From President Biden son Hunter is grappling with decisions that put him at the forefront and center of the 2020 presidential campaign in his new memoir, “Beautiful things.”
The book is a revealing look at his long battle with addiction and how he handled personal tragedies.
He spoke with “CBS This Morning” co-host Anthony Mason about whether his business has crossed the line – including working for a Ukrainian company that became a major problem in President Trump’s first impeachment, and whether he regrets of putting your father’s political future at risk.
“The question of whether I would do it again, though, is no,” he said.
In the memoirs, Biden defends his decision to serve on the board of directors. Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father oversaw US policy in the region as vice president.
“You grew up in politics. Don’t you think you can be targeting yourself?” Mason asked.
Biden said he did not “fully understand the level that this old government and the people around him would reach”.
“The difference between the policy you’re talking about in terms of the last, you know, four years … is a very different game,” he said. “And I don’t want – I never want to hand over a weapon to people who would use it illegitimately – that they use my weapon against my father.”
Towards the end of the 2020 campaign, another problem arose. President Trump allies and supporters in the media promoted possibly incriminating documents found on a laptop that may have belonged to Hunter Biden.
The laptop was delivered to the FBI by the owner of a computer store in Delaware.
Biden only references the laptop in your book once.
Mason asked if the laptop was really his.
“You don’t need a laptop. You have a book. The book – it’s all in the book. And I don’t know,” he replied with a laugh.
Biden continued, “the serious answer is that I don’t really know the answer to that.”
He said he did not remember leaving a laptop at a workshop in Delaware.
“But whether or not someone has my laptop, whether or not it was – I got hacked, whether or not there is a laptop, I really don’t know,” he said.
Although he said he did not know if he was losing a laptop, Biden noted that “read the book and you will realize that I have not been controlling my possessions very well for about four years”.
In late 2020, Biden acknowledged an ongoing investigation by federal authorities for potential violations of tax law. When asked if his legal team was working on some kind of court settlement, Biden said he was not.
He told Anthony Mason that he was committed to being “fully cooperative” with the relevant authorities, should they need anything from him.
Asked whether President Biden ever benefited financially from his son’s business or received money from him, Hunter Biden said confidently “no”.
“Nothing, never,” he said. “Not a nickel … directly or indirectly, not a nickel, ever.”
In 2018, near the height of his battle with addiction, Biden lost a weapon, initiating a police investigation.
New details emerged in March that the Secret Service may have been improperly involved.
“It is a concern that I get hurt or do something,” said Biden.
Mason asked, “Hallie, your brother’s widow, threw the gun away. Was she trying to protect you?”
Biden thought so.
“I think she was just worried about me,” he said, adding that he was going through a difficult period in his life at the time.
He said that Hallie’s intention was “to make sure I didn’t do anything to hurt myself”.
The Secret Service would have sought the sale record at any given time.
Biden said he had no idea of that and didn’t know it at the time.
However, he acknowledged that the authorities were informed of the loss of a weapon.
“They had, at the time, you know, we knew the gun was lost. That Hallie had thrown it in a trash can. And I said to her, ‘You can’t do this’ when I realized it was gone,” he said. “And then she came back and they – the police came to help retrieve the weapon, which was recovered. Someone had searched the trash and collected it and they found it, within hours I believe. And so it was the end of the story.”
Mason asked again if he knew about the Secret Service’s involvement.
“I had no idea. I don’t know if Secret Service was or what – why would it be? I don’t think that’s true. As far as I know,” said Biden.
The Secret Service told CBS News that there is no record of its agents being involved in the incident, and President Joe Biden was not under protection at the time.
“Beautiful Things” will be released on Tuesday, April 6, by Gallery Books, a brand of Simon & Schuster, a division of ViacomCBS.
See more of the “CBS This Morning” interview with Hunter Biden: