Biden’s time in the White House is over. But he’s still being heavily scrutinized for his poor performance as president.
And a top Republican senator reveals a dark secret about Biden that will blow your mind.
Senator Grassley Reflects on Biden’s Legacy and Family Controversies
In a revealing discussion on the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered a candid take on former President Joe Biden’s legacy, casting it as tarnished by family controversies and questions about his capacity to lead. The 91-year-old senator, a fixture in Congress since 1980, didn’t mince words when assessing Biden’s tenure, pointing to allegations of influence peddling and concerns over the former president’s mental and physical health.
“Considering the fact that he doesn’t look like he was running [the White House] at least in [the most] recent two or three years, I think he will never go down in history as a very effective senator or very effective president,” Grassley said.
Reflecting on their nearly three decades as Senate colleagues, he recalled a cordial working relationship. “I got along with him,” Grassley noted.
“I didn’t think he was corrupt. I didn’t think he was incompetent. I had a pretty good relationship with him for 28 years that we served together … I wouldn’t say I was close. But we worked together on legislation. We got along personally pretty well.”
Grassley observed a dramatic shift in Biden after he left the Senate in 2008 to serve as Barack Obama’s vice president. He suggested that Biden’s physical and mental changes were so pronounced that many of his administration’s decisions—such as sweeping pardons and commutations for some violent offenders—likely stemmed from aides rather than Biden himself.
“Yes. Yes,” Grassley affirmed when New York Post columnist Miranda Devine raised the point. “When you do 1,000 commutations and pardons, and you don’t pay any attention to what you’re doing [that’s not] your job [anymore].”
Having met Biden in person only once during his presidency, Grassley relied on public accounts and media to shape his view. “What I’ve learned by what everybody else has said [is] going on and what you observed on TV, that a lot changed since he left the United States Senate,” he said.
He admitted to initial disbelief, saying, “I think if you feel like you know somebody well, it’s hard to believe some of the things that you originally heard,” adding that he might have been “a little naive about how I looked at the President Biden compared to Senator Biden.”
Grassley, whose team is known for dogged investigations, also highlighted his role in exposing financial dealings tied to Biden’s son, Hunter. He claimed to have uncovered millions in payments to Hunter from foreign business associates during Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
Grassley’s push led then-FBI Director Christopher Wray to release a file alleging a $10 million bribe involving Hunter and Joe Biden from a Burisma Holdings executive in Ukraine. That informant, Alexander Smirnov, was later charged with lying and sentenced to six years in prison in January 2025.
Grassley remarked on the FBI’s long reliance on Smirnov, noting, “They’d been paying the informant for a decade, maybe longer than a decade … and he was giving them misinformation as well.”
No further charges were brought against Hunter Biden for failing to register as a foreign agent, with special counsel David Weiss citing insufficient evidence.
Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter a month before leaving office—despite repeated pledges not to—drew little surprise from Grassley.
The broad clemency, spanning potential crimes from 2014 to 2024 and covering Hunter’s convictions for illegal firearm possession and a guilty plea for $1.4 million in tax evasion, prompted Grassley to say, “I’m not surprised. But it shouldn’t have been done and proves the guilt of Hunter Biden.”
You can watch Grassley’s interview by using the video player below:
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