Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week told popular podcaster Joe Rogan that Facebook did limit stories on the newsfeed related to the New York Post story about President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his laptop after warnings from the FBI, but defended the law enforcement agency as a “legitimate institution.”
Zuckerberg said on an episode of Rogan’s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” that was uploaded on Thursday, that the FBI reached out to his company ahead of the 2020 presidential election to warn them to take note of potentially polarizing content. This warning came after Russia used social media platforms, including Facebook, to post content intended to be polarizing ahead of the 2016 election.
Zuckerberg said he took the warning seriously. He said the social media platform did not ban people from sharing the Post’s story, but it took action to limit how often the story appeared on feeds.
The Post reported shortly before the 2020 election that the FBI obtained a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden as part of a federal investigation into him.
Former President Trump and some of his allies seized on the report at the time as showing evidence that Hunter was involved in questionable business dealings while his father served as vice president. Some of the emails on the laptop have since been confirmed as authentic, but no wrongdoing from the president or his son has been confirmed.
The investigation into Hunter Biden reached a critical juncture last month as prosecutors weigh whether to bring any charges, CNN reported.
Zuckerberg said he did not remember if the FBI specifically mentioned the Post’s story in its warning.
He said he does not want Facebook to be the “ministry of truth” in deciding what is considered misinformation.
His defense of the FBI as “legitimate” comes as many conservatives have criticized the agency for conducting a search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida earlier this month. Some Trump allies have called for defunding the FBI as a result.
A growing number of Republicans around the country are demanding a new investigation into Hunter Biden after the New York Times confirmed the authenticity of a laptop whose contents were published by The Post 17 months ago.
Though The Post exclusively revealed in September 2020 the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop and the potentially compromising material contained there, the story was censored by social media companies at the behest of the Democratic Party. Mainstream media outlets — including The Times — attacked or ignored The Post revelations, while the Biden administration falsely suggested it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
More than 50 intelligence agency officials publicly attempted to discredit the coverage saying it had “the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” — and none offered any apology when contacted by The Post this week.
Upstate Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney said Saturday that the episode demanded congressional action.
“Big Tech’s censorship of a story the liberal media has now acknowledged to be true just proves that a Republican House majority must take meaningful action to rein in Big Tech censors next year,” she said. “All options should be on the table, including probes into their conduct and its impact on the Democratic process.”
Sen. Ted Cruz says those who spread the ‘Russian disinfo’ lie should be fired. Getty Images
In a tweet, Saturday, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also demanded “accountability” from Big Tech on the issue.
“It’s sad. We’re all talking about disinformation in Russia and other totalitarian countries and we are learning that we have it right here at home,” Staten Island GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told The Post, “The most basic accountability requires firing those responsible for the ‘Russian disinfo’ lie about the Biden family’s corruption, including and especially the former intelligence officials who were elevated to the top of cable news because they pushed wild and unsubstantiated Russia conspiracy theories about President Trump.
Hunter Biden’s international business dealings are already under federal investigation.
“Furthermore, Big Tech leaders who participated in censoring the truth should answer to Congress and the American people in sworn testimony,” he said Saturday.
The laptop — which Hunter left at the Delaware computer-repair shop of John Paul Mac Isaac and contained evidence that he was colluding with deep-pocketed corporations in China and Ukraine and giving a cut to his father — eventually made its way to Trump attorney and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He brought it to The Post in September 2020. The Post authenticated the computer and its contents in interviews with Mac Isaac and Biden cronies whose emails were found on the hard drive.
The coverup helped swing the election to Biden. Outlets and social media only admitted they were wrong after the election, which Biden won with 51% of the popular vote. Almost 50 percent of Biden voters knew nothing of the laptop scandal at the time of the election and almost 10 percent said they would not have voted for Biden had they known, according to a survey from The Media Research Center.
Hunter Biden is facing a federal investigation into his tax filings.
