Hunter Biden Unleashes Hell on Trump and Exposes His Dad's Biggest Failure

30:19And I'm so impressed. And the other thing, I wrote this on an expo after the primaries here, which was that more than anything, I think that voters in this moment in time, this is always true in terms of the positive aspects of it, but authenticity is everything right now. Because everybody feels like they've been lied to. Everybody feels like they've been by both sides. And they know that they've been lied to by this guy. and uh but i say to everybody is that i think one of and they say because it reminds him of trump that authentic kind of and i say he's not authentic he's just audacious there's a difference between being um you know the the carnival barker and being a and being zoharimandani and being authentic about the things that you believe in and and by the way and standing firm in those principles that you know that there's a wide spot that maybe even the majority disagrees with you on.

31:27Right. You know, but if you stand in that with a smile and authentically defend your position, I am always of the belief that voters will see that. And they value that more than anything. That's what they thought that they were getting from Donald Trump. Yeah. They thought that they were getting a guy that was, you know, six foot three, 225 pounds. And what they ended up getting was a guy that is, you know, 5 '11", you know, 300. Yeah. Yeah. Cankles. Yeah. The cankles alone. I mean, okay. I want to have a little bit of fun here. So, your laptop, they had so much fun about it. Yeah. And I want us to decide our top three MAGA laptops, MAGA men, that we could get, you and I, and we could just do an all-nighter.

32:14I thought you were going to fill up some of the pictures from the laptop. No. Everybody's seen those. Oh, my God. No. Everybody's seen this, Hunter. That's old news. That's like a million news cycles ago. I want to talk about our fantasy laptops that we could acquire, you and me. Top three MAGA laptops. We're going to have one. Okay. All right. Tell me. Number one. Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley. Oh, it's so good. Kylie, get the engagement photo. By the way, I got this whole theory. Josh Hawley. Okay, let's hear it. I believe that the biggest problem in America is in Washington, D.C. with the federal government is not the oligarchy.

32:51Closet cases. It's the closetocracy, as I call it. It is. And I'm being totally serious. And I can do a list because I don't know these to be true at all. But let's start with the laptop that I want to see. We'll begin with Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley. Well, here's interesting. Here is his ink. I have. Can we do more than three? Yeah, we're going to go all day. Okay. Here's Josh Hawley with Harrison Becker. He's the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs. And this looks like a gay engagement photo. I mean, that's really gay. Ryan, on a scale of zero to gay, how gay is that? Gay. Gay, yeah. I just feel like when rubber hits the road.

33:32So to speak.

33:36These two are not thinking about women. Here he is attempting to have a heterosexual kiss.

33:45That's so horrible. Okay, number two, Hunter. Holly's number one. Number two. Oh, Ted Cruz, of course. 100%. Do you get a gaydar ping from Ted? No, you know what I get? I get a really, really kinky, weird shit. Me too. Do you remember on 9-11? And it may be gay. It may not be gay. It may be a little bit of this. It may be a little bit of that. But it may involve animals too, in my opinion. Okay, do you remember on 9-11, this was several years ago, Ted Cruz liked a porn tweet? Oh, yeah, yeah. And then he blamed it on his staffer and everybody knows Ted did it on 9-11. Yeah, exactly. And so, okay, yeah, Ted Cruz, I would love to see his.

34:24Oops, that wasn't the burner account. Oops. By the way, Ted, let me tell you something. I understand when your digital life becomes, you know, a lap of fodder. I can understand your pain. Yeah. But no, he, like weird, weird stuff. I agree. Weird stuff. Really weird shit. Like, by the way, maybe even some stuff that, you know, involves like, You know, I don't even want to say. Yeah, I agree with you. Ted is a weird guy. He's a horrible human being. He's a horrible, horrible human being. And by the way, but that's not just coming from me. Every single one of his colleagues. Hates him. Hates him.

34:59Not, you know, 50 Democrats. Literally, 99 senators hate him. And because he was there when my dad was still there. Yeah. Every one of them. Every single one of them. Universally hated him. Yeah. Hated Ted Cruz. You know, this is the thing, like these men, so J.D. Vance can't stand up for his wife. He can't condemn Nazi tweets and racist tweets. And his wife is from an immigrant family. He has mixed race kids. Ted Cruz could not defend Heidi Cruz. And that's why these men, I just think, God, they're so submissive. And I think back to your dad being on the debate stage when somebody tried to throw you under the bus.

