President Joe Biden was apparently worried his communications with son Hunter Biden were being hacked in September of 2018, screenshots released by the Daily Mail suggest.
“Be careful what you text. Likely I’m being hacked,” Joe Biden wrote to his son, as he considered his 2020 campaign for president.
Perhaps the future president had reason to worry, because it’s no mystery Joe Biden in 1986 led the effort on the Senate Judiciary Committee to enact the “Anti-Drug Abuse Act,” establishing first time mandatory minimum sentences for drugs like cocaine. Any potential misstep regarding his son’s struggle with addiction could complicate Joe Biden’s political record.
Even so, screenshots indicate Joe Biden showed leniency towards Hunter and even offered money to pay for Hunter’s dentist bill. “Do you want me to do anything about the Maisy dentist bill?” Joe Biden asked.
Hunter replied, “It was to be paid yesterday… I’ll pay it when I have more money.”
“You need not pay be back. What do you want me to do, pay the dentist? Or anything else?” Joe Biden replied.
Hunter’s challenges may have caused his dad other conundrums, including the possible implication of misusing the Secret Service to protect his son against himself in an alleged case involving Hallie Biden finding a gun “inside of Hunter Biden’s pickup” and tossing “it in a trash can behind a grocery store where they frequently shopped.”
Apparently, though, Hunter may not have always been a political liability. According to the Daily Mail, “When the former Delaware senator was elected Vice President in 2008, it put an end to Hunter’s lucrative career as a lobbyist to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.”
This encouraged Hunter to “embark on a series of controversial business ventures” while falling “into a cycle of crack and prostitute binges, scandal and rehab.”
But “resentment” seemed to be percolating by February 2019 between the father and son, when Joe Biden presumably, according to screenshots, messaged Hunter, wishing him “Good morning my beautiful son. I miss you and love you. Dad.”
Hunter’s response was not so soft, as he was angered at his father for “having made clear to the world that the only reason for not [running for president is your] family problems im glad to be the f***ing bullseye you painted on my back.”
“Your team just made me the uncontrollable troubled tax cheat philanderer sex and drug addict that you tried so hard to fix but couldn’t yt. They just totally wrote my life away,” Hunter continued. “If you dont run ill never have a chance at redemption.”
Joe Biden ignored Hunter’s complaints by saying he would run for president, reminding Hunter again he was a “target” for hacks. “I’ll run but I need you. H[allie] is wrong. Only focus is recovery. Nothing else… When you can and feel like it call. Positive my text etc a target. Love.”
Joe Biden announced his intentions to run for president only two months later.