In an interview that aired Tuesday night on CNN, a member of the establishment media really posed a challenging question to President Joe Biden.
Jake Tapper, who began hosting “CNN Tonight” on Tuesday and will remain there through the midterm elections in November, according to Deadline, wanted to kick off his month-long tour of duty with a bang, so he aired an interview with the president of the United States.
The interview covered the expected topics — Putin and Russia, the economy, and whatever the Democrats claim to be running on this year — but Tapper also stepped, albeit lightly, into a more personal area that the legacy media has been attempting to ignore: the troubled life of President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“Our reporting, CNN’s reporting, and The Washington Post reporting suggests that prosecutors think they could — they have enough, to charge your son, Hunter, for tax crimes, and a false statement about a gun purchase.
“Personally and politically, how do you react to that?” Tapper asked.
“Well, first of all, I’m proud of my son. This is a kid, who got — not a kid, he’s a grown man. And he got hooked on, like many families have had happened, hooked on drugs.
“He’s overcome that. He’s established a new life. He is, I’m confident that he is — what he says, and does, are consistent with what happens. And, for example, he wrote a book about his problems, and was straightforward about it. I’m proud of him.
“He came along and said — by the way, this thing about a gun? I didn’t know anything about it. But turns out that when he made application, to purchase a gun, what happened was he said — I guess, you get asked — I don’t guess. You get asked the question, ‘Are you on drugs? You use drugs?’ He said, ‘No.’ And he wrote about saying ‘No,’ in his book.”
Tapper acknowledged that Hunter Biden had written about this in his book. (Full disclosure: I haven’t read Hunter Biden’s book and don’t plan to, so I’m just going to take Tapper’s word on this one.)
“So, I have great confidence in my son. I love him. And he’s on the straight and narrow, and he has been, for a couple years now,” Biden concluded. “And I’m just so proud of him.”
CNN shared a quick clip of this segment of the interview on Twitter, but those who want a challenge may view the complete interview or read the show’s transcript here.
President Biden on Tuesday for the first time addressed his son’s exposure to possible criminal charges for allegedly lying on a gun-purchase application, but he said he was proud of Hunter Biden for confronting his struggles with drug addiction https://t.co/NscXr1yMlf pic.twitter.com/nnkefrnIVg
— CNN (@CNN) October 12, 2022
More on this story via The Western Journal:
Look: I’m not going to beat up on the president for saying he loves his son and he’s proud of him. I have two sons myself; neither is perfect, and both have made mistakes, including some substance abuse issues. Others in my family have struggled with similar problems. Given how prevalent drug abuse is in this country, you almost certainly have family members fighting the same battles. I have no problem with Joe Biden saying that the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of his son is that he’s proud of him for staying in that fight. CONTINUE READING…