35:38And he stood as a father and did that. And these men will not stand up for their wives. It's just, it's stunning to me. And yet they want to lecture us in the sanctimonious way about family values. Yeah. It's like, fuck off, Ted. Yeah. Okay. Number three. Oh, this is Speaker Johnson. Who? Speaker Johnson. Okay. His official name on this podcast is Little Moses Mike Grinder Johnson. Oh, Little Moses Mike Grinder Johnson. I knew that. And Little Moses Mike Grinder Johnson is either his or his children. Because I still don't get the porn, that whole thing where they – Because – The porn policing between – Oh, you mean you and your son don't monitor each other's porn news center?

36:24Is that what you're saying? That's right to God. You and Joe Biden, do you all monitor each other's porn? Strange thing. Your dad's not watching Joe Biden. No, I mean – well, he's got to hope not. But now everybody monitored my porn. Yeah, exactly. Well, the Republicans really like to monitor porn. By the way, all of these guys. Yeah, but there is a – look, before when I would say this and I would joke around and everybody kind of laughs about it. But I know for certain, and I'm not kidding now, is that there is – and everybody in D.C. knows this. I mean, I lived there for 20 years. My dad was a senator, you know, or vice president, president, my whole life, for 54 years of my life.

37:14And everybody knows there is like this closeted gay mafia, largely Republican, that exists in Washington, D.C., and everybody knows every single one of them who's gay. And what I believe, the only reason that that is relevant is because I believe that internal conflict creates so much vitriol inside a person that they take it out on the rest of the world. And they do. And so what they do is their whole lives, they've been closeted. And so you have this like black ball inside yourself, this like blackened heart by the fact that you can't be who you want to be. And so you take it out on everybody else.

38:06And these men, largely men, have done exactly that. And everybody knows who they are. Everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Lindsey Graham. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So have you seen, speaking of that, I think it's, I say that Trump is now in his deathbed confession. But by the way, like for Lindsey Graham, like everybody knows that Lindsey Graham was gay. Right. And I don't like, I don't have, I really had, and I liked Lindsey Graham when I was a kid, but everybody knew that he was gay. Right. And, but, you know, but we still kind of like talk about it on like CNN, like, you know, like, well, and again, the only reason it's relevant is because of the fact that they seem to do everything that they possibly can to take out their inability to know and live their true life on everybody else.

39:00To me, it's relevant because during the day, they are diminishing and instituting institutionalized bigotry against the LGBTQ plus community. And at night, they're fetishizing it, doing gay shit. So, little Moses Mike Greiner. It becomes even more fetishized because it's in secret. Exactly. And it becomes more – well, I don't want to characterize it any other way. When anything that is done in secret reminds me of addiction. Okay. So I'll bring it back to myself. Yeah. So when you drink and you drink to excess and people get to call you on it, so what you start to do is you start to hide it from the people that you know and love.

39:46And you end up in places that you shouldn't be. And then you – and it just progresses that way. I almost see this in the same way from the time that, you know, and it's part of it's heartbreaking. I mean, can you imagine living that life? Could you imagine the torture that you have to put yourself through to pretend that you are something that you're not by going so overboard and villainizing and attacking that which you actually are at your deepest core? It makes everything easier to do for no other purpose than for power. Right. Yeah, because you have to rationalize all of that in your head, the ability to do that.

40:37Yeah, I think. That self-hatred. And I think that one man's secrets can have a ripple effect, like your addiction had a ripple effect that caused a lot of pain. It's trench warfare. Oh, yeah. The same with one of these closeted Republican men, but when they all collude together. Yeah. And the ripple effects, and then they, my opinion, my theory on this is coming from the Bible belt, you have all of these closeted men or men that have just like some really fucked up sexual proclivities about which they feel shame. Some kink that in another world they wouldn't feel shame about, but in their world they do.

41:15So they latch onto this Christian nationalism. And the bargain that they've made is like for little Moses Mike or for Josh Hawley or for Samuel Alito. If I can make if I can deliver America as a Christian nation, that will make me right with God because they can't un-gay themselves. That's exactly right. And so they have made this existential bargain and anointed themselves with all this power that they are going to deliver the United States to God as this Christian nation. And then it will wipe away all of their gayness. And I think we have a huge grouping of these men that do this. I was on that Steve Schmidt's podcast.

