide Joe” are silent now. “Where are they today?” he asked. “Because it’s 10 times worse than it was, and the end is near.”
He acknowledged the complexity of the situation and the difficulty of satisfying either side.
“I support Israel. I definitely support my Jewish wife and my Jewish son,” he said. “And I believe in Israel’s right to exist in peace and prosperity. But how do we talk about this without offending everyone?”
Hunter Biden wrote about his wife, Melissa Batya Cohen Biden, in his memoir Beautiful Things. A recent video of Hunter Biden reciting the traditional “Prayer for our Government” while attending the bar mitzvah ceremony of his nephew at a synagogue northwest of Atlanta went viral.
‘The boy who called wolf’ – Hunter Biden on Netanyahu and Iran
Hunter Biden said the 12-day war Netanyahu launched last month against Iran was an effort to distract from his domestic political and legal troubles.
“He’s been wrong every time,” Biden said about Netanyahu’s decades-long warnings about Iran’s ambition to build a nuclear bomb to target Israel. “He’s the boy who cried wolf, and one day the wolf is going to be pushed. They have no other option.”
He claimed that even if Iran develops nuclear power, its ability to launch a nuclear strike against Israel is “almost zero,” citing the intelligence capabilities of the United States and Israel, as well as the lack of regional safe passage.
The top Democrats who criticized the Trump administration for joining the war focused on Trump’s lack of congressional authorization and warned about the risk of escalation. Mainstream American Jewish organizations applauded the “decisive” action by the United States.
Hunter Biden also raised pointed questions about Netanyahu’s failure to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “If Mossad had the plans for the attack a year in advance, why weren’t there troops in the south when it happened? Why did it take seven to twelve hours to respond? No one’s been allowed to ask that question,” he said.
Israeli media have reported that military intelligence and the internal security apparatus, the Shin Bet, knew of Hamas plans to launch an attack.
And he called the Israeli leader a “monster” for his lack of empathy towards the families of the Israeli hostages. Hostage families have long accused Netanyahu of neglecting them. About 20 of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive, and talks about a deal that would release at least half of the hostages are still ongoing.
