After enduring years of character assassinations by the right, Hunter Biden is in the throes of a chaotic media blitz thatās included Twitter-trolling, posting on Substack and appearances on a number of far-right podcasts, from Hitler worshipper Nick Fuentes and Russia stooge Tucker Carlson to conspiracy theorist Candace Owens. Is Joe Bidenās wayward son trying to land a lucrative podcast deal or taking one last stand to clear his name as his father battles cancer?
Whatever the reason, the latest stop on Bidenās no-holds-barred media tour saw the 56-year-old sit down with Bill Maher on his HBO series āReal Timeā Friday night. And their conversation got off to a rollicking start.
āYour obituary, the third word will be ālaptop.ā I know everything about the laptop ā more things than I want to know. Iāve seen you with your dick out. Iāve seen you with a crack pipe in your mouth. My question: Are you running for president?ā cracked Maher, opening things.
āIām here to announceā¦,ā joked Biden, before adding, āNo, I havenāt [thought of it]. Hereās my thing: If I announce for president then someone should check to see if Iāve relapsed.ā
Throughout their chat, Biden appeared nervous but prepared, opening up about his seven years of sobriety and saying heās been out there speaking because āthere are 50 million Americans that are still sick and suffering every day from addiction, and I get to go out there and I get to speak to them.ā
Maher, meanwhile, mostly treated the Biden offspring with kid gloves, even telling him at one point, āI think I would say to you what I said to Charlie Sheen: You did some bad things, but I donāt think youāre a bad guy.ā (Charlie Sheen pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex, among other things.)
Biden also acknowledged his āprivilegeā and argued that the money he made while his father was vice president was āa fraction of a pennyā compared to what the Trump kids have made while their father was president.
āJust to put it in perspective: In the last 500 days of this administration, Don Jr.ās company has taken in $3.4 billion in Department of Defense contracts. He got a $640 million loan pushed through by the Whtie House⦠and thatās just a fraction of it,ā explained Biden. āForget about what theyāve done with cryptocurrency, which is a bank where they were able to go and launder their money, which is an abomination, and that doesnāt even include what Jared is doing and Ivanka is doing. He gets paid $100 million in fees by the Saudis alone for a $6.5 billion fund that he controls thatās all Gulf State money, and heās our unelected, unappointed emissary to the Middle East for a war that nobody asked for.ā
When it comes to his father Joe, who is currently suffering from Stage 4 prostate cancer, Biden said heās apologized to him āevery dayā for his mistakes and itās āone of the greatest heartaches of my life,ā adding, āI can never make up for that.ā