41:56You know, he was the campaign manager. Of course, I know Steve. He's great. He is great. He said that 90 % of the Republican men when he worked in the White House, all gay. Exactly what you're saying. Yeah, by the way. And Steve's not joking or not being provocative. I'm being serious. Is that everybody knows who they are. And it used to be like, well, you don't want to out people. That doesn't seem fair. We got to be past that. You got to be past that. We got to out. Look what they're doing. Yes. Like, I got to believe that Stephen Miller's, you know, not a, you know, a Nazi, you know. Talk about some kinky shit.

42:38Yeah, no, that's what I mean. But for real. Okay. And by the way, it'll come out. Oh, yeah. It always does. And the question is, is it, is the mainstream media going to think it is fair enough to report on without it? And anyway, I think that it is the root of so many problems. And I know that you and Angie and you guys like joke about it in terms of like, well, maybe not really joke about it. I think that it is an actual problem. We joke about it and both report on it. Yeah. I mean, both. I mean, I think we use humor a lot in our podcast because what's happening is so fucking depressing. Yeah, I know.

43:19Exactly. It was the only way that I could listen to the news for a period of time or listen to political discourse at a time because I knew that I would be chuckling as much as I would be crying. Yeah. You know, it's kind of like, you know, you've made some jokes about your addiction that remind me a lot of Josh. And when you have learned to get past shame, which shame is at the center, this is the through line of what you're talking about, these closet cases. That's exactly right. And about you. Josh and I speak so openly about addiction because we want to de-stigmatize it and take away the shame because shame is such a dark passenger.

43:55And it's such a poisonous pill. But some of my favorite tweets of yours, somebody said about the, oh, about the, okay, excuse me, but aren't you decidedly part of the elite oligarch class? You're the son of a career senator, former VP and president who received the most legally overbroad pardon, which may not even be constitutional in the history of the United States. Sounds pretty fucking elite to me. What does Hunter Biden respond to on? Here we go right here. Do I look like I'm part of the elite oligarch class? This was taken in a Super 8 motel off I-95. That was the cleanest picture I could find in the moment when I was responding to that.

44:43Oh, I mean, they're crazy. And then once somebody asked you about that cocaine in the Oval Office, it was yours. And you said, no, it absolutely was not mine. But it never left a terror. Exactly. I read that to Josh. And Josh goes, he's 100 fucking percent right. By the way, no good gigantic. They're so crazy. Ever. Just so you, I have to explain that because people keep, anyway, where this cocaine was found, number one, I wasn't even there. But number one, number two, where it was found, it is found in a cubby, okay? A little cubby. They're like this big, okay? And there's a whole wall of them, supposedly, before you walk into the situation room where you literally run a war, you know, where the only people that go in there have top secret clearance, okay?

45:30Down a hallway, all right? So, what are they saying? That I went, took my little bag of cocaine, walked past two guards. By the way, with my Secret Service with me and put it in, like, hit it in a cubby underneath the Oval Office, you know, 400 yards. And then left it there. Like, what, as a practical joke or something? I mean, it's just the most ridiculous thing in the world. And clearly someone pulled their phone out of their pocket, was going into the situation room. Oh, yeah. And whatever little thing stuck to their thing. And they screwed me over.

46:10I just have to say is amateur. Whoever it was, was an amateur. It could have been Don Jr. It could have been there for a long time. Okay. Could have been there for a long time. Let's talk about some conspiracy theories that I like to dabble in. You know, before, like maybe two years ago, I was like, I am not a conspiracy theorist. I'm not going to talk about that. I'm getting real close. Me too. Let's talk about him. Okay. First of all, do you think Jeffrey Epstein killed himself? Oh, not in a million years. Agree. Yeah. Yeah. Completely agree. Yeah. By the way, and I like who's saying to me like, oh, my gosh, I am really concerned.

46:45Hunter engaging in this conspiracy theories about the, you know, Butler and, you know, like who believes that the that that a guy that everybody knows was an asset of some security service is sitting in a jail cell and has literally. we know files on you know I don't know how many incredibly powerful and important people and he just decides that one day he's going to wake up after all that and he's going to somehow hang himself with his you know his socks and his t-shirts did you see how low the bed is to the ground I mean I watch a lot of Dateline and I just don't think that that is plausible.

47:27Oh by the way though but I have to admit his Dan Boncino and Cash Patel said that he did. So we should take their word because they've proven to be real heroes on the F-D-E-M files. So you brought up Butler. Yeah. Okay. So I have a family member who works in law enforcement, federal law enforcement. And he immediately was just like, that was staged. It's just not possible that you have a guy that's up on a roof and you have secret service with local police and all of the people that secure that's the first thing you look is is there a threat up there i was in italy when this happened and so i woke up in the morning and the news had already happened and i went to this restaurant across the street and i go to the same place in italy every summer like jennifer it's a fake right the stage a trumpet stage the uh it's not real right and i was like well surely he wouldn't do that and then i went back and i started watching it.

