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Hunter Biden reveals dad carried out drugs intervention with him during 2020 campaign

In a pair of interviews with CBS, the US president's son opens-up

Gino Spocchia
Friday 02 April 2021 13:26 EDT
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Hunter Biden reveals father staged drugs intervention with him

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Hunter Biden has described how his dad carried out an intervention to stop him taking drugs during the 2020 campaign.

The 51-year-old was discussing his addictions to both alcohol and drugs for the first time during two interviews with CBS News — set to air on Sunday and Monday — when the revelation came.

In one of the interviews, which form part of a promotional tour for the upcoming memoir “Beautiful Things,” the younger Biden described how his family staged an intervention during the 2020 campaign.

Joe Biden, then a future US president, was described as chasing his son down the driveway of the family home in Wilmington, Delaware, following an argument.

“I tried to go to my car, and my girls literally blocked the door to my car, and said: 'Dad, Dad, please. You can't. No, no,” he recalled, becoming teary.

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The 51-year-old told CBS “This Morning” host Anthony Mason that his father hugged him in front of his two daughters on the driveway, and begged for him not to get into the car and drive off.

“He grabbed me — gave a bear hug, and he said — and just cried, and said — 'I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Please'," said the younger Biden of his Dad’s intervention.

He continued by saying hearing his father's pleas made him consider a way “to tell him that I’m going to do something” about years of alcohol and drug abuse, but that he also needed “to take another hit”.

Mr Biden, who said the intervention by his family “was the hardest part of the book to write”, did not appear to specify when the incident occurred during the campaign, but that “I don’t know of a force more powerful than my family’s love — except addiction.”

His father, during a televised presidential debate last year, said of his son’s addiction: “He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son.”

Former US president Donald Trump frequently cited the younger Biden’s reported struggle with addiction — among other allegations — as part of his campaign.

It included the allegation that Mr Biden left a laptop with a repair shop in Delaware that allegedly revealed incriminating business dealings in Ukraine and China.

The 51-year-old told CBS that "there could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me," or that he had been targeted by “Russian intelligence”, among other theories.

Mr Biden remains under investigation by the FBI for issues relating to his tax filings which, according to the Associated Press, probes into his China dealings. The issue is also set to come up during the CBS interviews.

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