'Barf-o-Meter broke down on this one': CNN's Brian Stelter does Real News by promoting Hunter Biden's new book

Sarah D | 10:33 AM on April 06, 2021

Brian Stelter does a bang-up job as CNN’s chief Fox News expert, but he’s so much more talented than that.

For example, did you know that he’s also very talented when it comes to analyses of books written by adult children of Democratic presidents named Joe Biden:

When Joe Biden was vice president, and was mourning the death of his older son Beau, he was also trying to keep his younger son Hunter alive.

That's one of the many takeaways from Hunter's book "Beautiful Things," which comes out today… https://t.co/7za4fiLe0k

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 6, 2021

Stelter writes:

This is not the way we’re used to reading about a child of the president. Hunter’s accounts of drunken benders and cracked-fueled odysseys are downright scary. And his recollections of his brother -— “wish you could’ve known Beau” — are sorrowful.

So far most of the book reviews have been quite positive. Publishers Weekly says his “courageous self-assessment makes the despair of substance abuse devastatingly palpable.” Books Mark has other reviews here. Like Entertainment Weekly’s Seija Rankin, I was struck by the scenes that involved his dad: “The result is, purposeful or not, a portrait of our current President as the ultimate Patriarch.”

It’s also a portrayal of addiction as “really the great equalizer in this country,” as CNN’s Kate Bennett told me after we both read the book. “It’s the one thing that really brought President Biden to his knees.” Read Bennett’s assessment here.

This is Real News, Mr. President.