Hunter Biden says Republicans are trying to “kill” him and that his critics are engaging in a public campaign to lure him back into substance abuse.
In a rare interview released on Friday – the day after he was charged with evading tax – the son of US President Joe Biden spoke about life in the spotlight.
“What they’re trying to do is, they’re trying to kill me knowing it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle,” Hunter Biden told the Moby Pod, which is hosted by the musician Moby.
“They are trying to, in their most illegitimate… but rational way, they’re trying to destroy a presidency.”
President Biden’s first wife Neilia and their infant daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash in 1972, a few weeks after he was elected as a senator.
His son Beau Biden, an army veteran and Delaware Attorney General, died from brain cancer in 2015.
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Hunter Biden insisted that he is going to “survive” the public campaign against him clean and sober.
“I am not gonna let [them] use me as just another example of why people in recovery are never gonna be okay, never to be trusted, they’re all degenerates – I’m just not gonna let that happen,” he said.
The interview was recorded before federal prosecutors charged Biden with nine tax-related charges on Thursday, Sky News’ US partner NBC reported.
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Also in the interview, Hunter Biden argued that his father has campaigned for president three times before but only now is he being vilified.
He declined to name Donald Trump directly but suggested his father’s predecessor gave people license to spew feelings of rage.
Hunter Biden also said that he wants to help people of all backgrounds gain access to and take advantage of rehab facilities.