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Joe Biden's Son Got Booted from the Army for This

by Nuzha Nuseibeh

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal revealed that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's son was booted from the army for cocaine use, apparently less than a month after he'd been commissioned. It's not the first time the family of the man who coined the term "drug czar" has had drug-related hiccups — back in 2009, a video surfaced allegedly showing Ashley Biden, the Veep's daughter, also snorting coke. Clearly, drugs are a family focus. Just, er, not all quite in the same way.

According to the Journal's sources, Biden's son, Hunter, started the lengthy process of joining the reserves as a public affairs officer two years ago. In June of 2013, only a few weeks after he was commissioned — to serve for one weekend a month, by the way — he was given a drug test. Unfortunately for him, it came out positive for cocaine and, by February, he'd been discharged (and not honorably, in case you were wondering). At the time, no one knew the reason for the brief spell in the military.

Said Hunter Biden in a statement to Fox News Thursday:

It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy's decision. With the love and support of my family, I'm moving forward.
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It's not the first time that Hunter has been in the news this year. Around the time that Russia annexed Crimea — and the U.S., with the Veep at the helm, began a series of frantic diplomatic efforts to keep the crisis from escalating into a full-blown Russian-Ukraine war — Hunter Biden became the director of Ukraine's largest private gas company. The move looked sketchy, to say the least, and a lot of people were skeptical about just how much the Bidens could separate family politics from politics in general.

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What also isn't a first for the Bidens? Being caught with snow. Back in 2009, a video allegedly showing 27-year-old Ashley Biden snorting lines of white powder emerged and caused quite a bit of embarrassment for the Vice President. In spite (or maybe because?) of Biden's fierce role in the war on drugs — the guy's such a hardliner that he's not even convinced by medical marijuana, still calling weed a gateway drug — his family members seemingly don't have a problem with a lil' illegal fun.

Images: Getty Images (2)