Hunter Biden is already facing a sprawling federal probe into his tax filings and business dealings around the world, the New York Times finally reported this week.
“Do I feel vindicated?” Giuliani told The Post Saturday. “I don’t need The Times to make me feel vindicated. Even if The Times wanted to apologize — which they wouldn’t — I would shove it right back in their face. They are a disgraceful publication.”
“This is just another example of the media being quick to silence anything that would shine a light on the corrupt Biden family,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, a leading GOP Pennsylvania Senate candidate, told The Post. “As Pennsylvania’s next Senator, I will support an investigation into the findings of Hunter Biden’s laptop and any efforts to cover it up.”
Joe and Hunter Biden aboard a military aircraft in a photo from Hunter’s laptop.
Legal experts said a new Hunter Biden probe could potentially implicate his father President Biden.
“There is very damning evidence that Hunter Biden sold his father’s access when his father was the vice president of the United States and that’s on his laptop and there is even evidence that then Vice President Joe Biden may have been in on this,” said Mike Davis, a former chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The president needs to clearly state right now that he will not interfere in any federal probe into his son Hunter, and he will not use his presidential powers — including the pardon power — to rescue his son if there are charges brought against Hunter.”
With Facebook and Instagram banned in Russia, President Joe Biden turned to TikTok stars to win the “information war” against Moscow on the latest installment of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
The show opened with James Austin Johnson’s Biden huddled in the White House with young singers, rappers, pranksters and animal makeup artists, along with a middle-aged roofer that the White House confused with Charli D’Amelio and a 55-year-old man who had a toilet plunger stuck to his nipple.
The sketch was barely far-fetched; White House officials briefed 30 viral acts on the app about the war on Thursday over Zoom on Thursday.
“People are saying this is the first war fought on TikTok,” the president told the social stars. “This is tough for me because I’m the landline of presidents, that’s why I need you. I understand Putin. I understand war. There’s one thing I don’t understand: computer.”
“He means technology but he says ‘computer,’” said Press Secretary Jen Psaki, played by Kate McKinnon.
From L-R: Kate McKinnon as Press Secretary Jen Psaki, James Austin Johnson as President Biden and Bowen Yang. Youtube / SNL
Biden was taken aback when Aidy Bryant’s cute character accused his son Hunter of starting the war in Ukraine.
“You don’t expect an animal makeup girl to be alt-right,” Johnson quipped.
The skit came to an end as the camera zoomed in on the plunger stuck to Bowen Yang’s chest as he waxed poetic about his TikTok channel achieving peace in Europe.
Host Zoë Kravitz shared her creative process for getting into character as Catwoman in “The Batman.”
“To prepare for the role I watched the movie ‘Musical Cats’ everyday for a year which I heard is the same way Joaquin Phoenix prepared for ‘The Joker,’” Kravitz told the studio audience.
A Cat-signal broadcast over Manhattan summoned Michelle Pfeiffer and Eartha Kitt’s Catwomen of yesteryear (McKinnon and Ego Nwodim) to interrupt her monologue, along with a cat lady played by Bryant, and comedian Katt Williams, spoofed by Chris Redd.
Actress Zoe Kravitz appears in her opening monologue on “Saturday Night Live.”SNL / Youtube
In her first skit, Kravitz played a loose-lipped maid of honor that used her wedding reception speech to inform the groom (Kyle Mooney ) that the bride (Cecily Strong) drives drunk, slept with more than 900 men, and stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
A pretaped commercial spoof extoled the virtues of a contactless Amazon Go store that bills you electronically. While white shoppers loved not having to open their wallets, customers of color Kravitz, Nwodim, Kenan Thompson and Punkie Johnson braced to be arrested for walking out of the store without paying.
McKinnon played a nerdy high school boy that needed to call a fellow geek (Bryant) for real time advice on how to flirt with Kravitz after their study date.
