Valerie Biden Owens defends Hunter as blameless victim, blames Trump's 'right-wing followers'
Valerie Biden Owens kicked off a book tour this month ahead of her new memoir, "Growing Up Biden: A Memoir.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden’s younger sister Valerie Biden Owens defended her nephew Hunter Biden as a victim of conservative attacks amid controversy around his notorious laptop and allegations of financial misconduct.
"No," Owens told USA Today when asked if her nephew bears some responsibility for the controversies.
"Hunter walked through hell. He didn't wake up and say, 'Aunt Val, I think I'm going to be an addict. And so whatever happens, it's my responsibility.'" She instead praised him for having "courage" and "strength" to fight his addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOP LAWMAKERS BLAST HUNTER BIDEN SECRET SERVICE DETAIL'S $30K MONTHLY RENT FOR MANSION
The president’s younger sister kicked off a book tour last Thursday ahead of the drop of her new memoir, "Growing Up Biden: A Memoir." Owens has served as the president’s longtime political confidante, working as his campaign manager for all seven of his Senate campaigns and advising her brother during all three of his presidential campaigns.
Valerie Biden, sister of Joe Biden, speaks to supporters at her brother's New Hampshire primary night rally in Nashua on Feb. 11, 2020. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
Hunter Biden has kept a low-profile in recent weeks as Republicans on Capitol Hill push to investigate his overseas financial ties. The financial dealings have been highly publicized since the New York Post dropped a bombshell report on the contents of a laptop he left at a Delaware repair shop ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Owens dismissed the notion that the worst is yet to come for the Biden family, according to the report.
"I don't know what could be worse than Beau's dying of glioblastoma when he was 46 years old," she said "I don't know what could be worse than watching Hunter walk through hell. You never say the worst is over, but whatever comes, we can handle it as a family."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The report noted that Owens’ family knew she was "nervous about the USA TODAY interview," and that her brother James Biden and his wife Sarah "unexpectedly" showed up to the interview to offer "moral support." They stayed out of camera shot of the interview held at the Biden Institute within the University of Delaware, but stayed in Owen’s line of vision, sitting against a wall during the hour-long conversation.
The Washington Post has confirmed the authenticity of Hunter Biden's infamous laptop. (Randy Holmes via Getty Images)
"Trump and his right-wing followers have continued to do whatever they can to discredit the family and therefore to bring Joe down," she said.
Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson took to the Senate floor last month and sounded the alarm on Hunter Biden’s financial connections to the Chinese government.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Hunter Biden and James Biden received millions of dollars from companies connected to the communist Chinese regime. But, frankly, it’s worse than that. These companies were effectively an arm of the Chinese Government," Johnson said on March 30.
"This isn’t Russian disinformation. These are hard facts backed up by bank records of actual financial transactions that prove just how connected the Bidens were, and now how compromised President Biden probably is."
The New York Post’s 2020 bombshell report on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop was largely dismissed by the media at the time as "Russian disinformation." But liberal media outlets changed their tunes in 2022 after newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times authenticated thousands of his emails.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A federal investigation into Hunter Biden, which began in 2018, is now reportedly heating as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware seek grand jury testimony over the sources of his foreign income.
Owens also defended the president, who she called "Joey" during the interview, and his often-criticized stumbling speeches and anecdotes.
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie via Getty Images)
"My brother's a stutterer, and he still stutters and tries to get things out," she said. "And what did really make me mad and drive me crazy was when he would go to speak, and there would be a hesitancy, and the critique from the bad guys, the right wing, was that he's not smart; he didn't know what he was saying."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The siblings also often talk on the phone, usually at about 10 p.m., according to Owens.
"When he calls, I don't talk about what happened with Putin today," she told USA Today. "We talk about family. It's a respite...."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We talk about nothing, and in talking about nothing, we talk about everything," she said. "I don't have to say a whole lot, because we understand each other."
Joe and Jill Biden and Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff arrive at the U.S. Capitol for the start of inauguration ceremonies on Jan. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Hunter Biden has been out of the public’s eye in recent weeks, but his wife Melissa Cohen was spotted at a posh Los Angeles restaurant on Friday near their Malibu home.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reports surfaced this month that the Secret Service is paying $30,000 per month in taxpayer funds to rent out a house near the Biden family’s $20,000 per month Malibu home. Cohen appeared to be accompanied by Secret Service agents during her outing on Friday.
Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller, Cameron Cawthorne and Peter Hasson contributed to this report.