It looks like President Trump’s attacks and questioning “Where’s Hunter?” have made an impression, as Hunter Biden has come out of hiding to address the controversy surrounding his shady business dealings, admitting to “poor judgment” in some of his actions.
“In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part. Is that I think that it was poor judgment because I don’t believe now, when I look back on it — I know that there was — did nothing wrong at all. However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is…a swamp in—in—in many ways? Yeah.” Hunter told ABC News’ Amy Robach. “I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake. So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever.”
You see what he did there? His mistake was not obtaining a lucrative position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company whose business he had zero experience with while his father was the point man on relations with that country; his mistake was not realizing that people (read: President Trump) would use his shady actions to hurt his father’s campaign. In other words, it’s not his fault, it’s Trump’s.
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Hunter Biden tells @arobach he did nothing "improper” while serving on board of Ukrainian gas company, but may have showed “poor judgment” in joining. https://t.co/rmDKGz1o7O pic.twitter.com/QxmCJGU5Ze
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 15, 2019
Despite asserting he’s never done anything wrong, Hunter Biden is stepping down from the board of a Chinese company and promises not to engage in foreign work if his father is elected president in 2020, even though he claims there was never anything wrong with it.
President Trump has made “Where’s Hunter?” a key line of attack recently on the campaign trail, and his campaign is even selling t-shirts with the slogan.
“I’m here,” Hunter said, meaning Los Angeles, where he lives. “I’m here and I’m working and I’m living my life. Hiding in plain sight, I guess.”
“Did I make a mistake? Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah. But did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not.”
Hunter says he doesn’t regret his past business ventures (that made him very wealthy) but only regrets that he failed to anticipate them being a political liability for his father. “What I regret is not taking into account that there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the United States that would be listening to this — this ridiculous conspiracy idea.”
He also claimed that everything he did was ethical. “Did I do anything improper? No, and not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever,” he claimed. “I joined a board, I served honorably. I did — I focused on corporate governance. I didn’t have any discussions with my father before or after I joined the board as it related to it, other than that brief exchange that we had.” Presumably, he’s referring to what he told The New Yorker back in July, when he revealed he did talk to his father about Burisma on one occasion. Of course, it’s easy to deduce they spoke about his business dealings on other occasions as well, such as during an August 2014 golf outing the Bidens had with fellow Burisma board member Devon Archer.
In addition to the ethical questions, Hunter also responded to allegations he was unqualified to serve on the board of Burisma, a natural gas company. “I was vice-chairman of the board of Amtrak for five years. I was the chairman of the board of the U.N. World Food Program. I was a lawyer for Boies Schiller Flexner, one of the most prestigious law firms in — in the world.”
Did you notice what position he did not mention? His job at MBNA, during which time his father was a tremendous advocate for the company in the U.S. Senate.
Still, when asked by Robach if he’d have been asked by Burisma to be on their board if his last name wasn’t Biden, Hunter conceded, “I don’t know. I don’t know. Probably not, in retrospect.”
Definitely not, Hunter. Definitely not.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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