ERROR OF HIS DAZE
Hunter has no shame about big bucks Ukraine gig
Hunter Biden insisted in an interview that aired yesterday, “I don’t think I made a mistake” in taking a $50,000-a-month job with a Ukrainian energy company, despite having zero qualifications — and while his then-VP dad was overseeing US policy on Ukraine.
Hunter Biden still won’t admit that taking a seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company was a mistake — or even that it looked bad.
In an interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” to promote his upcoming memoir, the president’s son defended accepting a lucrative job with Burisma Holdings while his then-vice-president father was overseeing US policy to battle corruption in the Ukraine — insisting that his only error was not foreseeing the criticism he would face.
The wide-ranging and at times tearful interview with Hunter, 51, also touched on his battles with addiction, his relationship with his brother’s widow —and the laptop at the center of several Post exposés.
On Burisma
Asked by host Tracy Smith if he made a “mistake” accepting the $50,000-a-month position on Bursima’s board, Hunter said no.
“I don’t think I made a mistake in taking a spot on that board. I think I made a mistake in terms of underestimating the way it would be used against me,” he said.
Pressed on whether he at least understood the bad “optics” of the role — which became an issue during President Biden’s White House campaign — he said he did not.
“Because I really didn’t. I’m being as honest as I possibly can,” Hunter said in the interview, meant to promote his book, “Beautiful Things: A
Memoir,” due out on Tuesday.
“All I know is not one investigative body, not one serious journalist has ever accused, has ever come to the conclusion that I did anything wrong, that my father did anything wrong.”
Last October, The Post revealed that e-mails found on a laptop belonging to Hunter showed that he introduced his father to a top executive at Burisma.
On the laptop
Hunter admitted that the MacBook Pro — which was dropped off at a Wilmington, Del., computerrepair shop in April 2019 but never picked up — “certainly” could be his, but said he didn’t recall leaving a laptop at the shop.
“Not that I remember at all,” Hunter said.
“Certainly, there could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me, that could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me,” he said.
On the probe into his taxes
Hunter’s work at Burisma has come under scrutiny by Congress and by federal prosecutors who are investigating his “tax affairs” dating to his time on the board.
He acknowledged the probe, but predicted that he would be cleared of any wrongdoing in the long run.
“I’m cooperating completely. And I am absolutely certain, 100 percent certain, that at the end of the investigation, that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing,” he said.
“I’m 100 percent certain of it. And all I can do is cooperate, and trust in the process,” he added.
On his drug addiction
Hunter also addressed his years of drug and alcohol addiction, at one point recalling that — after relapsing following a stint in rehab — he found himself scouring the floors for something to smoke.
“I spent more time on my hands and knees picking through rugs, smoking anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine,” he said.
“I probably smoked more Parmesan cheese than anyone that you know. I mean, I went one time for 13 days without sleeping, and smoking crack and drinking vodka exclusively throughout that entire time.”
On dating his brother’s widow
The death of his older brother, Beau, a war veteran and Delaware attorney general, of brain cancer at age 46 in 2015, shook the family.
Hunter, who was married at the time, then began a relationship with Beau’s widow, Hallie — a liaison he tried to defend to Smith.
“I think people were confused by it,” Hunter said.
“And I understand that. I mean, I really do. To me, it’s not something that is difficult to explain. Because it came out of a real overwhelming grief that we both shared. And we were together and trying to do the right thing. And that grief turned into a hope for a love that maybe could replace what we lost. And it didn’t work. It didn’t work.”
Smith said the consequences involved Hunter losing clients and having to step down from the UN’s World Food Programme.
“Yeah. Well, I made a lot of decisions that I probably shouldn’t have made,” he said. “There was a lot more compassion and understanding from the people that knew me. But it was a horrible time, too.”
I don’t think I made a mistake in taking a spot on that board. I think I made a mistake in terms of underestimating the way it would be used against me.
Onhisdad
Hunter recalled how his dad tried to personally intervene after Hunter began binge-drinking vodka following Beau’s death.
“He came to my apartment one time. And this was when he was still in office as vice president, and so he kinda ditched his Secret Service, figured out a way to get over to the house,” Hunter recalled. “And I said, ‘What are you doin’ here?’ He said, ‘Honey, what are you doing?’ I said, ‘Dad, I’m fine.’ He said, ‘You’re not fine.’ ”
Hunter and Kathleen Biden, the mother of their three daughters, have since divorced, and he married Melissa Cohen in 2019.
He teared up when he said his dad talks to him every night.
“Not only does he talk to me every night, he calls every one of my daughters. He talks to each one of them every day, and he talks to me,” he said.
“But, by the way, he’s always done that. I mean, always. He talks to each one of us. I tell you why, because he’s lost,” he said, pausing before continuing. “Because he, like me, knows what it’s like not to be able to pick up the phone and talk to your son.”
“And he almost lost you,” Smith said.
“It’s hard,” Hunter said.
“I’m a Biden, we cry too much. Yeah. You know, I guess one of the reasons that I’m crying is because, you know, beautiful beings, we’re here.”
Miranda Devine / P. 11