Hunter Biden, whose conviction on gun and tax charges and the subsequent pardon of his father caused an uproar on the right-wing media, recently sat down for a nearly two-hour heated interview with Candace Owens, a popular right-wing podcaster and conspiracy theorist.
Interview It was filmed at Ms. Owens’ home in Nashville last week and released on Thursday. It comes as Ms Owens joins a small but influential group of conservative voices who have attacked the Trump administration over the war with Iran and the government’s handling of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Biden named his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr. has given few interviews since leaving the presidency. But the younger Mr Biden found time for Ms Owens, who has recently been accused of defamation in lawsuits filed by the French president and first lady, and the former security chief of Charlie Kirk, a prominent right-wing political activist who was murdered in September.
Mr Biden’s appearance with Ms Owens brought together two figures who find themselves at odds with their longtime parties. Mr Biden has been sharply critical of Democrats’ efforts to pressure his father to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. Ms Owens says she feels “betrayed” By Mr. Trump.
The amiable meeting would have been absolutely unimaginable during the Biden administration – a period in which Ms Owens called For the imprisonment of the younger Mr. Biden. But during the conversation, they found a lot in common.
Here are five memorable moments from the unusual interview:
Mr Biden said the cocaine found in the Biden White House was not his.
The conversation began with what Ms. Owens described as “a question for the culture”: whether the cocaine discovered in the White House during his father’s presidency belonged to the young Mr. Biden, who had a decades-long addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine.
The discovery of cocaine in 2023 led to the closure of parts of the White House grounds as response workers assessed the substance.
“Was it yours?” Ms. Owens asked.
“No,” Mr. Biden responded, adding that he had been sober since 2019. He later said that if it had been his cocaine, he “wouldn’t have forgotten it in a cubby when I got to the situation room.”
Ms Owens apologized for past comments about him.
Ms. Owens told Mr. Biden she felt “terrible” that he attacked Mr. Biden over the material, which was revealed by the New York Post at the height of the 2020 election and was allegedly taken from a damaged computer found a year ago at a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Del.
“Really, I’m very sorry,” she said.
Ms. Owens said at the time she felt “gaslit” by an open letter signed by 51 former intelligence officers that suggested the material might be part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Mr Biden said Ms Owens was “absolutely right”, and that he wished she had been allowed to speak on the issue at the time, but suggested he could not because the election was approaching.
Mr Biden said the material, which included photos of him smoking in a motel room, showed him as a drug addict. But he said they did not provide evidence of corruption by his father, as some conservatives have argued.
“It was an addiction,” he said. “That was not corruption.”
They discussed the shared history of addiction in their families.
Much of the conversation focused on Mr Biden’s battle with drug addiction.
“I grew up with a lot of addicts in my family,” Ms. Owens said.
She said she felt “guilty” that she had attacked Mr Biden over his past.
“I didn’t even think about it: He’s a crazy man,” she said. “It’s actually a very relevant thing.”
Ms. Owens said she was impressed by Mr. Biden’s defense of her father.
Ms. Owens said her view of the younger Mr. Biden had changed long before they met for an interview. She was impressed, she said, By his strong, foul-mouthed defense of his father during an interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan last year.
“I said, OK, it’s just a normal father-son relationship,” Ms. Owens said.
Ms Owens said she had promised not to pressure him to say anything critical about her father.
“There’s no way I could possibly do that,” he said.
Mr Biden suggested he and Ms Owens visit the Vatican together.
Ms Owens and Mr Biden appeared to connect with each other during the conversation.
“Your audience trusts you completely,” an emotional Mr Biden said. “And the reason they trust you is because you’ve shown a lot of courage in speaking your mind.”
When Ms. Owens asked Mr. Biden about his Catholic faith, he suggested they visit the Vatican together.
“You should go to confession,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve gone to confess.”