In a clip of “The Princess and the Frog” on the less promotable Disney- channel, Kravitz’s princess balks at kissing Redd’s frog when he explained how amphibians have sex and revealed he was the prince of Newark, New Jersey.
Redd lost interest himself when Kravitz admitted she dissected frogs in high school.
Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy tore apart the writer’s room to search for a cat that they had gifted Kravitz in the latest sketch from the comedy outfit “Please Don’t Destroy.”
When the frantic search unearthed Paul Dano hiding under a couch, the actor said he was doing research for his role as the Riddler in “The Batman.”
Thompson also played a con artist who revealed to his children and their mother in a videotaped will that they would need to produce a series of movies he wrote in order to pay off the family’s debt. He also apologized to his son (Redd) for his genetic erectile dysfunction, bequeathing him a used penis pump.
Colin Jost and Michael Che satirized recent current events on “Weekend Update,” joking that news articles in Russia now had to mention shorter-than-average Russian President Vladimir Putin is “6’5 and not insane.”
“Tuesday was International Women’s Day so hopefully you remembered to smile,” Che joked.
The fake anchor also followed up on The Post’s article about New York City straphangers being nonplussed by a man peeing in a subway car during rush hour.
“They were probably too nervous to say something because I’m on TV,” he cracked.
A week after a guestless segment, the fake anchors welcomed Kyle Mooney as Dan Bulldozer, a muscle-bound bearded Instagram influencer based on Dan Bilzerian.
Bulldozer bragged about snowboarding with bazookas and sleeping with hundreds of models on yachts, but admitted he struggles to find happiness and wear shirts.
From L-R: Mikey Day, musical guest Rosalía, host Zoë Kravitz, and Chris Redd. NBC
Alex Moffat also joined the anchor desk as Terry Fink, a Oscar critic high on LSD.
Fink was under the false impression that Johnny Knoxville made “Belfast,” and explained how a screening of “Encanto” convinced him to sell his kidney for dogecoin.
Andrew Dismukes played the exasperated host of a “Word Crunch” game where contestant Kravitz could not stop making up lewd compound words.
The final skit saw Yang becoming very animated and emotional as he explained the power of a brass band rendition of “Don’t Stop Believin’” to his brunch buddies.
“The instruments are doing the thing Steven Tyler was singing,” Bowen explained.
“Steven Tyler wasn’t in Journey,” Nwodim shot back.
“Doesn’t matter!” Yang exclaimed, as his dance moves knocked over waiter trays.
Spanish singer Rosalía performed her new songs “CHICKEN TERIYAKI” and “LA FAMA” in a rare non-English “SNL” performance.
The cast’s reigning tabloid king Pete Davidson was once again conspicuously absent as he continued to film a movie.
The show will return next week with its fourth straight live episode, hosted by Kieran Culkin, with musical performances from Ed Sheehan.
An investment firm founded by Hunter Biden assisted a Chinese company in purchasing one of the world’s richest cobalt mines from an American company for $3.8 billion – helping the conglomerate gain a massive share of the key metal used to make electric car batteries.
The president’s son was one of three Americans who joined Chinese partners in establishing the Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, or BHR, in 2013.
The Americans controlled 30 percent of the company and made successful investments that culminated in aiding China Molybdenum purchase the Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine in the Congo from the American company Freeport-McMoRan in 2016, the New York Times reported.
The news comes after President Joe Biden had warned that China could use its dominance of mined cobalt to disrupt America’s development of electric vehicles.
It also adds to the scrutiny Biden and his father have faced for his dealings with Chines and Ukrainian companies while Joe was vice president and later running for president.