48:26And I was too reluctant. I was really reluctant for a long time to say it out loud, because I think that MAGA has kind of done this thing where they control all of the news narrative. And for us to be different from them, we say, oh, well, we accept facts. And I just, I kind of am calling bullshit. And here's why. Aside from the thing that Secret Service or somebody wouldn't see a person with a gun on top of a roof. Step that aside. Donald Trump is petty. Party of one. Your table's now available. He is obsessed with your dad. He's obsessed with Barack Obama. He will not shut the fuck up about either one of them.

49:08He will not shut up. He won. Shut up. He won't shut up. And you're telling me this kid tried to kill him and he never... We don't get any grievance tweets about this? Not a word. Crickets. And the thing about it, okay, so my dad, Donald Trump mentioned the Washington Post to the thing. Donald Trump mentioned my dad six times a day. They stopped counting in the first 100 days. Now they stopped counting. I mean, six times a day. Okay. Who, what's the name of the would-be assassin from Butler that changed the course of world history? What's his name? Thomas Crooks. Is that his name? Thomas Crooks.

49:53Is that right? Okay. Because I don't know. I mean, I know every other would-be assassin. I mean, I can go back to, you know, the Archduke Ferdinand. Right. I mean, like, but, like, has there been a trial or investigation or hearings or congressional hearings? Nothing. Like, you know, I mean. I think they shut it down. Didn't you guys? Didn't we read that Cash Patel shut down? Yeah. Nothing. Absolutely nothing Not a By the way shouldn't somebody in the secret service Lost their job for that Because there's a guy sitting up on a roof 300 yards away With a direct line of sight With a scope and a rifle In full view Of the president of the United States Shouldn't somebody gotten fired Shouldn't there be a Deep deep federal investigation In congress as to, at least from the funding perspective, of why it possibly could have gone that wrong.

50:54Nothing. Not a word. Not a single, single word. Now, does that mean that I'm right? Probably. Probably. I like to think in this new me, is that, yeah, I'm just going to say, yeah, I'm right. You're in your fucking stage. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. I want to talk a little bit about, obviously we have to talk about Trump. Yeah. So I think he's in his deathbed confession era. Yeah. Like you can tell, your dad got a lot of grief about his age. Yeah. And I say, if you're going to run for the big boy seat, get ready for big boy criticism. Yeah. You know, your dad didn't play victim of that. That's just, if you're going to run for president, people are going to shit talk you.

51:43Yeah. Of course, Trump thinks he should be exempt from the shit talking. which brings in the Jake Tapper double standard and all of that. But I set that aside. It's interesting to me how he is constantly, and this comes back to one of our other theories about what's wrong with the Republican party. Have you seen how often he's talking about how hot men are? Yeah. Yeah. Have you said, and then think about the time Zoran went to visit him and how happy he was. Yeah. I don't know.

52:15The reporter was like, Mayor Mom Donnie, do you still think Trump's a fascist? And Trump's like, go ahead. Say yes. Here's what I think. Okay. Okay. For real about this. Okay. Is this. I don't think that Donald Trump is gay or even bi-curious. I think a little bi-curious. No, no. What I think Donald Trump is, is he has a narcissism to the extreme. And in his age now, when he sees a man that is just so physically beautiful, he has to talk about it because he envies it. It's like you said, like your deathbed thing, like, oh, my God. Like, you know, what's his name? Jackson Dart. Like, oh, my God, you're a specimen.

53:08Like, you're an amazing – like, look at those abs, man. Like, oh, my goodness. Yeah, I think that's a little gay. I think – no, I really mean it. I'm trying to be more cutting than thinking it's a little gay. And I think that it is like – An extension of his narcissism. Yes, a total extension of his narcissism. Like he's got to point out like, I used to look like that. We know that he never did. In his mind, he did. And so as we watch this. No, Eric, he's definitely. Oh, my God. I'm joking. I have no idea whether that's true or not. Oh. And I am talking about Eric. I wouldn't play this clip. I bet every woman that he's ever dated wishes he was gay.

