Hunter Biden said he exercised poor judgement in his business deals with Ukraine and China but emphasized he did nothing wrong in the scandals that have engulfed his father’s presidential bid and made the family a political target for President Donald Trump.
‘In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part. Is that I think that it was poor judgment because I don’t believe now, when I look back on it – I know that there was – did nothing wrong at all,’ he told ABC News in an interview that aired Tuesday morning on ‘Good Morning America.’ ‘However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is…a swamp in—in—in many ways? Yeah.’
‘I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake,’ he noted. ‘So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.’
‘Did I make a mistake? Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah,’ he said, in reference to fallout from his overseas business. ‘But did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not.’
Hunter Biden, in his first public appearance since the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, defended his professional work overseas, discussed his past personal problems with addiction, and got in some shots at the president and Trump family.
He also admitted he benefited in his business dealings from his last name.
‘I don’t think that there’s a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn’t Biden,’ Hunter said.
Hunter Biden, unlike his late brother Beau who was attorney general of Delaware, showed in politics and campaigning.
He told ABC News he was not a distraction to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and argued that his father’s public service did not mean politics is a Biden family business.
‘No, personally myself I’m not necessarily a distraction to his campaign. I’m never a distraction to my dad. But as it relates to actually going and being on stage with him, this is not a family business. Everybody kind of thinks that somehow whether it’s a compliment that we’re like the Kennedys or whether it’s a backhanded compliment like you’re the Trumps,’ he said.
‘My dad has a job but that does not mean that I had any plans to go do rallies and, you know, talk about Donald Trump’s kids and I never will. You know, that’s not what Bidens do. My dad doesn’t go after other people’s kids. He just doesn’t. Never has,’ he added.
Hunter Biden said he exercised poor judgement but did nothing wrong in his business dealings
He defended his work and criticized President Trump in the ABC News interview
Hunter Biden’s tenure on the board of an Ukraine gas company and his work with a Chinese investment business have become a political firestorm in the 2020 presidential race.
Trump has used Hunter’s work to accuse Joe Biden of political corruption and argue both Bidens benefitted financially from the arrangements – all of which the Bidens denied.
Hunter Biden told ABC News he never spoke with his father about his business dealings with Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian company he worked with while his father was vice president. During that time Joe Biden urged the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor, which Trump and his allies have charged was done to benefit Burisma. The Bidens have denied this and there has been no evidence of wrong-doing on the former vice president’s part.
‘There is no but to this, no, we never did,’ Hunter Biden said of his conversations with his father.
Asked why they never discussed his business dealings, Hunter replied: ‘Because my dad was the vice president of the United States. There’s nothing as a young man or full grown adult that my father in some way hasn’t had influence over as it does not serve either one of us.’
He said he did not regret his work with Burisma, where he stepped down from the board in April.
‘I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, and not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever. I joined a board, I served honorably. I focused on corporate governance. I didn’t have any discussions with my father before or after I joined the board as it related to it, other than that brief exchange that we had,’ he said.
‘There’s been a lot of misinformation about me, not about my dad,’ he said of his work in the Ukraine.
But he criticized the president and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for pushing the unproven theory the Bidens acted improperly and benefited financially.
‘No, what I regret is not taking into account that there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the United States that would be listening to this ridiculous conspiracy idea which has, again, been completely debunked by everyone,’ he said.
‘They feel like they have the license to go out and say whatever they want,’ Hunter Biden said of them. ‘It’s insane to even — it feels to me like living in some kind of, you know, ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ where you’re up on the real world and then you fall down the rabbit hole, and, you know, the president’s the Cheshire Cat asking you questions about crazy things that don’t bear any resemblance to the reality of anything that has to do with me.’
‘I’m a human. You know what, did I make a mistake, well maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah, but did I make a mistake based upon some unethical lapse, absolutely not,’ he emphasized.
He said he was ‘shocked’ when he read the transcript of President Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, where Trump asked him to investigate the Bidens. The call led to a formal impeachment inquiry against the president.
