We’ve been deprived of many amazing comedy moments in politics. In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam had plans to defuse a controversy about him wearing blackface by moonwalking for journalists until, tragically, his wife intervened to stop him. Then there’s the fool who stopped Donald Trump from tearing open his shirt to reveal a Superman logo when he emerged from the hospital after having COVID.
Now we can add another missed comedy moment to the list, as in another reality, Hunter Biden attempted to rehabilitate his reputation by touring ‘famed Black churches’ to save them from the specter of crack addiction.
The revelation comes from Jake Tapper’s new book Original Sin, which details the low points of the Biden presidency. Much attention has been given to how White House staffers covered up Biden’s health and cognitive decline, but there’s also this juicy nugget of insanity about Hunter.
An insane detail in the Tapper/Thompson book on Biden: When Hunter published his memoir ("Beautiful Things") he wanted to tour Black churches in South Carolina to talk about his crack addiction pic.twitter.com/GJrPjwzcx9
— Matthew Sitman (@MatthewSitman) May 25, 2025
Hunter Biden was, understandably, considered a nuisance: “any day spent discussing Hunter and his antics was a bad day for Joe Biden”. They specifically recount an occasion in April 2021 when Hunter was trying to “recast himself” through “a book tour through South Carolina, stopping at famed Black churches to talk about his crack addiction.”
Hunter apparently believed he could “provide some hope to those with loved ones battling addiction,” but Biden’s team argued against it, saying it’d be a “tone-deaf” circus. I mean, yes, absolutely, it would have been a complete disaster, but it would also have been extremely funny.
What’s Hunter doing now?
After his dad controversially pardoned him in the final days of his presidency, Hunter is now a free man. But it seems the party has finally ended. Back in March, ABC reported that he’s “mired in debt, without a permanent home, and the target of ongoing attacks from the current president.”
Technically, he’s a professional artist, but he last sold a painting in 2023 (for $36,000, presumably to someone trying to butter up Joe), and the debts have been racking up. Hunter was also affected by the Palisades fires in January, which left him effectively homeless. It was all supposed to go so differently! As he said in March:
“Given the positive feedback and reviews of my artwork and memoir, I was expecting to obtain paid speaking engagements and paid appearances, but that has not happened,”
And, of course, he still has Trump and his cronies breathing down his neck, doubtless determined to fulfil their longtime ambition of seeing him behind bars. All of which means we don’t envy him right now.
