Hunter Biden has said that he convinced his father Joe Biden to issue a public statement supporting his affair with his deceased brother Beau’s widow Hallie, arguing the relationship would ‘seem wrong’ if his father didn’t bless it.
”Dad,’ I told him, ‘if people find out, but they think you’re not approving of this, it makes it seem wrong,’ Hunter Biden wrote in his memoir, Beautiful Things, set to be released on April 6, according to an advance copy obtained by Fox News.
In early 2017, just months after his father left office as vice president, the pressure was on Hunter when a reporter called to ask him about his affair with Hallie, which began while he was still married to his first wife.
Hunter argued to his father that it would be devastating to his children if Biden didn’t bless the unusual relationship, telling him: ”The kids have to know there’s nothing wrong with this, and the one person who can tell them that is you.’
Hunter Biden has said that he convinced his father Joe Biden to issue a public statement supporting his affair with his deceased brother Beau’s widow Hallie
Hallie is pictured front standing next to Hunter Biden (left in blue suit and sunglasses) and Joe Biden (right in black) at Beau Biden’s funeral on June 6, 2015
Biden was reluctant but eventually issued a statement saying: ‘We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them.’
Hunter recounts that his relationship with Hallie was born out of mutual grief, and unfolded as he was ‘backsliding’ into substance abuse after getting out of rehab.
‘I was madly trying to hold on to a slice of my brother, and I think Hallie was doing the same,’ Hunter wrote.
Hunter recounts that his relationship with Hallie was born out of mutual grief
‘If we weren’t all in, we worried, the relationship would be perceived as a salacious fling. So we tried to make something work that, in hindsight, was never in the cards,’ he continued.
Hunter’s relationship with Hallie blew up by 2019, around the same time as a series of his foreign business ventures evaporated. He went on to marry South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen, with whom he has a son.
On Sunday, Hunter spoke in an interview about his drug addiction, his relationship with sister-in-law Hallie Biden, the ongoing FBI investigation into his finances and his decision to join the board of Burisma.
‘I spent more times on my hands and knees picking through rugs smoking anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine. I probably smoked more parmesan cheese than anyone that you know,’ the president’s son told CBS Sunday Morning with a laugh, as he told Tracy Smith about his battles with addiction.
The younger Biden said his father staged an intervention for him during his time as vice president. ‘He sort of ditched the Secret Service,’ Hunter Biden recalled, with the now-president telling his son that, ‘You’re not fine.’
In a teaser released Friday for another portion of the interview, Hunter Biden spoke about a second intervention, in which the then-2020 presidential candidate chased his son down the driveway, sobbing, begging him to stop using drugs.
Photos of Hunter smoking a crack pipe (left) and appearing inebriated (right) that were found on a laptop that made headlines just weeks before the November 3 presidential election
On ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ Smith asked about the FBI’s current probe into Hunter Biden’s taxes, which came to light in December during the transition. Hunter Biden released a statement through the Biden-Harris transition office at the time.
He told CBS that he couldn’t discuss much about the case.
‘I can say this. I’m cooperating completely and I’m absolutely certain, 100 per cent certain, that at the end of the investigation that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing,’ the president’s son said.
Reporting on that investigation suggests that it deals with Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Chinese firms.
As for his business in Ukraine, Hunter Biden said he didn’t believe taking a spot on Ukrainian energy company Burisma’s board was a mistake.
‘No, I don’t think I made a mistake taking a spot on that board,’ he said. ‘I think I made a mistake in terms of underestimating the – the way in which it would be used against me.’
Smith pushed back, suggesting it was hard to believe that Hunter Biden didn’t realize that optics could look bad.
Hunter Biden, pictured with his wife Melissa Cohen and their son Beau Biden Jr. on March 26 as they boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland
Hunter’s daughters Maisy, 20, Finnegan, 21, and Naomi, 27, (far left, center left and center right) are pictured with their cousin Natalie (far right) who is Beau Biden’s daughter
‘I’m being as honest with you as I possibly can,’ Hunter Biden replied. ‘All I know, is that not one investigative body, not one serious journalist have ever accused – has ever come to the conclusion that I did anything wrong, or that my father did anything wrong.’
Former President Donald Trump made Burisma a household name, floating to rally crowds that Hunter Biden was getting rich off his name – and that Joe Biden intervened and got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired for wanting to investigate Burisma to protect his son.
Hunter’s new memoir, Beautiful Things, is out April 6
As he does in his forthcoming memoir, ‘Beautiful Things,’ he explained what compelled him to start dating Hallie, the widow of Beau Biden.
‘I think people were confused by that. And I understand that,’ he said. ‘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. It didn’t work,’ he said.
He added, ‘I made a lot of decisions that I probably shouldn’t have made.’
Smith said that Hunter Biden told her that he had been sober since marrying his second wife, Melissa Cohen.
Hunter Biden said that he talked to his father every night – and that the president called all the grandkids daily too.
‘By the way, he’s always done that,’ Hunter Biden said. ‘Because he lost – because he, like me, knows what it’s like not to be able to pick up the phone and talk to your son,’ Hunter Biden said, choking up.
Smith pointed out that, ‘He almost lost you.’
‘Yeah, yeah. Yeah,’ Hunter Biden agreed. ‘It’s hard.’
‘I’m a Biden, we cry too much,’ he added.