Hunter Biden (pictured on November 10) was one of three American founders of a investment firm primarily owned by Chinese partners. The firm helped secure the richest cobalt mine in the world for a Chinese company in 2016
Biden founded BHR with two other Americans and Chinese partners in 2013. He was no longer part of the board as of April 2020
Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, or BHR, partnered with China Molybdenum to buy the Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine in the Congo (pictured)
Biden’s firm made the deal with Joe Biden, right, was still vice president. The now president has warned that America’s electric vehicle production could he stunted by China’s dominance over cobalt, one of the key components of the electric batteries
BHR slowly made its way into an investment powerhouse after helping finance an Australian coal-mining company controlled by a Chinese state-owned firm, the paper reported.
The investment company’s big break came in 2016 when it bought and sold a stake in CATL, a Chinese company that is now the world’s biggest maker of batteries for electric vehicles.
That same year, China Molybdenum – one of the world’s leading producers of the precious metals molybdenum and tungsten – announced it would purchase the Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine from Freeport-McMoRan, an American mining company.
But in order to purchase the mine, the Chinese company needed a partner to buy out one of the stakeholders, Lundin Mining of Canada.
That’s when BHR came in to buy out Lundin with $1.14 billion raised entirely from obscure Chinese state-backed companies, according to the Times.
Biden still controlled 10 percent of BHR when its shares of the mines were sold to China Molybdenum in 2019.
The Tenke Fungurume cobalt mine, in the Congo, is worth $3.8 billion and holds the largest deposit of the metal
The mines were purchased from the American-based Freeport-McMoRan company, which owns mines across the nation (pictured a Freeport-McMoRan mine in Colorado)
Chris Clark, one of Biden’s lawyers, said the president’s son ‘no longer holds any interest, directly or indirectly, in either BHR or Skaneateles,’ a firm Biden used to control his BHR shares.
Chinese records show Biden was no longer on BHR’s board as of April 2020, and a former board member told the Times that the American founders were not directly involved in the mine deal and supposedly earned only a nominal fee from it.
‘We don’t know Hunter Biden, nor are we aware of his involvement in BHR,’ Vincent Zhou, a spokesman for China Molybdenum, said in a statement.
A White House spokesman told the Times that President Biden has not been made aware of his son’s connection to the sale.
The president has often faced backlash for Biden’s dealings with Chines and Ukrainian companies through banks, lobbies and investment firms.
The necessity for cobalt by American companies was made even more vital after the president signed an executive order in August outlining a goal to have electric and other zero-emissions vehicles make up half of the new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. by 2030.
The 50 percent goal is nonbinding and mostly symbolic, but it sets the expectation for U.S. automakers to begin the transition from building gas-powered vehicles to electric ones.
It includes battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles. Biden also included the first-ever national network of electric vehicle charging stations in his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
Hunter Biden’s investment firm helped broker a 2016 deal that gave a Chinese state-backed company control of a massive African mine rich in cobalt — a mineral essential for the production of electric car batteries.
The deal, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon during the 2020 presidential campaign, was spotlighted by the New York Times Saturday as Congress inches closer to approving President Biden’s $2 trillion social spending plan, which earmarks billions of dollars to promote electric vehicles.
In 2016, an investment firm founded by Hunter Biden with several Chinese partners was cut into a complex $3.8 billion transaction that transferred 80 percent of Congo’s Tenke Fungurum mine from an American company to Beijing-backed China Molybdenum.
President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden’s father, was the sitting vice president when the deal was struck.
The mine is one of the world’s largest sources of cobalt — and China’s control of the mineral “presents a critical vulnerability to the future of the U.S. domestic auto industry,” Biden’s White House reported in June.
A White House spokesman said that Joe Biden had no knowledge of his son’s involvement with the sale, the Times reported.
Tenke Fungurume, a copper and cobalt mine northwest of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo.REUTERS/Jonny Hogg//File
They got all hopped up smoking toad venom and “died” — and now they’re high and mighty about being “reborn.”
Up until recently, hallucinogenic toad venom was associated with underground thrill seekers, but the so-called psychotropic snake oil has become increasingly mainstream as celebrities like boxing icon Mike Tyson, controversial fine artist Hunter Biden and HGTV flipper Christina Haack preach about its mind-expanding effects.