53:51But I don't know if it's any true at all. You know, I talked to a couple of people that used to work with him. Yeah. And they said, we absolutely think he's gay. Yeah. Eric? No, Donald. Oh, Donald. Really? Yes. They said, because if you think about the women that he's attracted to, he pictures in his mind what a straight man would want. That's why they all kind of look like Barbie dolls. Yeah. Where this man that told me that worked with Trump, very reliable source, said, you know, real men don't mind a little bit of cellulite or, you know, just we like all different types of women. And then another person that I've spoke with who worked in Trump 1.0 said they thought it was all so weird because they would go to these DHS hearings or FBI things and they would always line up the hottest men in front.

54:41And like all these kind of goober, dorky Republican like brainiacs or aides would show up. And it's like hot man convention. I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of all of the above. Play the video of Hunter talking about wanting to kick Don and Eric's ass. Hey, guys. Hunter Biden here. I just got a call from Andrew Callahan. I think he's trying to organize a cage match, me versus Eric and Don Jr. I told him I'd do it 100 % in if he can pull it off. And if he can't, I'm still coming. So, let me ask you this. If Don and Eric called right now on your cell phone and said, we want to meet you in the White House salon.

55:25Yeah. You're going to fight me first and then you're going to fight the other one. Are you going? Neutral territory. Go bring them out to Lafayette Park. I'll do it there. Or better even, let's go to Lincoln Park where I used to buy crack. We'll do it there. It's only two more blocks away. If they can make the walk. Oh, my God. Just the opportunity to punch either one of them in the face. Of course, it would be very demeaning for the public discourse. I get it. I'm 56. I'm out of shape. I swear to God, if they offered me a cage match, I would take it in a second. Because you know what? I literally, I would die before I tapped out.

56:10I would be dead and I would have to feel the shame. But the chance to actually physically, which, by the way, I'm saying in a, you know, a legally sponsored cage match or, you know, in an alley somewhere. Yeah. By the way, you know, pay-per-view would be crazy on that, right? I get you in my corner, you and Angie and Kylie in my corner. Yes. You know. We would 100 % be in your corner. Exactly. 100%. Yeah. Okay. In closing, what? I would take so many peptides. The only thing I can do, I don't even know if I can do steroids. I think you can do some peptides. I can do peptides. Here's the thing. I would have my money on you.

56:55Yeah. Because I think you're scrappy. And I think dumb and dumber are pussies. Yeah. Well, by the way, I guarantee you they've never thrown a punch in their life. No. And I guarantee you I'm stupid enough that I've thrown many punches in my life and got the shit kicked out of me too. So just absolutely destroyed. So as you've been out more in the public, which I thank you for that, because I think it's a moment that I didn't know I needed after Maggie had been going after you and addiction. Addiction hits close and personally with me and to see you come back and be like, fuck you all. I love it.

57:30It's been so cathartic. What's next for you? I know you have this amazing art. I follow you on Instagram. Thanks. It seems like you get a lot of serenity from your art. But what's next for you, Hunter? So I have the… There's your art. Oh, yeah. Substack. Okay. Yep. So do you guys do Substack? We have a Substack. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh. And what will Substack live? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Well, yeah. Stream together. So I've written a lot over the course of that seven years. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm putting it out on Substack. As I'm writing and revising it, it's kind of like the first draft, but I'm going to put it out like once a week on Substack.

58:10But it tells the whole story, like the whole thing. Incredible. Yeah. And so, but the biggest thing that I'm doing is number, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to set up an aftercare program, a free aftercare program for starting in LA, because I think it's the, it's the, uh, the missing link in recovery care. people go through a 30-day rehab which is necessary and then they get out and they go back to the same exact situation that they were in before and um and a lot of people don't have access to um the kind of aftercare or continuous treatment that um that other people have and and also insurance you know it's 30 days and then you're out and so that's one thing with a group called Peak Path Health.

59:01But the other thing that I'm starting that I hope is out and up and running by the time this comes out is if you go to hunterbiden.com backslash recovery, I'm going to start a thing. I want a million people in recovery and I want, or the people that love them. And it's almost like a story core where you go share your experience, strength, and hope and tell your story anonymously the same way that you would. And it's not in any way a replacement for a meeting, but in the same way that we do in the program. And the reason that I believe that is one of the things that you just said about why you talk about, you and Josh talk about it so openly, because we have to be de-stigmatized.

59:50How can something that is impacting 50 million people on a daily basis here in the United States have any stigma to it? Why isn't that we don't talk about it openly with everybody. And part of it is the shame, is that people carry around the shame of just the failure to get sober, just the failure to be substance free. The, you know, 70 to 80 % of people relapse at some point. And there's so much shame in that because you feel. And the other part of it is too, is I think what you alluded to, is addiction is a family disease yeah the hardest part is not on the attic i mean at the end of the day um it is uh it it's so painful yeah but the the the largest pain is on the family the thing that is that the shame that comes from that is not that which is necessarily like the things that I did in addiction, you know, uh, the biggest shame was not being there for my, for my daughters.

