Biden Says 'His Family, We Could Talk About All Night' as Trump Goes After Hunter on Debate Stage

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump went where his rival Joe Biden said he did not want them to go — renewing criticism of Biden's son Hunter’s past personal issues and controversial business dealings.

"We want to talk about families and ethics. I don't want to do that," Biden said during one of several back-and-forths in the volatile first presidential debate, as Trump seized on questions about Hunter's character.

Biden continued: "I mean, his family we could talk about all night" — referring to longstanding criticism about how Trump has mixed his private and government affairs, with his oldest sons nominally in charge of his Trump Organization while his oldest daughter is a senior White House adviser.

Trump cut in to say, "My family lost a fortune by coming down and helping us with government."

"This is not about my family or his family," Biden argued, directly addressing the camera. "It's about your family, the American people."

"China ate your lunch, Joe," said Trump, after an exchange regarding the economy during the novel coronavirus pandemic. "And no wonder — your son goes in and takes out billions of dollars, and he makes millions of dollars."

The president also accused Hunter of earning $3.5 million from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow, a reference to a report released by two GOP-led Senate panels last week. That report delved into Hunter's relationship with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which once gave him a lucrative position on its board.

Critics have said the report itself found nothing new or illegal on behalf of Biden's son, and that it largely repackaged facts already known to the public.

No evidence of wrongdoing has emerged, though government officials did previously voice concerns over even the appearance of impropriety with Hunter's work while his father was in office.

The lack of any bombshell findings didn't stop Trump from seizing on it at Tuesday's debate. (The president's fixation with looking for possible wrongdoing involving Hunter and Ukraine also led to his impeachment last year.)

Defending his son, Biden said the claims had been “totally, thoroughly discredited.″

While moderator Chris Wallace eventually steered the conversation in a new direction, Trump was quick to bring up Hunter later in the debate — in the more personal confrontation — again mentioning the $3.5 million allegation a little over an hour into the event.

The former vice president took the opportunity to talk about his other son, the late Beau Biden, a former National Guardsman and state attorney general who died of brain cancer in 2015.

″And speaking of my son, the way you talk about the military,″ Biden said, referring to reports Trump has disparaged service members, which he denies. ″You call them losers ... and suckers. My son was in Iraq. My son was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes.″

Ignoring the comments about Beau, Trump again brought up Biden's other son, Hunter.

"I don't know Beau, I know Hunter," he said, claiming the latter "got thrown out of the military ... dishonorably discharged for cocaine use."

Saying ″that is simply not true,″ Biden instead said Hunter had faced his troubles.

″Like a lot of people we know at home, my son ... had a drug problem,″ he said. ″[Hunter] worked on it. He fixed it. And I'm proud of him. But he wasn't given tens of millions ... that is totally discredited."

Hunter was discharged from the Navy in 2014 after failing a drug test, but it was not dishonorably as Trump said.

In recent years, Hunter's tumultuous personal life has made him a major target of his father's detractors. In addition to his issues with addiction, he also faced a paternity lawsuit from a woman in Arkansas who said he was ignoring their baby together, which was ultimately proved by DNA.

Last year Hunter, who was previously in a relationship with his brother's widow, married a filmmaker named Melissa Cohen after a whirlwind romance. She reportedly gave birth to their child in the spring.