Hunter Biden has confirmed he told his former media allies at CNN — specifically host Jake Tapper — to “go f**k” himself after the anchor repeatedly called asking for information when his brother Beau was dying of brain cancer in 2015.
The 55-year-old son of former President Joe Biden gave a rare interview to friendly media newsletter Breaker on Wednesday, confirming their long-running feud.
“It would be impossible to forget or misremember something that upsetting and out of line during one of the toughest moments of my life,” Hunter told Breaker. “It happened. I was furious.”
According to sources close to the situation, Tapper made multiple calls to Hunter’s cell phone while the Biden family was gathered at Walter Reed National Medical Center in May 2015 as Beau lay on his deathbed. After Hunter ignored these calls, Tapper reportedly called from a blocked number, which Hunter answered.
When Tapper allegedly asked Hunter to call him when Beau died, Hunter responded, “Go f**k yourself, Jake,” according to those present during the incident.
The confrontation didn’t end there. Two years later, the pair came face-to-face at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, where witnesses reported an angry interaction. When Tapper approached Hunter to shake his hand, Biden’s son allegedly told the CNN host that “I would knock you out” if they weren’t in a public setting.
Tapper has flatly denied Hunter’s stories, and said he was never feuded with the Biden family while working for CNN, and said it was because of Hunter’s drug use.
“This is a patently false lie,” he said in a statement. “At no point in my life have I ever called Hunter Biden — I’ve never even had his phone number — and I would never have contacted a person’s immediate family during such a challenging and personal time.”
The CNN anchor acknowledged the Super Bowl confrontation but claimed it was over different issues. “Hunter did once confront me at a Super Bowl party, but it was over an unrelated issue — coverage he wrongly believed I had done regarding divorce allegations of drug use and using prostitutes, which I actually had never done,” Tapper told Breaker.
However, a review of CNN archives shows Tapper did discuss allegations about Hunter’s drug use during an October 2014 segment.
The public feud erupted as Tapper promotes his new book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” co-authored with Axios reporter Alex Thompson. The book details former President Biden’s dangerous cognitive decline and the efforts by Democratic leaders, media members, and his family to conceal it.
During a promotional interview on Katie Couric’s “Next Question” podcast Tuesday, Tapper launched a blistering attack on Hunter.
“I think Hunter was driving the decision-making for the family in a way that people — he was almost like a chief of staff of the family,” Tapper said. “It’s bizarre because I think he is provably, demonstrably unethical, sleazy, and prone to horrible decisions.”
“After his brother died, he cheated on his wife with his brother’s widow and then got her addicted to crack. That’s just one thing I could say,” Tapper said. “I don’t have a lot of personal regard for him, and just based on having nothing to do with — I barely have ever met him. I’ve met him like once or twice.”
A source who spoke with Hunter after the Walter Reed incident described his reaction to Tapper’s call: “It was obviously transparent niceties and then right to business as if the one thing Hunter is thinking about as Beau is dying is let me give Jake Tapper an exclusive. He was furious about it.”
Tapper’s spokesperson dismissed the allegations.
“The idea that Jake could do something so heartless — and yet the Bidens would subsequently offer him multiple sit-down interviews as well as agree to him moderating the debate, all without anyone hearing about it until now — completely defies logic,” the spokesperson said.
The accusations come amid reports that CNN stars were frustrated by his lack of access to the Biden White House. apper only interviewed the former president once and reportedly had a “meltdown” when another anchor was given an off-the-record briefing with Biden before the 2024 State of the Union.
Thompson, Tapper’s co-author, claimed during the Couric podcast that protecting Hunter from legal consequences was likely one of the factors in Biden’s decision to run for a second term, and admitted that he believed Hunter at times abused their relationship.