An emotional President Biden fought back tears as he talked about his son Hunter’s new memories – saying “My son is back”.
“The honesty with which he introduced himself and talked about the problem. And the hope that – it gave me hope by reading it, ”said Biden in an interview with CBS News that will air before Sunday’s Super Bowl game.
“My boy is back,” Biden told anchor Nora O’Donnell in a stretch released late Saturday when he was touched and choked back tears.
“I’m sorry to be so personal,” he said to O’Donnell.
Hunter has struggled with addiction throughout his life and has undergone treatment at several rehabilitation centers.
In 2014, he was released from the Navy Reserve after failing a drug test.
Biden said his son’s story reflects the struggles that many American families are going through.
“You know, I bet there is no family you know who doesn’t have someone in the family who has problems with drugs or alcohol,” said the president.
Hunter, whose book will be released in April, became the subject of intense scrutiny during his father’s presidential campaign, when the Post published a series of successful reports on its relations with Ukraine and China.
Hunter introduced his father, then vice president of the Obama administration, to a senior executive at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that employed Biden on his board, less than a year before older Biden pressured government officials to fire a prosecutor who it seemed to the company.
The revelations were found in emails on a laptop that Hunter left at a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Del.
Hunter’s business in China also generated headlines during the campaign, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week that he is still unraveling his investments with Bohai HarvestRST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co., known like BHR.
“He has been working to undo his investment, but I would certainly recommend you – he is a private citizen – I would recommend him or his outside lawyers in any update,” said Psaki during his daily briefing.
His continued participation in the company comes despite his father’s promise that Hunter or other family members would not be involved in businesses or ventures that could create conflicts with his management.
BHR is controlled and financed by the Chinese government, including the Bank of China.