Hunter Biden said he and his father talked after the transcript came out but told ABC News he had no interest in being a political football for either party.
‘I’ll let Congress handle that,’ he said. ‘And I’ll let you guys in the media handle that. And I’ll let my dad’s campaign handle that. And the only thing that I’m looking to handle is to make certain that I get up every day and do the next right thing. And that really is the way that I’ve been trying to live my life.’
He also said he never spoke to his father about his work with China. Hunter sat on the board of BHR, a Chinese equity firm, that was trying to raise a $1.5 billion financial stake – a number the president has latched on to to accuse Hunter Biden of personal financial gain.
Hunter Biden said he didn’t make any money from that work.
‘No. Definitely not 1.5 billion,’ he said.
But he would not say how much money he has made.
‘Look, I’m a private citizen,’ he said. ‘One thing that I don’t have to do is sit here and open my kimono as it relates to how much money I make or make or did or didn’t. But it’s all been reported.’
Hunter Biden accompanied his father, who was then vice president, and his daughter on a 2013 trip to China but said the two men never discussed his work with BHR.
Hunter Biden accompanied his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and daughter Finnegan Biden on a 2013 trip to China
Hunter Biden told ABC News he was not wrong to meet with Chinese businessmen during that trip – he, his father and his daughter are seen above shopping in Beijing in 2013
And he defended meeting with the Chinese businessmen during that 2013 trip.
‘Whether I’m in New York, or whether I’m in Washington, D.C., or whether I’m on the campaign trail in Nevada, or whether I am in Iowa with him — [and] a friend and a business associate is in the hotel, and my dad’s staying there — is it inappropriate for me to have coffee with him,’ he said.
He said that meeting was ‘100 per cent’ not a mistake.
He also pointed to his recent pledge not to serve on boards of foreign companies if his father is president.
‘I made a mistake in retrospect as it related to creating any perception that it was wrong and so, therefore, I’m taking it off the table,’ he said.
Hunter Biden also responded to Trump’s taunt of ‘where’s Hunter?’
‘I’m here. I’m here and I’m working and I’m living my life,’ he said from his Los Angeles home. ‘Hiding in plain sight, I guess.’
He also said he’s not affected by the president’s taunts of him and it’s not something he thinks about.
‘No, it really isn’t. I know where I stand with my dad and my family. Being the subject of Donald Trump’s ire is a feather in my cap. It’s not something that I go to bed nervous about at night at all,’ he said.
‘The reason I’m able to do that is because I am absolutely enveloped in love of my family. I certainly hope there is no negative political ramifications of this. I think the truth always win,’ he added.
He called the Trump family ‘unethical’ in their own business dealings.
‘Unlike them I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them. I really don’t. It’s all noise and what they do is they create just an enormous amount of noise. I have to then answer questions about accusations made by probably the most unethical group of people that we’ve ever seen in this republic.’
He also addressed the difficulties in his life, including his struggle with drug and alcohol addiction and the death of his brother Beau from brain cancer in 2015.
‘My dad doesn’t have to defend me. My dad only has to love me and he loves me unequivocally. Look, I know that after being able to get up after Beau died say whatever the hell.’
And he shrugged off Eric Trump leading a ‘lock him up’ chant against him at President Trump’s campaign rally in Minneapolis last week.
‘I mean, who cares. Look, like I have said, I’ve been through some stuff in my life. I’ve been through some real, real stuff. This isn’t real stuff. It isn’t. It truly isn’t. That part of it, that Barnum and Bailey, you know, say anything, do anything you want, you know, I mean like, you know, Donald prince humperdinck Jr.,’ he said.
‘Like every single person that I’ve ever known, I have fallen and I’ve gotten up. I’ve done esteemable things and things that are – have been in my life that I regret. every single one of those things has brought me exactly to where I am right now, which is probably the best place I’ve ever been in my life. I’ve gone through my own struggles,’ he added.
He said he wasn’t worried the pressure from the campaign politics would cause him to use again.
