Hunter Biden says he was ‘hoping’ for Trump attack during presidential debate
President Biden’s son Hunter Biden says he was hoping former President Trump would attack him over his previous drug and alcohol abuse when Trump debated his father last year in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
“The one thing that I was hoping for was that attack from Donald Trump, because I knew my dad would answer from his heart,” Biden said during a recent appearance on Donny Deutsch’s podcast. “And I knew that my dad would answer in a way that would speak to the millions and millions of people that have somebody that they love, or they themselves, that has suffered from the disease of addiction.”
Trump, during the first debate between the two candidates in September, claimed “Hunter got thrown out of the military. … He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged, for cocaine use.”
Joe Biden shot back in defense of his son.
“My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem,” Biden said. “He’s overtaken it, he’s fixed it, he’s worked on it, and I’m proud of him.”
Hunter Biden called Trump’s attack on him “a gift” to his father’s campaign and an opportunity to show his compassion and forgiveness.
“I knew in that instant that they handed me a gift to show everyone exactly who my dad was as a parent,” he said. “My dad didn’t say that my addiction was an excuse for anything.”
Biden has spoken and written openly about his past drug and alcohol abuse since his father was elected president. In a memoir published earlier this year, Biden wrote that at one point in his life he was “so desperate for a drink that I couldn’t make the one-block walk between a liquor store and my apartment without uncapping the bottle to take a swig.”
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