Six Takeaways From Hunter Biden’s Testimony

The president’s son insisted his father had nothing to do with his business deals, offered a blunt and unflattering account of his own conduct and said he did not know or could not remember key details.

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Hunter Biden arriving to testify in a closed-door hearing in Washington on Wednesday.

After years of pursuing Hunter Biden, the president’s son, Republicans finally got their chance to question him during a more than six-hour interview on Wednesday, as they hunted for evidence to try to impeach his father.

Republicans quickly released a 229-page transcript of the interview, which depicts Hunter Biden as eager to confront G.O.P. lawmakers over their accusations that he and his father had committed wrongdoing through his international business deals.

Despite pending criminal charges against him, Mr. Biden, 54, never invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Instead he sparred with Republicans, criticizing their questions while offering explanations — often ones that were exceedingly unflattering to himself — for his actions.

Throughout the interview, Mr. Biden maintained that his father had never been involved in his business deals, and insisted that blame for his misdeeds should not fall on the elder Mr. Biden.

“My mistakes and my shortcomings are my own and not my father’s,” Hunter Biden testified.

Here are 10 takeaways from his long-awaited testimony.

He described himself as “an absolute ass and idiot.”

Throughout the session, Hunter Biden’s determination to defend his father appeared matched only by his willingness to acknowledge his own personal failings in blunt and sometimes colorful terms.

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