Hunter Biden, the troubled son of former President Joe Biden, appeared in a tell-all interview on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast.
Biden, wearing a poncho Western shirt, spoke on a range of characters in the political world, from Candace Owens to Donald Trump Jr.
Biden also notably defended Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic nominee for US Senate, who is under fire for allegations of toxic, dishonest relationships with women and having a Nazi tattoo.
Discovery of Platner’s history has rocked the Democratic world, with people split on whether to continue supporting him. He told Newsom that few Americans would survive the “show me your phone” test and be elected to office.
“He was a veteran, a combat veteran, and he came back. He had some real issues, and with PTSD, and, and that trauma, and whatever way that he was working it out, I think he had been really open about,” Biden said.
The former first son referred to his own struggles with drug addiction as a comparison.
“It takes a lot of stamina, at least … I think courage to … get back up and, and build a better life,” Biden said.
Most people would have a lot of ugly things on their phones if one were to examine everything on them, he said. Biden said he was 99% sure Platner is not a Nazi.
“If that’s the standard by which we are going to judge people, particularly people in elected office, then I don’t think we’re going to have many people in elected office,” Biden told Newsom.
In the podcast appearance, he also joked with the governor about a presidential run, telling Newsom: “Here’s the deal. I’ll run, but only as your VP.”
Biden said the reason why he’s going all out on publicity is that he’s done with others telling his story while he remained silent. He marked his seventh year of sobriety with a social media blitz as he attempts to rebuild his shattered reputation after starting to post in May.
“I watched that interview that you did with Charlie Kirk, and he had a line when you guys were talking about how progressives, how Democrats are afraid to go into the lion’s den,” he said. “I thought, ‘S–t, I’m not.’”
He opened up about the scandals that have plagued him in the past and was particularly incensed about a plea deal that was ripped up, blaming “political pressure” from conservative outlets and the “MAGAsphere.”
The plea deal was for tax and gun charges. Biden was found guilty in 2024 of lying about his drug use on a gun purchase form. That crime, along with allegations of evading $1.4 million in taxes, was eventually pardoned by his father in one of his final acts as president.
“They bring in these two prosecutors from Baltimore that have never been a part of the case, and after, and there were four amicus briefs sent into the court, not before any decision was made that said, like from the Heritage Foundation, and everybody that you know, a list of 4,000 crimes I had committed,” Biden recounted of how the plea deal collapsed.
“Fox News and the Murdoch empire, and, and everybody in the MAGAsphere, like went full force for 46 days,” he said.
“It was just 24/7 that just created the pressure on the Justice Department to reconsider,” Biden said. Newsom noted the department was under his father that time. “It was just political pressure, pure, pure, pure, pure political pressure.”
He said that incident helped convince him that the pardon was the right move if Trump became president.
“It would have been like having a gun to my family for the next four years at least, and so that’s why he pardoned me,” he said. “It’s a really incredibly rational decision, and it was a really difficult decision, and you know how proud of my dad I am. The fact of the matter is, he chose me over his legacy, because no matter what you say, that’s going to be one of the first things that is written about.”
Biden also shared his perspective on his laptop scandal, where damning materials tied to the computer’s hard drive were exclusively reported by The Post weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
“The only thing it proved is that I was a degenerate crackhead, doing degenerate crackhead things,” Biden said.
He blamed former Trump ally Rudy Guiliani for trying to flag the laptop evidence as proof of criminal activity, which was false, Biden said. That didn’t gain traction until The New York Post report.
“You had the New York Post come along, and they literally — all they did — didn’t matter what the headline was, what it was about — it was a picture of me in a motel room smoking a pipe, or in with my shirt off, and with a woman that was blurred out,” he said. “It’s like this is your degenerate, and tell me that he’s not also capable of taking a bribe, and that’s what they did, and to great effect.”
The podcast appearance has set off some critics who poked fun at Newsom’s decision to host Biden, who’s had a controversial history.
He’s faced a litany of alleged events, from drug addiction and prostitutes to tax evasion and giving political trouble to his father with a “laptop from hell.”
