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Hunter Biden Denies Any ‘Ethical Lapse’ in His Ukraine and China Work Hunter Biden Admits to ‘Poor Judgment’ but Denies ‘Ethical Lapse’ in Work Overseas
(about 3 hours later)
WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son, acknowledged in an interview to be broadcast on Tuesday that he probably would not have been named to the board of a foreign company if his last name weren’t Biden, but he rejected suggestions by President Trump that he and his father had engaged in wrongdoing. WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son, said in an interview released on Tuesday that he probably would not have been named to the board of a foreign company if his last name weren’t Biden and acknowledged “poor judgment,” but he rejected suggestions by President Trump that he and his father had engaged in wrongdoing.
“Did I make a mistake? Maybe in the grand scheme of things,” Mr. Biden said in an interview with ABC News, which published excerpts from it on Tuesday morning. “But did I make a mistake based on some ethical lapse? Absolutely not.” “Did I make a mistake? Well maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah,” Mr. Biden said in an interview with ABC News. “But did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not.”
“I don’t think there’s a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn’t Biden,” Mr. Biden told Amy Robach of ABC. “I don’t think that there’s a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn’t Biden,” he said.
Mr. Trump has seized on the younger Mr. Biden’s work in Ukraine and China to launch a series of attacks against the former vice president, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, over the past month. There is no evidence for the president’s claims that Mr. Biden, while in office, improperly intervened to aid his son, but that has not stopped him and other Republicans from raising questions about possible conflicts of interest. The interview comes two days after Hunter Biden pledged that he would not work for foreign-owned companies if his father became president, and just hours before the CNN/New York Times Democratic debate held here in central Ohio, an appearance that is critical to his father’s presidential hopes.
The younger Mr. Biden, who recently resigned from the board of a Chinese investment company, said his service there had become a “distraction, because I have to sit here and answer these questions. That’s why I have committed that I won’t serve on any board or work on any foreign entities when Dad becomes president. That’s the rule I’m going to adhere to.” Hunter Biden’s sudden public comments signal the level of concern among Biden allies that the overseas dealings of the younger Mr. Biden had become a potentially damaging liability to his father’s campaign, and are the latest in a flurry of actions pro-Biden forces have taken to mitigate the issue this week ahead of the debate.
Mr. Biden, 49, said he had exercised “poor judgment” by getting involved in a situation that he compared to a “swamp.” But he blamed his father’s opponents, including Mr. Trump, for spreading a “ridiculous conspiracy idea” involving his work. Mr. Trump has seized on the younger Mr. Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China to initiate a series of unfounded attacks against the former vice president, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, over the past month. Mr. Trump also asked the government of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, helping to trigger an impeachment inquiry that Mr. Trump now faces in the House.
There is no evidence that the elder Mr. Biden, while serving as vice president, improperly intervened to aid his son, but that has not stopped Mr. Trump and other Republicans from raising questions about possible conflicts of interest even as Mr. Biden has fiercely defended his son’s integrity, and his own, over the last week.
Hunter Biden, who recently said he would resign from the board of a Chinese investment company, acknowledged his work abroad has become a “distraction, because I have to sit here and answer these questions. And so that’s why I have committed that I won’t serve on any boards or I won’t work directly for any foreign entities when my dad becomes president.”
Mr. Biden, 49, said he had exercised “poor judgment” by getting involved in a situation that he compared to a “swamp.” But he blamed his father’s opponents, including Mr. Trump, for spreading a “ridiculous conspiracy idea” involving his work, and repeatedly insisted that he did not discuss his business decisions with his father.
“I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father,” he said. “That’s where I made the mistake. So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.”“I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father,” he said. “That’s where I made the mistake. So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.”
Many Democratic strategists and officials have warned that the issue threatens to become a distraction for the former vice president. Hunter Biden’s interview will be aired just hours before his father is to appear at the fourth presidential primary debate on Tuesday night. There, Mr. Biden will stand at the center of the stage, along with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who recently surpassed Mr. Biden in several polls. Many Democratic strategists and officials have warned that the scrutiny on the Biden family has become a significant distraction for the former vice president, and poses perhaps the greatest threat yet to a candidacy that until recent weeks was well ahead in the polls. That makes it all the more urgent for Mr. Biden to land the kind of consistently fluent, forceful debate performance that has so far eluded him at a moment when Senator Elizabeth Warren has now surpassed him in some polls, Democratic operatives and activists said.
