Hunter Biden admits he got a job on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma because of his family name
- Hunter said Burisma viewed Biden name as ‘gold’ when they hired him in 2014
- The 51-year-old said his father’s name represents ‘democracy and transparency’
- But Hunter denied leveraging connections of his father, who was then the VP
- He also admitted that being a Biden had been both ‘a privilege and a burden’
Hunter Biden has admitted that he got a job on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma because of his family name, as he opens up about a job that almost cost his father the presidency.
The 51-year-old said Burisma viewed his family name as ‘gold’ when the firm hired him in 2014 because it is ‘synonymous with democracy and transparency’ and hoped to capitalize on that reputation while trying to counter Russian ‘aggression’ in Crimea.
But he denied leveraging connections to his father Joe – who was then US vice president and leading Obama’s policy on Ukraine – while in the job, saying his day-to-day was ‘100% limited to… corporate governance and transparency’.
He also admitted that being a Biden had ‘opened doors that wouldn’t be opened up to other people’, but said that was ‘both a privilege and a burden’.
Hunter Biden has admitted that he got a job on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014 because of his family name (pictured, Hunter at his father’s inauguration as President)
Asked by the BBC whether his father’s reputation had got him the Burisma job, he replied: ‘I think it played a large part.
‘I think that they saw my name as gold and the reason they did was this: Right at that time, the Russians had invaded and taken Crimea and they were after the natural resources and the pipeline.
‘And I know that Burisma wanted to do one thing: They wanted to create a bulwark against that Russian aggression, they knew they had to expand internationally and into other sectors to diversify and protect themselves.
‘The Biden name is synonymous with democracy and transparency and that’s why I said it was gold to them.’
Biden’s interview with the BBC is part of a media promotion campaign for his upcoming memoir Beautiful Things.
He has revealed more details of his drug addiction, which featured heavily during the presidential campaign, and which he says stems from the trauma of losing his mother and sister at the age of two in 1972.
Hunter Biden’s interview with CBS This Morning aired on Monday
Speaking to CBS on Sunday, Hunter admitted that he was smoking crack ‘around the clock’ and drinking a quart of vodka every day at the lowest points of his drug addiction.
He also spoke about his controversial affair with his late brother Beau’s widow, Hallie, and how the pair of them thought their shared love and grief would ‘bring him back’ but that it ‘didn’t work’.
Hunter, 51, also described meeting his current wife, Melissa, and marrying her within seven days of their first date. He says she is a ‘miracle’ and that she saved his life.
He claims to have been sober for seven years, from 2008 until 2015, after battling drug and alcohol addiction his entire life. His brother Beau’s death in 2015, he says, sent him hurtling back into addiction.
It all comes from an unresolved feeling of ‘not fitting in’, he said, that he thinks is from the trauma of losing his mom, Neilia, and sister Naomi, in a car crash when he was two in 1972. Hunter and Beau both survived the accident.
‘I am more convinced now that trauma is at the center of it. I don’t know why I had such a hard time ever admitting that. There’s a lot of research that points to the idea that addicts who suffer from addiction suffered from trauma.
Photos of Hunter that were discovered on the laptop that was handed into a Delaware computer repair store last year. He says he was so hooked on drugs and alcohol at the time that he doesn’t know if the laptop is even his
Photos of Hunter that were discovered on the laptop that was handed into a Delaware computer repair store last year. He says he was so hooked on drugs and alcohol at the time that he doesn’t know if the laptop is even his
‘Beau and I never grieved the loss of our mother and sister. We talked about my mom all the time, but the accident no. The darkness that I know my dad suffered isn’t something we talked about until much later. This is why I don’t want to admit… we probably should have. I think they were trying to protect us,’ he said.
As a young adult, he said he slipped into a period that was a ‘blur of complete debauchery’.
‘Drinking a quart of vodka a day by yourself is absolutely completely debilitating… smoking crack around the clock, drinking insanely lethal amounts of alcohol,’ he said.
He said becoming a laughing stock of the Trump campaign and liability to his father’s campaign did nothing to stop his addiction.
‘It didn’t change my behavior – I still needed to get high and hide and fill that hole,’ he said.
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