First Presidential Debate 2020: Trump says 'I don't know Beau', attacks Hunter Biden's military record instead
President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, September 29, attacked Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter while saying "I don't know Beau" when speaking of the former vice president's late son. This was when Biden was talking about Beau's military career. Trump, instead, invoked Hunter's issues with substance abuse, his position on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and claimed that he was dishonorably discharged from the military.
In one of the most contentious exchanges during the debate, Biden slammed Trump for claims made in a report in The Atlantic that POTUS had called fallen and wounded military members "losers" and "suckers". The former vice president said: "My son was in Iraq, he spent a year there. He got the Bronze Star, he got the Conspicuous Service Medal," he said of Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015. "He was not a loser. He was a patriot, and the people left behind there were heroes."
The president, however, interrupted Biden, saying: "Are you talking about Hunter?" To which Biden says, "I'm talking about my son, Beau Biden." Trump then interrupted him again, saying: "I don't know Beau, I know Hunter."
The Republican then pivoted and claimed without evidence that Hunter was dishonorably discharged from the military and "made a fortune" in Ukraine and Russia. The former vice president then refuted Trump's claims about his son but acknowledged that Hunter had issues with drugs. Biden said: "He's fixed it, he's worked on it. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of my son." A pair of Republican-led Senate committees had initiated an investigation into Hunter's tenure on the board of Burisma. Their report, however, concluded that the "extent to which Hunter Biden's role on Burisma's board affected US policy toward Ukraine is not clear".
The Democratic presidential nominee, months after announcing his bid for the 2020 White House run, opened up about Beau saying he "should be the one running for president, not me".
Beau, born as Joseph R Biden III in 1969, Wilmington, Delaware, was the eldest son of the former vice president and his first wife Neilia. Beau's younger sister, Naomi, and their mother, however, were killed in a car accident while they were Christmas shopping on December 18, 1972. Beau, who was just four at the time, and his brother Hunter, 2, were both in the car when the accident occurred but both survived. The two brothers, however, sustained critical injuries, with Beau suffering multiple broken bones and Hunter sustaining injuries on his skull.
The brothers, according to some reports, encouraged Biden to get married again. Nearly four years after the tragedy, Biden married Jill Jacobs and the brothers welcomed her as their second mother. Beau, meanwhile, studied law and graduated from Syracuse University College of Law and later worked at the United States Department of Justice in Philadelphia, first as Counsel to the Office of Policy Development and later as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office. Beau, in 2004, became a partner in the law firm of Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick, and nearly two years later, was elected Delaware attorney general, serving two terms. He also became a Major in the Delaware Army National Guard.
In 2014, Beau announced plans to run for governor of Delaware in 2016, however, his plans were sidelined by a mild stroke. A year later, on May 30, 2015, he died of brain cancer at the age of 46. He spent his final moments at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.