The ring legend recently described how the drug caused him to “die” and be “reborn.”
“I ‘died’ during my first trip,” the 55-year-old former heavyweight champ told The Post earlier this week, describing a psychedelic metamorphosis. “In my trips, I’ve seen that death is beautiful.”
His cathartic sensation stems from one of the world’s most powerful psychoactive compounds — 5-MeO-DMT (5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) — which is derived from a toxin that the Bufo alvarius, a Mexico amphibian otherwise known as the Sonoran Desert toad, secretes as a fear tactic to deter predators.
Also known as the “God molecule,” the chemical has been touted by its devotees in wellness circles as a cure for everything from drug addiction to mental illnesses.
And they’re not just hopping mad: This past summer, Oxford-based startup Beckley Psytech raised $80 million to speed up clinical trials to determine the compound’s efficacy at treating depression, Business Wire reported.
But the drug, which is a Schedule 1 classified substance, isn’t fun and games for everyone, like comedian Chelsea Handler who said she thought she would “pass away” after a hit.
“The most terrible thing,” the 46-year-old said in her HBO Max “Evolution” special. “I couldn’t move… And I was like ‘Oh, oh, oh you’re gonna pass away today.’”
While the jury’s still out about whether 5-MeO-DMT is a cure-all, Tyson is not the only votary of venom with a ribbet-ing story about being “reborn.”
The Sonoran Desert toad has a venom that produces a psychoactive hallucinogenic effect.Shutterstock / Susan Schmitz
Mike Tyson
Many believe that drugs negatively impacted Iron Mike in the past. However, the boxing icon claims that a toad-verdose saved his life — by “killing” him.
Tyson revealed he tried 5-MeO-DMT on a “dare” several years ago when he was 100 pounds overweight and hooked on drugs and alcohol, describing his metamorphosis earlier in November at Wonderland, a Miami conference dedicated to psychedelics, micro-dosing and medicine.
Mike Tyson said that toad venom changed his life.Getty Images
“In my trips, I’ve seen that death is beautiful,” the Brownsville, Texas, native described. “Life and death both have to be beautiful, but death has a bad rep.”
“The toad has taught me that I’m not going to be here forever. There’s an expiration date,” added Kid Dynamite, who has reportedly tripped 53 times — sometimes multiple times per day.
The boxing phenom has since recounted his revelatory envenomation on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which has become something of a forum for recounting celebrity psychedelic experiences.
Since undergoing his perspective-altering regimen, Tyson has lost 100 pounds in three months, started boxing again and reconnected with his wife and children.
He also attributes the transformation to 5-MeO-DMT stripping his “ego” and making him more “creative” and focused.
“I’m more present as a businessman and entrepreneur,” said the boxer, who currently tours the country espousing the virtues of this alleged hallucinogenic holy grail.
It may sound like Tyson’s tripping, but his description of the drug’s effects jives with expert analysis.
Dr. Mike Dow, a psychology doctorate who practices psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy at Field Trip Health, told Instyle: “There’s still more research to be done to truly understand how 5-MeO-DMT works, but as a tryptamine (like psilocybin and LSD) it can create a sense of unity, euphoria, and ego dissolution.”
Meanwhile, like Tyson, many users say the afterglow of a toad venom trip can trigger them to make major life changes.
“I immediately broke up with my long-term boyfriend,” New York City tripper Barrett Pall told The Post. The Soho-based life coach and influencer, who also booked a trip around the world and decided to reconnect with his estranged father, added, “I was just so sure that everything I was deciding was right.”
Christina Haack
Christina Haack, host of HGTV’s “Flip or Flop,” turned a frog into a prince after revealing that she met her new boyfriend, realtor Joshua Hall, after smoking the trippy toxin.
