by Chris White
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday night that his son is an honorable man who will overcome his mental health problems.
“He’s the most honorable, decent person I know,” Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo about Hunter Biden and his reported mental problems. “Everybody has to deal with these issues in a way that is consistent with who they are and what they are. This guy is the most generous, honorable man that I know.”
“Beau was my soul. Hunter is my heart,” he said, referring to his other son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Joe Biden is among several Democrats running for president in 2020.
Biden then began discussing his desire to put more money into researching mental health disorders.
“We have to put more money into mental health whether it’s for our education system, whether it’s for our veterans, whoever it’s for, we have to — we have to start to look at it, talk about it and put more money into it.”
Media reports suggested Hunter’s checkered private life would become a headache for Biden as the former senator considered a presidential bid.
Biden’s other son, Beau, died of brain cancer in May 2015. Hunter became involved shortly thereafter with his older brother’s widow, Hallie. Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, later said in divorce papers that her husband wasted money on prostitutes, strip clubs and drugs, among other vices.
Hunter revealed in a July 1 New Yorker article his struggle with addiction.
“Look, everybody faces pain,” he said. “Everybody has trauma. There’s addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel — it’s a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it.”
Hunter’s reported indiscretions were exposed in 2017 when Kathleen filed a motion in D.C. Superior Court asking to freeze Biden’s assets.
She said he “created financial concerns for the family by spending extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”
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Chris White is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Joe Biden” by CNN.
