Hunter Biden criticized his father, former President Joe Biden, for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan during a Monday episode of “The Shawn Ryan Show.”
The Biden administration’s evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021 resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members. After Hunter generally acknowledged on the podcast that his father had “real failures,” host Shawn Ryan asked him to name specific errors.
“I think one of the failures was the way in which they executed the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Hunter said. “I think it was an obvious f***ing failure. I think 13 Marines are dead.”
The Abbey Gate bombing actually killed 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman, and one Army psychological operations specialist.
“I think that there was a better way to do it,” Hunter added. “And I think that — and I can blame it on his generals, I can blame it on the people, the way in which we did it — but my dad always knew this also, is that the buck stops with him. I think that that was a failure.”
Ryan asked Hunter what his father’s current sentiment about the withdrawal was.
Hunter Biden: “The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a failure.” pic.twitter.com/pTu3kbfPeS
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 23, 2025
“Same way that I do… I don’t want to speak for my dad, but I know my dad is crushed by that,” the former president’s son said. “Crushed by it. Just absolutely crushed.”
The former president did not fire any leadership personnel for their role in the botched withdrawal and largely refused to admit blame in the matter. The Biden administration’s April 2023 review claimed that President Donald Trump was to blame for the botched withdrawal because he had ordered correspondence with the Taliban, negotiated an evacuation date, and failed to provide the incoming administration with a comprehensive plan.
Ryan, a former Navy SEAL, told Hunter Biden that the last administration’s evacuation was infuriating to him.
“I cannot f***ing stand the way the Afghan withdrawal happened. I don’t even want to talk about it because it’s going to get me into a really dark place,” he told Hunter. “But I will say that when you have to make a decision and whatever decision you’re going to make, people are going to die because of the decision that you made, that would be a really f***ing tough call. So I will give him that.”
“I don’t disagree with you, Shawn… I hear your anger,” Hunter replied. “And I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t be angry.”
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