“I met Josh when I wasn’t in a state of fear or fight-or-flight,” the 38-year-old reality TV star wrote in a July Instagram post. “I had taken time off social, hired a spiritual coach and smoked a Bufo toad (which basically reset my brain and kicked out years of anxiety in 15 mins).”
Christina Haack swears by the stuff.instagram/@christinahaack
Haack likely didn’t literally toke the toad as 5-MeO-DMT is extracted by “milking” the toad’s venom glands, then drying the secretions into a paste — although it’s increasingly being manufactured synthetically in the lab amid fears that its psychedelic status is driving the species to extinction, Euro News reported.
However, her experience of a mental reset is corroborated by other hallucinogenic voyagers, who describe 5-MeO-DMT as the most potent psychedelic on the planet with blissful effects that begin right after ingestion and last for 15 to 20 minutes.
“There’s a reason why 5-MeO-DMT can reset one’s brain and help one overcome years of anxiety in 15 minutes,” said Martin W. Ball, Ph.D., who hosts the Entheogenic Evolution podcast. “It’s the most monumental, and potentially worldview and identity-shattering experience a person can have.”
Chelsea Handler
Chelsea Handler is not down with toad venom.Getty Images for CTAOP
Chelsea Handler said she’s tried it all — including doing Ayahuasca on camera for a Netflix show — but she said her toad venom trip was more terror-inducing than revelatory.
In her “Evolution” special, Handler said she was attending a silent retreat in the woods of Topanga Canyon when she approached revelers prepping for a toad trip.
“I said, ‘Let’s party.’ She said, ’It’s not really that kind of drug,’ and I’m ‘Listen b—ch, I’ll decide what kind of drug it is,’” she recalled. “She said it’s ‘transcendental,’ that’s the word she used, so I was already bored.”
‘I couldn’t move… And I was like “Oh, oh, oh you’re gonna pass away today.”‘
Chelsea Handler
Handler then said took a hit from a “little crack pipe or whatever,” and that’s where it went downhill.
“It’s immediately terrible — like the most terrible thing. Dark swirly greens and purples it was like I was on a rollercoaster and my head was in a vice and I couldn’t move… And I was like ‘Oh, oh, oh you’re gonna pass away today,’” she said. “And then I’m like don’t be so dramatic you’re not gonna pass away you’ve already received some brain damage.”
She said she was “sweating” and “hyperventilating” and that’s when she knew she wanted out.
“When I couldn’t wait anymore, I was like ‘You have to make this stop! I’m in a matrix,’” she said in the special. “Finally, I start to come out of it and I was, first of all, embarrassed because I was nude and that I had just lost complete control.”
The former “Chelsea Lately” host also recalled the awful incident to the Hollywood Reporter in 2019.
“I was immediately drenched in sweat feeling as sick as I’ve ever felt,” she said. “I went to open my eyes to focus because I was spinning and I thought, ‘This isn’t good, I don’t like this.’”
According to Handler, the woman told her to “‘Just keep breathing.’ And I’m like, ‘You need to hold my hand.’ It was super-intense and then it was over after three minutes of panic and I said, ‘OK, I’m alive.’”
A cautionary tale
Moments like Handler’s are common when smoking toad venom, according to the Addiction Center, which notes that many users are “unable to move and lack awareness of their surroundings” after puffing the frog.
Indeed, despite the purported health benefits, experts caution against recreationally using the compound, which is categorized in the US as a Schedule 1 classified substance that carries a ten-year prison sentence for possession.
“It’s such an intense experience that, in most cases, doing it at a party isn’t safe,” said Dr. Alan K. Davis, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at the Psychedelic Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University.
“If people get dosed too high, they can ‘white out’ and disassociate from their mind and body,” he added.
Others can experience vomiting and anxiety for days afterward, while some end up in the emergency room.
Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden turned to toad venom to fight his crack addiction.DNCC via Getty Images
But, it hasn’t stopped the elite from seeking healing. President Joe Biden’s wayward progeny swears by the drug. In his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” Hunter Biden, 51, described toad venom as a “salve” that helped him kick his crack cocaine habit.