‘You don’t want to live in the worry of it because then you’re feeding the beast. I have no answer other than this, you got to live in the connections that you to healthy things and I have so many of them and I got to live there instead of living in fear like, oh, my god, the stress is going to make me drink or the stress is going to make me use,’ Hunter said.
Hunter Biden got emotional when talking about the Trumps’ attacks on him but said he had nothing to say to the president in return.
‘No, no. I mean really no. It’s really hard for me to say anything snarky right now or combative because I was raised to respect that office. I don’t know — it’s making me emotional.’
‘Why do you think you’re getting emotional?,’ ABC’s Amy Robach asked him.
‘Because I’m really proud of being an American. But I have to admit I take no pleasure in this watching this death spiral of this administration, this president and the people that surround him,’ he said.
‘I hope that the history isn’t fully written yet. I hope that a lot of people that have a chance of redemption stand up for what is right,’ he added.
He likened the president to a bully, and said, ‘I don’t feed bullies.’
And he added he takes ‘no pleasure in this as watching this death spiral of this administration – this president and the people that surround him.’
Biden, the youngest son of former Vice President Joe Biden, spoke with ABC’s Amy Robach over the weekend at his home in Los Angeles, in an interview that aired Tuesday on ‘Good Morning America.’
President Trump weighed in on the matter, suggesting the former vice president’s son would get an easy interview.
‘Watch the Fake News wrap their greasy and very protective arms around him. Only softball questions of him please!,’ the president tweeted Monday.
Tuesday’s sit down marked Hunter Biden’s first time speaking in public since impeachment proceedings began against President Trump for soliciting Ukraine’s help in investigating the Bidens for work Hunter did for a Ukrainian gas company.
Hunter Biden appeared on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ Tuesday
The interview covered a number of topics, including Hunter’s work in the Ukraine and China that has become a campaign controversy
The younger Biden son has been in the president’s cross hairs as the impeachment investigation bares down and the campaign season heats up.
‘Where’s Hunter? He has totally disappeared! Now looks like he has raided and scammed even more countries! Media is AWOL,’ Trump tweeted on Sunday.
It was Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – where he asked Zelensky to investigate work Hunter did with a Ukrainian gas company and what role Joe Biden played in getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired – that led to the impeachment inquiry being launched.
The president has targeted Hunter Biden as part of his defensive strategy.
At a rally in Minneapolis on Thursday, Trump asked ‘Where’s Hunter?’ as he accused the Biden’s of profiting off Hunter’s work in China and he mocked the intelligence and business capabilities of Hunter Biden.
‘Joe’s son Hunter got thrown out of the Navy and became a genius on Wall Street in two days. Whatever happened to Hunter, where the h*** is he? Where is Hunter? Fellows, I have an idea for a new t-shirt? I love the cops, but let’s do another t-shirt. Where is Hunter? Where is he?,’ Trump said.
Trump has attacked Hunter Biden on Twitter and at campaign rallies
It was Hunter Biden’s first time speaking in public since impeachment proceedings began against Donald Trump
Hunter Biden has stayed out of the spotlight but the former vice president has said his son will join him on the campaign trail, although he did not give a date.
Hunter has not been seen in public in months but spoke to the New Yorker magazine at length in July about his work in the Ukraine and China, his struggle with addiction, and his new marriage.
Trump has mocked Hunter’s lack of visibility both in his campaign rallies and on Twitter. His campaign is selling ‘Where’s Hunter?’ t-shirts for $25 each.
The president has slammed Hunter for his work in the Ukraine and also has pushed the unproven theory Hunter Biden made $1.5 billion in a deal with China.
He claims the Bidens made millions off of ‘crooked’ deals with the Ukraine and China.
‘The Biden family got rich, and that’s all substantiated. While America got robbed, that is what happened,’ Trump said at his Minneapolis rally.
‘Hunter, you are a loser, what you have $1.5 billion?,’ Trump mocked at his rally last week.
The $1.5 billion appears to refer to the amount BHR, a Chinese equity firm where Hunter sat on the board, was trying to raise. The company was trying to raise the money – not for Hunter Biden’s personal use although he owned a 10 per cent stake in the company. Trump has asked China to investigate the matter.