1:00:57You know, the biggest shame was not being present in, in their lives for that period of time. After having been the only, not, not the only, uh, the, uh, a really present father. And then I just, and then it was gone for two years and not knowing where I was. For somebody that's 17 years old or whether you were 22 at the time, like my daughter's ages, it's just, it's so hard. It's so hard. It's so hard. The idea of them asking why, why are you choosing that and not me? like why are you showing uh not showing up for me and but you're but but i can't get you on the phone i can't you're not responding to my text it is heartbreaking and that's the shame that i talk about that's the shame that is like trying to repair that and if you know these are the things that that we need to educate the public about because i had a situation similar with josh and our boys where Josh would relapse because like you said, relapse is a part of it.

1:02:09Like if you have cancer, a lot of people go relapse cancer and then they get into remission. The same thing with addiction, both diseases. We need to destigmatize this so that mothers or fathers that are married to the other spouses and addict can speak to their children in a way where the children are told, this isn't about you. I used to tell my boys, your dad has problems, and he had problems before you were born, and they have nothing to do with you. And I think that there's just – I mean, there's so many things I want us to work on and fix if we didn't have a batshit crazy president. But I think in the background, we can be working on these things because it really hurts.

1:02:51But I will say this, and I never thought I would say this. I remember the first time I went to a family week with Josh, there was this lady, I had to go to this alumni meeting. This lady said, I'm so grateful for my husband's addiction because I have more depth and all this stuff. And I was sitting there and I thought, fuck this bitch. I cannot believe she's saying that. I fucking hate this disease. I hate my husband. I hate her. Everybody in here. Yeah. Because I was just mad. I was full of rage. She was right. I am grateful for what Josh and I went through. And I'm grateful that my sons learned conflict resolution skills.

1:03:25I hate that they got hurt. But life is painful. Life is disappointing. And what you showed your girls is that I had conflict and I hurt you. And that felt like abandonment. But I got better because ultimately I loved you more than I did that. And I just think it's such an important story because it's such a painful, painful disease. and it just affects so many people and so many people don't know how to talk about it in a way that's healing or therapeutic or allowing people the space like you know a friend of mine I fucking hate my husband oh I've been there just tell me how much you hate him you kind of have to get through those steps to get to the other side of it yeah well that's it is it you know the and I don't care what program that you go to or what it is is that one of the things that I learned is that you know the steps that you go through that it has one goal and that's at the end for you to be able to be of service to someone who's still sick and suffering and it's selfish and I'm not saying that like oh because I want to be a saint and go help people because what you realize when you finally actually get it is that the only thing that keeps you out of your attic brain is doing something for somebody else and so it's like it almost becomes an addiction and in an incredibly positive way.

1:04:50And it just kind of like self-perpetuates. And so I say also all the time is that I'm grateful for all of it for the first time in my life. And what they did for me was they so completely exposed me, so completely destroyed any sense of privacy or any expectation of privacy. more than i and i and i and i don't say this like oh woe is me um but more than anybody that i think in the history of at least politics for real no question every single email every single text message every single photograph every single voicemail the heartbreaking ones that you know the the out of context ones the one where i call you know so and so a bitch and i do this and like Like, I mean, just like the things, like everything.

1:05:45And the one thing they didn't find is any crime as it relates to, you know, bribery or me benefiting from my father or anything like that. What they found was somebody, but the whole life, a part of which was a story about the consequences of a really, really deep, dark addiction. And the thing that it did for me, though, was I had to make a choice. Do I get out of bed? and live or do I stay here and die? And I chose one day to get out of bed and live. And I've come to this place where, like, what are you going to say about me that hasn't already been said? It's true liberation. What are you going to say?

1:06:30And it's an incredible liberation. It really is. I feel like I'm not running for anything. Nobody in my family is running for anything. Yeah. You know? I can say whatever the hell I want. responsibly because I think that you should be responsible just if you're a human being. Yeah. But what I got a chance to do, I'm going to get a million stories because those are the things that saved my life in recovery is when you realize like, oh, I wasn't the only person to do that. You know, I like your example of that. I remember saying this one time to somebody and somebody was telling me, well, you know, it's a disease.

