President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has accused Republicans of trying to “kill” him in an effort to undermine his father’s presidency.
His death “would be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle”, the younger Biden told musician Moby in a podcast that aired on Friday.
The first of the two-part broadcast was recorded before Mr Biden was charged with nine major tax crimes on Thursday.
Republicans have accused the president and his son of influence-peddling.
The White House has dismissed a congressional impeachment inquiry into the president as a “fishing expedition”.
Hunter Biden, a recovering crack cocaine addict, was speaking from his home in Malibu, California, to Moby, whom he befriended while in recovery for drug and alcohol abuse.
“They are trying to, in their most illegitimate … but rational way, they’re trying to destroy a presidency,” he said in the episode of Moby Pod.
“What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to kill me, knowing that it will be a pain greater than my father could be able to handle, and so therefore destroying a presidency in that way,” he said, adding that they want him to relapse to drug abuse.
“It’s not about me,” he continued, adding that “these people are just sad, very, very sick people that have most likely just faced traumas in their lives that they’ve decided that they are going to turn into an evil that they decide that they’re going to inflict on the rest of the world”.
He also accused conservative news outlets of “harassing” him.
Mr Biden added: “I’m gonna survive it clean and sober, is because I am not gonna let these [expletive], OK, use me as just another example of why people in recovery are never gonna be OK, never to be trusted, they’re all degenerates.”
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in California filed an indictment that accuses Hunter Biden of failing to pay taxes from 2016-2019 and instead pursuing an “extravagant lifestyle” of drugs and escorts.
He is also facing a separate investigation for allegedly lying about his drug use on a gun application form.
As President Biden flew to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday for a campaign event, his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked aboard Air Force One about the latest charges for Hunter.
She said Mr Biden is “proud of his son”.
By BBC News
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