Biden Son Kicked Out of Navy for Cocaine Use

Hunter Biden flunked Navy Reserve drug test
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 17, 2014 12:05 AM CDT
Updated Oct 17, 2014 7:33 AM CDT
Biden Son Was Kicked Out of Navy for Cocaine Use
In this Jan. 30, 2010, photo, Vice President Joe Biden, left, is seen with his son Hunter, right, at the Duke-Georgetown NCAA college basketball game in Washington.   (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

A big embarrassment for the Biden clan: Joe Biden's younger son was kicked out of the Navy after testing positive for cocaine last year, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. Hunter Biden, now 44, applied to join the Navy Reserve at the age of 42 and was commissioned as an ensign in May last year. He flunked a drug test when he reported to his unit the next month, according to the sources, who say Biden needed waivers to join the Navy because of his age and because of a drug-related incident in his youth. He was discharged in February of this year, and a Navy spokesman says the details of the discharge are "not releasable under the Privacy Act."

Biden, a lawyer and a partner at an investment firm, says he regrets the incident, Reuters reports. "It was the honor of my life to serve in the US Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge," he said in a statement released by his lawyer. "I respect the Navy's decision. With the love and support of my family, I'm moving forward." In January of last year, the vice president—whose older son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, is a major in the Delaware Army National Guard—joked that "we have a lot of bad judgment in my family," telling an American Legion audience that his "son, who is over 40, just joined the United States Navy." (More cocaine stories.)

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