1:07:08It's just like cancer. I said, except for the fact that people in remission from cancer don't end up in a hotel room with a hooker. I used to say that shit to Charles. Yeah, exactly. Except for people that have cancer or not, hiding drugs. 2 ,000 bucks worth of crack. You know, that's it. So, it's a little bit different. Yeah. But that's why it's so painful. It is. That's why it's so painful. Because you're like, oh my God. And I always say that, you know, addiction is a, um, a, uh, never an excuse, but at least if you can keep your heart open, it's an explanation. I agree with that. I've said that to myself a million times because forgiveness is really hard, hard.

1:07:54It's so, it was so hard for me to forgive Josh. It was really, really difficult. And I finally gave myself permission to not make a decision. And that was really liberating because I'm the type of person like, okay. Like I had this Al-Anon sponsor once and she was like, you just need to pray about it. And I was like, I'm an atheist. Yeah. And she's like, well, you just need to pray. I'm like, I'm not going to pray, but I need to make a decision. We need to have a plan. I was really type A about like solving Josh's problems. So the first time I send him to rehab, he goes off to Arizona. I send him there.

1:08:25I leave and I'm like on the plane, come back for family week. And I think nailed it. Got this under control. We're going to go back and live happily ever after. You know what that motherfucker did? He graduates from rehab or gets released. He gets a taxi and goes to the Phoenix airport, has the taxi driver pull over and buy him, and he goes in and buys a beer after 30 days. when I found that out, I was mad about that singular beer for years. I was so mad about that singular beer because I couldn't understand it. I could not understand in my not-addict brain that somebody could go spend 30 days at some expensive rehab.

1:09:08I'm sorry. I'm laughing. I mean, I've done like 10 times worse than that. Josh has done 10 times worse. And Josh, you're full of shit. It wasn't one beer. totally full of shit if we're going to be really open with each other you went about one think I got about six then I think he went and got a bunch of Percocets I mean truth be told but then probably started chewing on this that's it you get tight in the worst possible moment like literally and that's what the stories are for not as some kind of like drunkologue where everybody can come But what you realize is that you're not alone. Like, because as hard as it is for you to understand, think of his poor adult brain trying to explain it to himself.

1:09:54And then you lie about it. And then you hide it. And then you have that, you wake up and you have all the shame over the fact that you're lying. And so then you're even more alone. And then you're isolated. And then the only thing that can get you out of your isolation is one thing that always worked for you. A drink or a drug. Yeah. And that's the thing that people don't understand either is that why did I use drugs? Because they fucking worked. They worked at first. They did what they were supposed to do. They got me out of this sense of angst and anxiety and fear, all fear-based, all fear-based.

1:10:33Like since I was a kid, I just was afraid. And I, whether it was from trauma, whether it was from things, but I was that kid that was afraid to ask the girl to dance. I was afraid of what they would think of me. I was afraid to get up and answer the question in school. I was afraid to do public speaking. And by the way, and you realize too, is that, you know what? I wasn't the only one that was afraid, but I figured out how to deal with it. Not when I was that little, but at some point it became the answer to all of my problems until it became all of my problem. and um anyway and what you realize is when you talk to other people when you talk openly about it you realize how not alone you are because one of the things that addiction does it makes you feel that you're completely alone that you're terminally unique that like like like you you gotta be the only guy that ever left rehab and went and got a beer like like how how fucked up do I have to be to have done that to my wife?

1:11:36I'm going home to see my sons. Like how horrible human being do I have to be to have done that? They just put up with all of the things that got me to this rehab. I get in a taxi and the first thing I do is betray their trust. It makes you feel this big. Yeah. And then the only thing you can do for not feeling that big is your brain, literally, your brain chemistry. not your emotions not something you choose your brain chemistry is saying you're going to die if you don't take care of this and i know the way not to die and all it is is a right at the corner instead of a left to access to your answer on every street corner in america a beer you know what i read to help me understand for me a bottle of smirnoff out of a plastic bottle That addiction sits in the part of the brain and it's called the hypothalamus.

1:12:32And that's where the fight or flight reflex is. So for an addict, it literally kicks in the fight or flight reflex. And I am such a pragmatist and an evidence-based person when I understood the science behind it. And I understood that researchers had researched addict's brain and what it ignited. And that it was literally a fight or flight reflex that so many addicts relapse because they feel like it's a survival. It taps into the most lizard part of the brain. That's exactly right. And so that was really therapeutic for me to know. But again, so many people don't know this. And if people knew a lot of the facts surrounding this, it's still fucking hard to forgive an addict.