“I know it sounds loopy,” he wrote of its “Limitless”-evoking effects. “Yet whatever else it did or didn’t do, the experience unlocked feelings and hurts I’d buried deep for too long.”
Diplo
Diplo dabbed in toad venom during a scary in-flight incident.WireImage,
When it comes to toad venom, Diplo is apparently in the mile “high” club. The 43-year-old “Close To Me” DJ claimed he used 5-MeO-DMT to calm his nerves after the window on his private jet cracked during a terrifying 2019 flight to Ohio.
“Dear Colombus and Minneapolis, my jet window just cracked open and the pilots are wearing masks so not sure ill make my shows tonight but they left the wifi on so I’m just going to sit in the back and smoke toad venom and Vlog,” wrote Diplo, whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz, on Instagram.
Thankfully, the plane landed safely following the scare — although whether Diplo actually embarked on said plane “trip” is still unclear.
Nacho Vidal
Nacho Vidal has appeared in more than 100 porn movies.Instagram/@nachovidalxxx
Unfortunately, not every Bufo toad venom fatality was figurative or transformative. In March, Spanish porn actor Nacho Vidal was charged with the murder of fashion photographer Jose Luis Abad, who died after inhaling Bufo toad vapors.
The skin-flick star had allegedly administered Abad the venom during a 2019 shamanic ritual in the hopes that it would cure his cocaine addiction.
Meanwhile, prior investigations had found that the toad venom ceremonies were being carried out on a regular basis. Vidal, who has appeared in more than 100 pornographic pictures, even previously promoted the mind-altering substance on YouTube, according to Spanish newspaper El País, as reported in Rolling Stone.
Nacho VidalInstagram/@nachovidalxxx
A dangerous trend?
Despite the dangers, Sonoran Desert toad venom is becoming increasingly en vogue among young New Yorkers, who score the rare resin by hiring shamans who illegally collect toads for their use in the drug trade — which the Addiction Center says is a “threat to the species.” These so-called healers then distribute it at ceremonies throughout the US, charging $200 to $500 per person.
Pall, who attended one such ceremony, described his trip to The Post as 45 minutes of “shooting through the universe” and “being reborn.”
Hunter Biden on Sunday tried to explain why he dated his dead brother’s widow — but said he could understand why “people were confused” by the eyebrow-raising romance.
The president’s son discussed the reaction to revelations he was dating his brother Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie Biden, in March 2017.
“I think people were confused by it and I understand that. I really do,” he said in a sitdown with CBS’s “Sunday Morning.”
“To me, it’s not something that is difficult to explain because it came out of a real overwhelming grief that we both shared and we were together and trying to do the right thing. And that grief turned into a hope for a love that maybe could replace what we lost and it didn’t work,” he continued.
Hunter — who was still married to his estranged wife Kathleen at the time — said he and Hallie were “incredibly lucky” that their family supported the unusual liaison after Beau died of cancer in May 2015.
But others were not so understanding. Hunter revealed that he lost clients and business during that time.
“I made a lot of decisions that I probably shouldn’t have made,” said Hunter, who has long struggled with addiction and also revealed that he had searched through rugs for anything that resembled crack cocaine.
“There was a lot more compassion and understanding for the people that knew me, but it was a horrible time.”
The president’s son, Hunter, discussed the reaction to revelations he was dating his brother Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie Biden, in March 2017.Ron Sachs – CNP / MEGA
Hunter and Hallie later split that same year.
He has since remarried a South African woman named Melissa Cohen just a week after they met.
Hunter made the appearance on the morning news program Sunday to promote his new memoir, “Beautiful Things,” out April 6.
Hunter Biden sent a text message that said the Secret Service responded after his handgun disappeared in 2018 — contradicting the agency’s assertion that it wasn’t involved, The Post has learned.
