Hunter Biden confirmed recent struggles with substance addiction during an interview with CBS News, which comes after Politico recently published an explosive piece documenting a gun scandal involving the president’s son.
Hunter Biden also confirmed in his new book that he had substance abuse issues at essentially the same time the gun scandal happened, which brings into question how he obtained the firearm since he had to fill out a background check that prohibits people with substance issues from possessing firearms.
“Biden described an emotional intervention his family staged at his father’s home in Wilmington during the 2020 presidential campaign,” CBS News reported. “After a tense confrontation, Biden stormed out of the house, only to be chased down the driveway by the future president.”
Hunter Biden had the following exchange with CBS News:
CBS NEWS: And your father chased you?
HUNTER BIDEN: Yeah, because I tried to get into the, I tried to go to my car and my girls literally locked the door to my car and said, ‘dad, dad, please, you can’t, no, no.’ This was the hardest part of the book to write. And he grabbed me, in a hug, and grabbed me. He gave me a bear hug. And he said, he just cried, he said, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. Please.”
CBS NEWS: What did you think when you heard that?
HUNTER BIDEN: I thought, I need to figure out a way to tell him that I’m going to do something, so that I can go take another hit. That’s the only thing I could think. Literally, that’s how powerful. I don’t know of a force more powerful than my family’s love, except addiction.
USA Today highlighted what Hunter Biden wrote in his new book “Beautiful Things,” including a portion where Hunter Biden wrote about his addiction battles during 2018:
In the spring of 2018, he used his “superpower – finding crack anytime, anywhere” – in Los Angeles. At one point, a dealer pointed a gun at his head before he realized Biden was looking for drugs.
He later learned how to cook drugs and spent a lot of time with thieves, addicts and con artists. “I never slept. There was no clock. Day bled into night and night into day,” he writes.
The situation grew out of control. “I was smoking crack every 15 minutes,” he writes.
Biden returned to the East Coast in the fall of 2018, again wanting to get better, though that didn’t happen.
Eventually, his family tried to stage an intervention. “I don’t know what else to do,” Joe Biden told him. “I’m so scared. Tell me what to do.” His son replied: “Not (expletive) this.”
The gun scandal involving Hunter Biden, who was kicked out of the Navy in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine, erupted in October 2018.
Politico reported last week that the gun incident happened when state and federal law enforcement officials responded to the incident in which Hallie Biden — the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau Biden — threw away a gun that Hunter Biden had purchased from a gun store.
“Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact,” Politico reported. “The gun store owner refused to supply the paperwork, suspecting that the Secret Service officers wanted to hide Hunter’s ownership of the missing gun in case it were to be involved in a crime, the two people said. The owner, Ron Palmieri, later turned over the papers to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which oversees federal gun laws.”
The report added:
POLITICO obtained copies of the Firearms Transaction Record and a receipt for the gun dated Oct. 12, 2018.
Hunter responded “no” to a question on the transaction record that asks, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Five years earlier, he had been discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine, and he and family members have spoken about his history of drug use.
Lying on an ATF Form 4473 is a felony that can carry a 10-year prison sentence with a $250,000 fine. The report comes as President Joe Biden has demanded that Congress enact tougher gun laws.
Following the Politico report, top senators have asked the directors of the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for details surrounding the incident and their alleged investigation into it, according to the Daily Caller.
WATCH:
Hunter Biden tells @CBSThisMorning’s @AnthonyMasonCBS about the emotional experience of his family staging an intervention for his substance abuse: “I don’t know of a force more powerful than my family’s love — except addiction.” https://t.co/Iz24QzKDii pic.twitter.com/i0OX6E4bF6
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 2, 2021
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