1:13:15Because it is, I will say this, when you were talking about selfish that you like to help people. this woman who helped me understand addiction she said she said i tell my husband all the time her husband's in recovery addiction is the most selfish fucking disease on the planet because when they're using it's all about them and then when they're in recovery it's all about the recovery yeah but it's true yeah and um but the recovery is melissa's down there watching this i know we got around no no no i didn't mean that i've been like she's gonna be like yeah You're so selfish. But I do think that it's a story that we need to scream from the rooftops.

1:13:52And I think MAGA did you the biggest favor for your recovery because there's no secret that you could keep, Hunter. And secrets make people relapse. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you. Okay. So one of the reasons is not just because we both agree. You got to strip away the stigma. We got to talk about it more. Why do we have to talk about it more? because I think that there's a solution that is as much scientific as it is, you know, the way in which we've figured out how to cobble together a support system for people in recovery, whatever kind of group that you go to because the community is really, really important in Tiener's stories.

1:14:33But the other part of it is because if 50 million Americans are suffering from a disease that causes more death and destruction than all the other diseases combined, It causes more destruction of the family unit than all of the other diseases combined. Like I said, families aren't breaking up because – or, you know, husbands and wives getting divorces and kids feeling ostracized and never wanting to speak to the parent again because of hearing loss, you know? I mean, really, it's not – it's this thing. Why don't we not have more scientific understanding of it? Because instead of ascribing a medical answer to it with deep, deep research, we've ascribed a moral failing to it.

1:15:21We have said – and one of the reasons that we keep doing that is because I believe what is the root of so many of our problems, because people are making a fuckload of money off of it. Tons, billions and billions and trillions of dollars. On both ends of it. On both ends. On the pharmaceutical end and the rehab racket. pharmaceutical end rehab racket yeah the um and then the the uh alcohol totally you know i mean i as i said everybody the thing that almost the thing that truly truly truly came this close to killing me each time was alcohol i was drinking a handle of vodka a day along with smoking crack but the only drug other than benzodiazepam that you can die from withdrawing from is alcohol.

1:16:05The alcohol is the hardest thing to stop. And it's the most ubiquitous. You go anywhere. And as soon as you do that, then you're back. All bets are off as relates to everything else. But also alcohol causes the most violence, causes the most destruction. It causes the most mayhem. It is the worst. It is the worst. There's nothing worse than being around a drunk person. So if we all talk about it, we all take it, you know, well, what does it mean? You know, where is it in the brain that this is occurring? I think that there's been such incredible advances as it relates to the potential of figuring out those things.

1:16:45You know, everybody, a lot of people in recovery are kind of like, well, you don't want to. It's not just about, you know, like hoping for the day that you can take a pill. And you know what I say? I hope there's a day you can take a pill that you're no longer an addict. You could save hundreds of millions of lives over the course of that. I mean, literally. I mean, because remember, when I say save lives, your life, my daughter's lives. Totally. To give back those years of like, you know, whether, you know, like you said, like I'm grateful for it all. Well, I would also be grateful if I didn't have to go through it to a certain degree too.

1:17:21Like I am really grateful for it. But it's, you know, I wouldn't recommend it. You know? And so, but that's why, that's why we need to talk about it. That's why you like moving it from, um, not just kind of like the, you know, discussion that happens in the background or between compatriots that, you know, feel like, fuck it, I can talk about it. to really, really talking about it. I want to have this place where people can come and share their stories so that not just people that are in addiction can read them, but the people that love them that are trying to find out the why, the question to the why.

1:18:00I think it would be really cool, right? Like a storyboard for recovery, you know? I think it's cool and I think it's so needed. Yeah. And I think that it's a great story arc to the one thing that people tried to define you as being this horrible shortcoming and something that you come back and help millions of other people. It'd be cool, wouldn't it? Really cool. Hunter, I could talk to you all day. Let's collab again. Yeah. Especially on this addiction stuff. 100%. Can we get Josh on? Oh, my gosh. The next time he's in. One beer, Josh. You and Josh would, y 'all should do a recovery podcast. No, really.

1:18:43I mean, seriously, he is so, because he comes at it at such a similar angle to you do. He just talks about very openly. Hunter Biden, thank you so much. I'm such a fan. I'm such a fan of yours. Thank you guys. I told Kylie before we connected, when you started coming out, I was like, I'm obsessed with Hunter Biden. I want him on the pod. So thank you so much for coming on. You too. Thanks guys. Thank you.