Hunter Biden announced he will resign at the end of the month from the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, which is backed by several Chinese state-owned companies, in a statement released Sunday.
Hunter has denied playing a role in forming the Chinese company or having equity in it while his father was in office and insists the board position was unpaid.
Hunter Biden, 39, announced he will resign from the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company at the end of the month following President Donald Trump’s accusations of corruption with the state-backed firm in 2013. Hunter pictured with father Joe Biden in 2016
Trump claims that Hunter has ‘disappeared’ since controversy over his foreign business dealings have come to the forefront
A black t-shirt with a white ‘where’s Hunter’ logo is for sale for $25 on the Trump / Pence campaign website
The lawyer and lobbyist vowed to avoid any conflict of interest and claims he will forego all foreign work if his father is elected president in 2020, stressing that he never discussed any of his business activities with his father.
‘Hunter always understood that his father would be guided, entirely and unequivocally, by established U.S. policy, regardless of its effects on Hunter’s professional interest,’ a statement released by Hunter’s lawyer George Mesires said.
‘He never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the President of the United States.’
And Joe Biden said in Iowa over the weekend that no one in his family will have a role in his White House or do foreign business while he is president.
‘No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they’re a Cabinet member, will in fact have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country. Period. Period. End of story,’ Biden said in a comment that was seen as a dig at Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly claimed that Hunter Biden made millions of dollars from China while Joe Biden was vice president.
BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company was set up in 2013 to invest Chinese capital outside of China.
Hunter acknowledged in the past meeting with Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker who is a partner in that fund, during the 2013 trip, but insisted it was a social visit and that no business was discussed.
Trump has accused Hunter of corruption in China saying he procured $1.5billion from China for a private equity fund after he flew to Beijing on Air Force Two with his father in December 2013
Trump’s claim that Hunter made $1.5 billion in China appears to be based on a fundraising target BHR announced in 2014.
Hunter’s lawyer says that BHR never raised a discreet pool of money and raised money deal by deal and the firm now manages about $2.1 billion in investments.
He adds that Biden bought 10 percent of the management company for $420,000 only after his father’s term ended in 2017. His lawyer claims Biden hasn’t made money from the venture to date.
It’s not clear if retains his equity stake or if he’ll sell that stake if his father wins office.
Trump’s administration has also alleged that Biden used his position as the U.S. administration’s point person on Ukraine to help quash an investigation in 2016 into Burisma – one of Ukraine’s largest private gas companies where Hunter sat on the board.
Hunter Biden stepped down from the board of Burisma earlier this year.
The explosive accusations against Biden came in a whistleblower complaint in September that accused the White House of trying to cover up a call with Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy. In that phone call, on July 25, Trump advised Zelenskyy to look into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s deals in Ukraine.
Hunter then came under scrutiny for his work with Burisma, which he joined in April 2014 and served a five-year term before resigning earlier this year.
Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani claim that Vice President Biden threatened to withhold billions of dollars in loan guarantees in 2016 unless Ukraine fired the country’s top prosecutor Viktor Shokin – who was leading a probe into Burisma.
Despite Trump’s claims that Biden misused his power in order to protect his son and Burisma Holdings – but there is no evidence to corroborate those claims.
Biden has denied any wrongdoing in Ukraine.
US and Ukrainian officials also said that the investigation into the company was dormant at that time and Shokin was actually fired for the opposite reason, cut for failing to fight corruption.
‘Despite extensive scrutiny, at no time has any law enforcement agency, either domestic or foreign, alleged that Hunter engaged in wrongdoing at any point during his five-year term,’ Hunter’s statement said.
Earlier this month Trump also called on China to investigate Biden, but the country’s foreign ministry said they would not.
‘Under a Biden Administration, Hunter will readily comply with any and all guidelines or standards a President Biden may issue to address purported conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflicts, including any restrictions related to overseas business interests. He will continue to keep his father personally uninvolved in his business affairs,’ Hunter’s statement added.