Biden says ‘I’m proud of my son’ to reporter who asked if Hunter committed a crime

President-elect Joe Biden, when asked on Friday by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy if his son Hunter committed a crime, Biden said that he’s proud of his son.

On Wednesday, Hunter Biden revealed to the public in a bombshell statement that he is under federal investigation regarding his taxes.

RELATED: Hunter Biden confirms federal investigation into his tax affairs

On top of that, the past few months have also seen Hunter at the center of increasing controversy, when The New York Post published the details of emails it had obtained from his laptop in an exposé, purporting to show that he leveraged his father’s position as the Obama administration’s public face of its policy toward Ukraine in his business dealings.

In the 15-second clip, President-elect Biden is standing up from behind a table to leave Friday’s transition team press briefing announcing staff, when Doocy—lobs the heavy question from off camera.

“Did Hunter Biden commit a crime?” Doocy shouted at President-elect Biden. “Have you spoken to your son, Mr. President-elect?”

“I’m proud of my son,” Biden replied softly, with the video clip ending after that.

This isn’t the first time that the president-elect has expressed his pride in his son since Wednesday’s statement from the younger Biden.

The Biden-Harris transition team on Wednesday said of the federal investigation that the president-elect is “deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger.”

Hunter, like his father, has experienced difficult challenges in his life, all while in the public eye. Notably, Hunter’s biological mother and younger sister were killed in a tragic car crash in December 1972, when his father was just elected to the U.S. Senate for the first time. Hunter and his older brother Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015, were in the car and seriously injured.

Later in his life, Hunter would also struggle immensely in his battle with drug addiction, which President-elect Biden has spoken publicly about.

“My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem,” Biden said during the September 29 debate with Trump, after the president went after Hunter for his 2014 discharge from the U.S. Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine.

“He’s overtaken it, he’s fixed it, he’s worked on it, and I’m proud of him,” Biden added.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.