<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Hunter Biden, whose conviction on gun and tax charges and <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/hunter-biden-legal-troubles-timeline.html" title="">subsequent pardon</a> by his father caused a furor on right-wing media, recently sat for a warm, nearly two-hour interview with Candace Owens, a popular right-wing podcaster and conspiracy theorist.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0"><a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux1kzgQxkws" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">The interview</a> was filmed last week at Ms. Owens’s home in Nashville and released Thursday. It came at a moment when Ms. Owens has joined a small but influential group of conservative voices who have <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/us/politics/trump-tucker-carlson-candace-owens.html" title="">turned on the Trump administration</a> over the war with Iran and the government’s handling of files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Mr. Biden has given few interviews since his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr., left office as president. But the younger Mr. Biden found time for Ms. Owens, who has been accused of defamation in recent lawsuits filed <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/world/europe/macron-lawsuit-candace-owens-defamation.html" title="">by the French president and first lady</a>, and by the <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/business/media/candace-owens-defamation-charlie-kirk.html" title="">former head of security</a> for Charlie Kirk, the prominent right-wing political activist who was killed in September.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Mr. Biden’s appearance with Ms. Owens brought together two figures who find themselves out of step with their longtime parties. <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/us/politics/hunter-biden-podcast.html" title="">Mr. Biden has been fiercely critical</a> of Democrats’ effort to push his father to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8m_6D4QGmk&amp;t=3867s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Ms. Owens says she feels “betrayed”</a> by Mr. Trump.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The genial meeting would have been all but unimaginable during the Biden administration — a period in which Ms. Owens called <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/RealCandaceO/status/1380292628479086597" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">for the younger Mr. Biden’s imprisonment</a>. But during the conversation, they seemed to find plenty of common ground.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Here are five memorable moments from the unusual interview:</p><h3 class="css-xbcl5e e1gnsphs0" id="link-39f927ee"><span><strong class="css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10">Mr. Biden said cocaine found in the Biden White House was not his.</strong></span></h3><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The conversation began with what Ms. Owens described as a “question for the culture”: whether cocaine discovered in the White House during his father’s presidency belonged to the younger Mr. Biden, <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/hunter-biden-legal-troubles-timeline.html" title="">who had a decades-long addiction</a> to alcohol and crack cocaine.</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1u67kh9" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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