Hunter Biden, Candace Owens and the power of 'the Epstein class'

[muriel_volestrangler]

The right's most hated podcaster keeps growing her audience through controversy

The Owens-Biden collaboration is about the emergence of a new cross-partisan media ecosystem built around conspiracy, alienation and mutual distrust of institutions — a kind of anti-establishment influencer class that transcends traditional ideological boundaries while feeding audiences increasingly addicted to paranoia. Call it the “Epstein Class,” to borrow Biden’s preferred phrase, though not in the way he intends.
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His use of that phrase attempts to transform the former president — a man who spent half a century at the center of Democratic power — into an outsider victimized by shadowy elites. It is conspiratorial thinking repackaged as populist truth-telling.

Joe Biden was not forced aside because he threatened elite power structures. He was pushed out of the presidential race because millions of voters watched in shock and horror as he struggled publicly on a debate stage. No secret cabal was required. Yet Owens eagerly indulged his son’s tale because this kind of thinking is now the primary currency of outrage media.
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Seen in this light, Owens’ sudden display of journalistic empathy toward Biden is a calculation. What we are watching with her is someone collecting new credibility with each provocative and unlikely alliance while the actual content of her work continues largely unexamined by the outlets that cover her rise. It mimics the strange, unearned respect that some liberals have recently extended to figures like former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene whenever they break rank with the dominant MAGA orthodoxy. Owens understands that deep political polarization can be easily blurred and manipulated if you wrap yourself in the cloak of the independent truth-teller who is simply “asking questions” that the establishment wants to suppress.

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/23/hunter-biden-candace-owens-and-the-power-of-the-epstein-class/