In a lengthy message sent the following year, President Biden’s son described the situation in detail, saying his former sister-in-law-turned-lover, Hallie Biden, tossed the firearm into a trash bin outside Janssen’s Market, a gourmet grocery store in Wilmington, Del.
“She stole the gun out of my trunk lock box and threw it in a garbage can full to the top at Jansens [sic]. Then told me it was my problem to deal with,” Hunter wrote.
“Then when the police the FBI the secret service came on the scene she said she took it from me because she was scared I would harm myself due to my drug and alcohol problem and our volatile relationship and that she was afraid for the kids.”
The Jan. 29, 2019, message adds: “Really not joking the cop kept me convinced that Hallie was implying she was scared of me.”
The message is contained on a hard drive obtained by The Post that holds the contents of a damaged laptop computer that was left at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop by Hunter in April 2019 and never retrieved.
The Macbook Pro laptop was later seized by the FBI, apparently as part of what Hunter last year said is an investigation into his “tax affairs” by the Delaware US Attorney’s Office.
On Thursday, Politico reported that the incident involving Hunter’s .38-caliber revolver took place on Oct. 23, 2018, and that the firearm was fished out of the trash and surrendered several days later by an older man who found it while searching for recyclable items.
During the course of an investigation into its disappearance, Secret Service agents approached the owner of the gun store where Hunter bought it 11 days earlier and asked for paperwork related to the purchase, Politico said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The store owner refused the request, suspecting the Secret Service wanted to cover up Hunter’s ownership if the gun were later used in a crime, Politico said.
The owner later gave the documents to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which regulates gun sales, Politico said.
Law enforcement officials told Politico that any Secret Service involvement — either on behalf of the Biden family or on its own initiative — would be inappropriate because the incident was being investigated by the Delaware State Police and the FBI.
Beau Biden, who passed away in 2015, with Hallie Biden.Ron Sachs / CNP / MEGA
In a statement Thursday, the Secret Service denied any role in investigating the missing gun.
“U.S. Secret Service records confirm that the agency did not provide protection to any member of the Biden family in 2018, and that the Secret Service had no involvement in this alleged incident,” the agency said.
The White House also said Thursday, “President Biden did not have any knowledge of, or involvement in, the Secret Service’s alleged role in this incident, and neither he nor any family member was a protectee at that time.”
Photos posted on Twitter on Friday afternoon showed Hunter, his wife Melissa Cohen and their baby son preparing to board Air Force One with President Biden for a flight to Delaware.
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, left, as carries his son Beau and holds his wife Melissa Cohen’s hand before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, March 26.
AP
Joe Biden (2nd R) walks with son, Hunter Biden (L), his wife Melissa Cohen (2nd L) and their son Beau, to board Air Force One.
AFP via Getty Images
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, left, as carries his son Beau and holds his wife Melissa Cohen’s hand before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Friday, March 26.
AFP via Getty Images
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The recipients of Hunter’s text message included former celebrity psychiatrist Keith Ablow, a onetime Fox News contributor whose Massachusetts medical license was suspended in 2019 and later expired.
The Massachusetts Board of Medicine labeled him “an immediate and serious threat to the public health, safety and welfare” over allegations that he “engaged in sexual activity and boundary violations with multiple patients, diverted controlled substances from patients, engaged in disruptive behavior, including displaying and pointing a firearm on multiple occasions in a manner that scared an employee, and procured his license renewal fraudulently.”
Hunter Biden with now ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.Ron Sachs / CNP / MEGA
Hunter also sent the message to Hallie, with whom he has acknowledged having had an intimate relationship following the death of her husband, his older brother, Beau Biden, and while estranged from his now-ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle.
According to a 2019 profile in the New Yorker, Hunter and Hallie broke up several months after they began living together in August 2017, after which he moved to Los Angeles in early 2018.
Hallie didn’t immediately return messages left at two phone numbers listed in her name and Hunter’s lawyer also didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
