USA
Hunter Biden: Opponents want me dead to break father
Hunter Biden has been making negative headlines for years. photo
© Susan Walsh/AP
For years, Republican hardliners have used Hunter Biden’s private escapades to attack his father. The 53-year-old sees this as a bad pattern: the aim is to push him into the abyss.
Joe Biden’s opponents understood that the thought of losing his son after the death of two other children would break his father, said Hunter Biden. “And so they started attacking and attacking and attacking,” he lamented. “I just stopped hoping for an end, because as long as my father is president of the United States, they won’t stop.”
Hunter Biden met Moby during addiction treatment and answered his questions extensively for the podcast. It was unclear when the more than hour-long conversation was recorded – presumably before the latest indictment against the president’s son.
On Thursday, charges were brought against him in a second case: this time for tax offenses. The justice system accuses Hunter Biden of failing to pay federal taxes for several years, but instead spending millions on an “extravagant lifestyle” with sex clubs, women, drugs and luxury. In September, Hunter Biden was charged with violating firearms regulations. All of this comes in the middle of his father’s election campaign, who wants to run for a second term as president next year.
“I will Survive”
Hunter Biden has been making negative headlines for years: with alcohol addiction, drug addiction, shady deals, legal disputes with an ex-stripper over support for an illegitimate child. Republicans have already used these things extensively for political attacks against Joe Biden in recent years and are now also pushing ahead with investigations into him in Parliament. The fact that the son now also has to stand trial makes the situation even more difficult for the Democrat in the election campaign.
In the conversation, Hunter Biden gave deep insights into his inner life. Among other things, he described the close connection to his father, who never let him down. He talked about feelings of guilt and shame and described how difficult it was to stay clean – especially since he was in so much public focus. Hunter Biden was combative, saying, “One of the reasons I’m going to survive this – and I’m going to survive clean and sober – is because I’m not going to let these motherfuckers use me as another example of why People will never be okay after an addiction and you can never trust them.”
The Bidens have had difficult strokes of fate behind them. As a young man, Joe Biden lost his first wife and their daughter in a car accident. Hunter Biden and his brother Beau survived the crash as children. However, Beau later died of a brain tumor at the age of 46. Hunter Biden said his brother’s death knocked the ground out from under him.