As old President Joe Biden seems to be slipping cognitively, in addition to literally slipping on the stairs of Air Force One as it happened again very recently, the whole world is left wondering who is really in charge at the White House.
Is it the weary chief of staff Ron Klain making the behind-the-scenes calls? Is it the fellow White House counsel Steve Ricchetti? Or is it first lady Jill Biden?
But then there’s another worrisome prospect: the “smartest man” Joe Biden ever knew, his son, the crack addict turned blowgun artist Hunter Biden.
Hunter’s friends say he discusses the intricacies of Ukrainian politics and other affairs of state over the dinner table with his father during his routine weekend visits to Delaware or Camp David.
One ex-friend describes him as his dad’s “closest advisor.”
Hunter also boasted to his former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, in May 2017 that he had his father’s ear and could make him do what he wanted by getting around his guards and talking directly to him.
A close friend and advisor of McConaughey, Morris lent Hunter more than $2 million to pay outstanding tax bills and his $20,000 rent in Malibu.
And now, in a previously unreleased voice recording from an iPhone backup on Hunter’s abandoned laptop, Biden’s son is overheard bragging at length about his political influence on his father.
“He’s going to talk about drug reform and any other thing that I want him to. [Joe Biden] thinks I’m a god.”
Originally recorded in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on December 3th, 2018, while Hunter was undergoing a rare drug treatment program with therapist Keith Ablow, the audio file was delivered to The Post by the nonprofit research group Marco Polo which is working on a detailed report in the laptop.
Hunter said to Horan that his dad “will talk about anything I want him to believe. If I say it’s important to me, then he’ll find a way to make it part of his platform.”
Hunter brags about how he intends to build on the notoriety “if my dad becomes president…
“I was on the front page of every f–king newspaper including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times…”
The entire conversation, which was recorded on Hunter’s iPhone XS, takes the form of an interview in which Horan is asking Hunter personal questions regarding his addiction and his family about an upcoming artistic project they are planning.
Hunter had earlier described the project to another friend through a text message.
At some point in the recording Hunter instructs Horan not to be concerned about being under the shadow of his famous father.
Hunter has embraced sobriety in 2019, having married his second wife, the divorced South African documentary filmmaker Melissa Cohen.
He passes his time by painting and awaiting the outcome of the grand jury investigation into allegations of money laundering, tax evasion and foreign agent violations.
And for one thing, he’s advising the president. That anyone is listening is another matter.