Credit: NPR
Hunter Biden has been all over the internet in recent months.
In May, he reactivated his long-dormant X account and posted, “You’ve never actually heard from me.” Since then, he’s posted more than 1,343 times — an average of 23 times per day — weighing in on politics, news and culture.
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“That’s really all bait to get people to start to have a open discussion about something that I am absolutely positive impacts all of us, and that’s addiction,” Biden told Scott Simon on NPR’s video podcast. “The one thing that I know, that I have a double Ph.D. in, is addiction and recovery.”
In 2020, Biden became the subject of Justice Department and congressional investigations, which exposed revealing photos, illicit drug use, an illegal gun purchase, failure to pay federal taxes and allegations of government corruption. Biden said he’s now thankful for the scrutiny, as painful as it was at the time.
“I was given the gift of being so publicly shamed and humiliated, and literally stripped bare, in some cases literally stripped naked in the public square,” Biden said. “I had nowhere to hide, nowhere left to hide. I had no more secrets that I could keep.”
Beyond his frequent social media posts, Biden has also made appearances with some of he and his father’s harshest critics, such as ultra-conservative commentator Candace Owens and far-right influencer Nick Fuentes. He explained why.
“I wanted to go into the lions’ den with the people that have pursued me the most vociferously over the past seven years,” Biden explained. “We may see the humanity in each other, and that was the instance with Candace.”
Biden did not comment on his recent conversation with Fuentes.
In 2024, Hunter was convicted of federal gun offenses only to be fully pardoned by his father months later.
He said his father would have withheld this pardon if he had won the White House in 2024.
“If my dad had won, he would have kept his word,” Hunter said. “He would not have pardoned me.”
Shortly after Hunter’s convictions, President Biden publicly said “I will not pardon him.” This changed after Biden bowed out of the presidential election and then-candidate Donald Trump won in November, according to Hunter.
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“My dad woke up after Thanksgiving and he read that Donald Trump had just appointed Matt Gaetz to be the Attorney General,” Biden said. “I think that he made a decision then that Donald Trump had made a decision not to actually adhere to the Constitution.”
Days later, President Biden signed a full and unconditional pardon for Hunter — wiping away Hunter’s legal troubles.
When asked if his pardons opened the door for Trump to pardon January 6th rioters, Biden rejected the premise and called it an “insane argument.” He had a similar response to a comparison between his working on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, and the Pentagon contracts connected to the investment firms of Eric Trump and Don Trump Jr.
Still, Biden acknowledged his getting the job with Burisma was likely due to his proximity to his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden.
“I think in part, yes, 100%,” Biden said. “I accept the criticism of the idea that I should not have taken that job because of the fact that my dad was at the time in the last year of his vice presidency.”
During the 2024 election, cited unnamed sources and reported that Hunter Biden pushed his father to stay in the campaign — despite the growing fears in the Democratic party over his physical and mental capacity.
Hunter denied this, saying he didn’t want his father to run again because “there was nothing that was more important to me than getting my dad back.”
When asked about President Biden’s age, his son acknowledged that his father slowed down during his presidency, but said those changes did not indicate a cognitive decline.
“I noticed things that were purely associated and typical with growing older.” Biden said. “His speech slowed down. He literally lost a step.”
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