The scrutiny on Mr. Biden and his family over the past month has injected a degree of risk and uncertainty into his campaign, making it all the more urgent for him to land the kind of consistently fluent, forceful debate performance that has so far eluded him, Democratic operatives and activists said. “I’m never a distraction to my dad, but as it relates to actually going and being onstage with him — this is not a family business,” Hunter Biden said Tuesday in the ABC interview, which aired on “Good Morning America’’ and was also excerpted online by the network. “Everybody kind of thinks that somehow, whether it’s a compliment that we’re like the Kennedys or whether it’s a, you know, backhanded compliment like you’re the Trumps, my dad has a, a job, but that does not mean that I have had any plans to go do rallies and, you know and, you know, talk about Donald Trump’s kids and I never will, you know, that’s not what Bidens do.”
A lawyer for Hunter Biden said Sunday in a statement that he planned to leave the board of the Chinese private equity company by the end of October, and that if the elder Mr. Biden were elected president, Hunter Biden would “agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign-owned companies.” At a news conference on Sunday, however, his father did appear to take some oblique swipes at the ethical practices of members of the Trump family, some of whom who have conducted their own overseas business dealings. And Hunter Biden seemed to be dismissive of Donald Trump Jr., who along with his father and brother have been highly critical of the Bidens.
Mr. Biden had previously served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, including during a time when his father was running American policy in that country, but he stepped down when the elder Mr. Biden announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. “Donald Prince Humperdinck, um, Trump, Jr., is not somebody I really care about,” he said, an apparent reference to a character in the movie “The Princess Bride.”
While Mr. Biden said he learned of the statement from his son’s lawyers, the move appeared to be the first acknowledgment that Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings posed a threat to his father’s campaign. In the interview, Hunter Biden signaled that by backing away from foreign dealings, he hoped to eliminate the controversy as a campaign issue for his father.
For his part, the elder Mr. Biden on Sunday forcefully defended his son’s integrity and vehemently denied that there were conflicts of interest at play. “I’m taking it off the table,” he said. “I’m making that commitment. Let’s see if anybody else makes that commitment. But that’s the commitment that I’m making.”
Instead, he took several barely veiled swipes at members of the Trump family, promising: “No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they’re a cabinet member, will in fact have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country.” A lawyer for Hunter Biden said Sunday in a statement that he planned to leave the board of the Chinese private equity company by the end of October, and that if the elder Mr. Biden were elected president, Hunter Biden would “agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign-owned companies.” Hunter Biden had previously served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, including during a time when his father was running American policy in that country, but he stepped down in April, the same month that the elder Mr. Biden announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
On Monday morning, Mr. Biden’s campaign released a plan centered on promoting ethics in government. His campaign and his allies have said that Mr. Biden would both push back forcefully against Mr. Trump and continue to discuss policy matters, like health care, on the debate stage and on the campaign trail. While the elder Mr. Biden said he learned of the Sunday statement from his son’s lawyers, his campaign is taking steps to address the potential damage from Mr. Trump’s unfounded claims of corruption by the Bidens. On Monday morning, Mr. Biden’s campaign released a plan centered on promoting ethics in government. His campaign and his allies have said that Mr. Biden would both push back forcefully against Mr. Trump and continue to discuss policy matters, like health care, on the debate stage and on the campaign trail.
The Biden family has faced significant tragedy over the decades: Mr. Biden’s first wife and a baby daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972 that injured Hunter Biden and his brother, Beau. In 2015, Beau Biden died from brain cancer, influencing his father’s decision not to seek the presidency that year. Hunter Biden has also struggled with addiction.
Asked if he was concerned that the “noise” associated with Mr. Trump’s attacks could affect his sobriety, he replied, “of course.”
“Look, you don’t want to live in the worry of it,” he added. “Because then you’re feeding the beast. I have no answer other than this: You’ve got to live in the connections that you have to healthy things. And I have so many of them. And I’ve got to live there instead of living in fear like, ‘Oh my God, the stress is going to make me drink, or the stress is going to make me use.’”
He also grew emotional when discussing the presidency.
“I take no pleasure in this, watching, watching, this, this death spiral of this, this administration, this president, and the people that surround him,” he said. “I hope that, that the history isn’t fully written yet.”
Katie Glueck reported from Westerville, Ohio, and Stephanie Saul from New York.Katie Glueck reported from Westerville, Ohio, and Stephanie Saul from New York.