Hunter Biden revealed in an interview on Saturday that he never wanted his father, former President Joe Biden, to run for a second term.
Over the past few months, Hunter has been on a podcast tour speaking out about what it was like to be Biden’s son during his presidency and offering his take on politics. Following the full federal pardon granted by his father in December 2024, Hunter has made use of his freedom to speak off-the-cuff.
During the recent interview with NPR, Hunter was asked by the host of NPR’s "Newsmakers" whether he wanted his father to have run for re-election in the first place.
"No. No," Hunter replied.
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When asked whether he had told then-President Joe Biden this, Hunter answered, "No. I told him this, is that I would like I'd done my entire life, is that I supported whatever he thought was best as it related to what he wanted to do to serve."
"There was nothing that was more important to me than getting my dad back, getting my family back," he added further. "And the presidency does something that people I don't think fully comprehend. A president — it's almost impossible for a president to be fully present in the lives of the people that he loves the most, because it is literally all-consuming. It is an all-consuming thing."
Hunter rejected reports that he had egged his dad on to stay in the running, replying, "Literally nothing could be further from the truth, and I think that they know that."
He then turned the question around on the media and asked, "But just from a logical perspective, what would I possibly have to gain to continue to be the target that I was?"
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"The four years of his presidency were, I think, by anybody's estimation, a really difficult four years — a lot of it my own making, but a lot of it just simply because of who he was and the position that he held — in which the struggles that I was trying to overcome in sobriety, sober this entire time, building a family and rebuilding a family, to do it while he was president was maybe one of the most difficult things that I can ever imagine putting someone through," he said.
"And more than anything, I just wanted to have my dad back," he concluded.
The NPR host then asked whether he let his father know about these concerns before he decided to run for re-election. Hunter replied that he only aired these concerns after Joe had made his choice, arguing that otherwise it would have been unfair to burden his father with his own concerns.
"No, because I think it's unfair for me to do because this — because I know this also. There's only one thing my dad cares about more than his service, and that's me and my mom, my sister, and his grandkids, my children," he said. "There's only one thing that he cared about more than his job, and that's his family. And for somebody in his family, particularly me, to say, 'Dad, please don't do it,' I don't know how — I think that's incredibly unfair to do to somebody. I would never want to be that. I would never want it to be the reason that he didn't fulfill what he believed was his duty and service."
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