During the presidential debate Tuesday, President Donald Trump interrupted Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s tribute to his late son, Beau, to attack Biden’s other son, Hunter.
Biden had been answering a question from debate moderate Chris Wallace of Fox News about why voters should choose him over Trump in the 2020 election.
“The fact is that I’ve gone head to head with Putin and made it clear we’re not going to take any of his stuff,” Biden said, referencing his experience with the Russian president during his tenure as vice president.
“He’s Putin’s puppy,” Biden said of Trump.
The president, interrupting Biden, fired back that Hunter was paid $3.5 million by “Putin’s best friend.” The accusation appeared to stem from a claim made in a report released last week by the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees.
In the report, the committees allege a Russian businesswoman wired millions of dollars to an investment firm co-founded by Hunter in 2014. Hunter’s attorney has refuted the allegation, stating Hunter neither co-founded the firm nor had a financial relationship with the woman.
After Wallace urged Trump to stick to the debate rules and stop interrupting, Biden continued to state why he believes Trump is a weak president.
“And speaking of my son, the way you talk about the military, the way you talk about them being losers and just being suckers,” Biden said, referring to a report published in The Atlantic earlier this month that alleged Trump repeatedly disparaged U.S. service members.
“My son was in Iraq,” Biden continued. “He spent a year there. He got the Bronze Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes. And I resent like hell ―”
But before Biden could finish his statement about his eldest son, Beau, the former Delaware attorney general who died of brain cancer in 2015, Trump interrupted him again to attack Hunter.
“I don’t know Beau,” Trump said. “I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out ― dishonorably discharged.”
Hunter was discharged from the Navy in 2013 after testing positive for cocaine. Trump’s claim that he was dishonorably discharged, a punitive discharge handed down by a general court-martial, is false.
“My son, like a lot of people ... had a drug problem,” Biden shot back at Trump. “He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
Watch the exchange below: