Hunter Biden blames ‘hypocrite’ Obama-era aides for not letting him lobby for US universities

WASHINGTON, DC: Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, on Tuesday attempted to shift blame for his controversial foreign business dealings to aides of former President Barack Obama.

He described their actions as ‘distasteful’ and claimed they pushed him away from domestic work and into overseas ventures, according to a lengthy podcast interview on ‘The Shawn Ryan Show.’

In a five-hour appearance, the 55-year-old former first son defended his record and criticized influential Democrats from the Obama era.

Hunter Biden says Obama aides forced him out of domestic lobbying

Hunter Biden blamed aides to former President Barack Obama for forcing him to start back at ‘square one’ because of concerns about conflicts of interest tied to his domestic lobbying work.

“Obama picked him to be vice president. And in so doing, he had a group of people that I find to be really distasteful and hypocrites, but they said that I needed to give up my [domestic lobbying work],” Hunter said.

Hunter said he initially worked in domestic lobbying, representing universities and other clients. However, officials from the Obama administration pressured him to leave that work due to concerns about conflicts of interest after his father became vice president.

“I was working for these universities, but I was assisting them both in the legal and the policy perspective and lobbying to help them get money… I was a lobbyist, and so I voluntarily, but with a lot of pressure from them, none from my dad, had to give up that business,” he continued.

Hunter said in his woe-is-me account that he had been earning money from “like 14, 15 Jesuit universities. And that was my entire practice and I was really proud of it.” “And so I basically started back in square one,” he said.

“And I started a consulting firm because I also stepped down from the board of Amtrak because they said that that was a conflict of interest, and they were concerned that it was a conflict of interest,” the former first son said.

Hunter Biden admits Burisma board role was a mistake

Hunter Biden admitted he joined the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings in 2014, despite lacking relevant experience. The decision later drew heavy scrutiny and criticism from Republicans, who alleged possible influence peddling tied to his father’s role in Ukraine policy.

“I was very, very naive about what a viper’s den Ukraine is. What an absolute, like, talk about a, like, a level of corruption that [is] still staggering,” said Hunter, whose father led the Obama administration’s Ukraine portfolio.

“It was absolutely a mistake,” he said of the Burisma job, “not because of anything that I did that I am embarrassed about or in any way whatsoever feel conflicted about as it relates to what I did for Burisma. But because of the political position that it put us all in.”

In the interview, Hunter said he is about $15 million in debt, partly due to legal costs from investigations and lawsuits related to materials from his controversial laptop.