My father saved me': son of US President Hunter Biden talks about his drug problems
Hunter Biden spoke to the BBC days after his memoir, "Beautiful Things", was published
"My father never abandoned me. He saved me many times."
This is how Hunter Biden talks in an interview with the BBC about how he always had the support of his father, now US President Joe Biden, during some of the worst moments of his addiction to alcohol and drugs.
Hunter Biden, 51, also addressed the criticisms he and his father faced for their work at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Hunter was director of the Burisma board of directors when Joe Biden was still vice president of the United States and the leading man of the Barack Obama administration in relations with Ukraine.
These deals made him a frequent target of Republican criticism during the 2020 election campaign and were at the center of former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
The impeachment investigation centered on a conversation that Trump had with the President of Ukraine, in which the American seemed to pressure him to open an investigation into the Bidens.
The call came shortly after Trump blocked sending military aid to Ukraine.
Although he defended his qualifications for the position at Burisma, Hunter acknowledges that "he had not realized (...) the perception that this situation would create" in other people.
"I know it's hard to believe, in retrospect, how I could have ignored that," Biden told the BBC.
He added that for Burisma the surname Biden "was gold" and this played an important role in his appointment to the council.
Hunter Biden acknowledges that his father's name "opened doors for him"
Although no criminal activity by the Bidens has been proven, a senior US State Department official expressed concern as early as 2015 about a potential conflict of interest.
An investigation by Republican lawmakers last year concluded that Hunter Biden's work for the Ukrainian company was "problematic".
But he concluded that there was no evidence that the country's foreign policy was influenced by him.
The report also argued that Biden's relatives "profited from Joe Biden's vice presidency".
The document was criticized by Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, one of Trump's top critics in Congress, who described the report as a mere "political exercise".
Biden acknowledged that his father's name had "opened doors that would not be opened to other people".
"My father saved me many times"
He says it was "a privilege and a burden".
In his comments to the BBC, which preceded the release of his new memoirs, Beautiful Things , Biden said he wanted to write about how "the love of a family" saved him.
"And, you know, we are going through two pandemics now (...) there is the coronavirus pandemic and there is also a dependency pandemic," he said.
' A really dark place '
Biden's mother and sister died in a car accident in 1972, in which Hunter and his brother Beau survived.
In the interview, he talked about the connection between the trauma he suffered and his addiction to drugs and alcohol.
"At the center of each addict something is missing, which they think they need to fill. You can't fill it with anything. And then you get numb," he said.
He said that after his brother Beau died of cancer in 2015, "he succumbed to a really dark place".
"My brother had just died, I had separated from my wife, I was in an apartment alone and basically drank to die. It was horrible. I mean, pain does strange things. And if you combine that with addiction, it's something really hard to overcome, "he said.
Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force 2 with his granddaughter and son, Hunter Biden
He added that while his fight against addiction made him the target of tabloids and political attacks, it was also something that people across the country could relate to.
"I think what people see in the Biden family is their own family. I think they see all the tragedy in the loss, but they see all the love and sincerity," he said.
"And I think they see that we are not very different from other families," he added.
' A story of hope '
After anticipating that Trump would raise the issue of his addiction in the first election debate, Hunter Biden said that both he and his father "intuitively knew what to say".
"I said, 'Dad, you know, this is our story. And it's a love story. It's a story of hope. It's a story that so many people are going through now. Just talk to them. I know yours. honesty and my honesty about our situation is what I think will resonate with the American people. "
"It was not a political calculation, it was something that came from the heart."
Looking ahead, Biden notes that addiction "never goes away", but that many addicts "have done amazingly brilliant, great and surprising things."
"It is time to start seeing addiction as a mental health problem, rather than an ethical or moral problem," he said.
Asked about the possibility of his father running for re-election at the age of 82, he said: "My father is younger than me in physical and mental capacity. I don't know anyone who has more energy."
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