President Joe Biden broke his silence Tuesday on the possibility that his son Hunter will be hit with a Department of Justice indictment for lying on a gun-purchase background check form.
While purchasing a gun in 2018, Hunter denied on the background check form that he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?” Hunter acknowledged in his recently published memoir that he was using massive quantities of crack cocaine at the time he purchased the gun, and a plethora of videos and pictures circulating online confirm that account.
Despite Hunter’s past missteps, Biden insisted that he was “proud” of his son during a sit down with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“I’m proud of my son,” Biden told Tapper. “This is a kid who got, not a kid — he’s a grown man. He got hooked on — like many families have had happen, hooked on drugs. He’s overcome that. He’s established a new life.”
Federal investigators now reportedly believe they’ve gathered enough evidence to indict the younger Biden on federal gun and tax charges. David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware must now decide whether to press charges.
Asked specifically about those looming charges, Biden insisted that his son has been open about his struggles but didn’t address the merits of the potential charges.
“He is — I’m confident that he is — what he says and does are consistent with what happens. And for example, he wrote a book about his problems and was straightforward about it. I’m proud of him,” Biden said.
“He came along and said, by the way, this thing about a gun — I didn’t know anything about it,” Biden continued. “But turns out that when he made [an] application to purchase a gun, what happened was he say – I guess you get asked, I don’t guess, you get asked a question, are you on drugs or do you use drugs? He said no. And he wrote about saying no in his book.”
In addition to lying on the background-check form when purchasing his handgun, publicly available videos that were allegedly hacked from Hunter’s computer show him brandishing the weapon while high on crack cocaine, which is also a felony. Additionally, Hunter’s gun was illegally disposed of when his brother’s widow Hallie threw it in a public trash can after becoming scared of what he might do with it while intoxicated. Several Secret Service agents reportedly collected the gun, Politico reported.
The revelations have put President Biden in a tough spot ahead of the crucial midterm elections approach, especially considering his aggressive posture on gun-control and his role in crafting legislation — the 1994 crime bill — which added harsh minimum sentences for individuals who simultaneously violated drug and gun laws.