Joe Biden Staged an Intervention For Hunter Biden’s Addiction Struggles Amid 2020 Presidential Run

Anyone who has experienced a family member battling addiction knows how hard it is to bear. Hunter Biden is detailing his demons in upcoming memoir Beautiful Things and sharing some of his story with CBS News on Sunday, April 4 and Monday, April 5 ahead of the book’s release. In an advance clip released today, Hunter opens up for the first time about the role that his father President Joe Biden played in helping him get sober in recent years, revealing that dad Joe helped stage an intervention over his drug use in the midst of his last presidential campaign.

The Biden family staged an intervention in 2019 at their Delaware home while Joe was running for president. Hunter’s addiction was triggered after the death of his younger brother Beau Biden in 2015 and the immense grief he experienced in its wake. At the time, Hunter really wasn’t interested in what his family had to say about his substance abuse and he tried to flee the scene.

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That’s when the stressful family moment took a really sad turn as Hunter’s daughters from his first marriage to Kathleen Buhle, Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy, begged their father to reconsider the situation and enter rehab. It was their grandfather who stepped in to do the bravest act of all — hug his son, who was obviously in tremendous pain.

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“He grabbed me in a hug,” Hunter told CBS News in the teaser video about his dad, Joe. “He grabbed me, gave a bear hug, and he said –— and just cried and said, ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. Please.'”

His daughters also tried their best to convince their dad that he needed help, including physically stopping him from getting in a car and driving away.

“I tried to go to my car,” Hunter continued. “And my girls literally blocked the door to my car. Said, ‘Dad, Dad, please. You can’t. No, no.’ This was the hardest part of the book to write.”

Hunter was not done with drugs at that point and was trying to think of any way out of his current situation to go take a hit. “It’s the only thing I could think. Literally,” he revealed. “That’s how powerful. I don’t know of a force more powerful than my family’s love, except addiction.”

The father of five is now sober, but it has not been an easy path for him — and his addiction was the source of much scrutiny during the 2020 presidential campaign. Yet President Biden and his family have stood by Hunter through thick and through thin because they hope that their love is stronger than the calling of substance abuse.

The two-part interview with Hunter Biden air on CBS Sunday Morning on Sunday at 9 a.m. ET and CBS This Morning on Monday at 7 a.m. ET.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, you can get help by calling the Drug Addiction Hotline at 1-877-813-5721.

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Click here to see our favorite photos of Joe Biden being a loving dad.

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