Tucker Carlson asked Hunter Biden for help with his son’s application to Georgetown University, according to resurfaced emails between the former neighbours and unlikely one-time acquaintances.
The emails, verified by The Washington Post, reveal that the Fox News host and his wife Susie Carlson reached out to President Joe Biden’s son in 2014 asking him to send a recommendation letter to get Buckley Carlson into the prestigious Washington DC college.
The right-wing TV host told Mr Biden that his son was good at squash and fly fishing and “loves Washington for all the right reasons”.
“He loves Washington for all the right reasons, I think and really wants to go to school here,” he wrote.
His wife also sent an email asking Mr Biden to “meet or speak to” their son about going to the school, which the president’s son had graduated from many years earlier.
“I realize you don’t really know Buckley,” she wrote.
“Maybe you could meet or speak to him and he could send you a very brief resume with his interests and grades attached.”
She added: “Tucker and I would be so grateful if you could write a letter or speak to someone in the Georgetown Admission’s [sic] Office about Buckley.”
Mr Biden, whose father was the vice president at the time, told the couple that he would be happy to help by writing a letter of recommendation to the university.
“I will do anything you would like me to do,” he wrote in an email.
The following day, Carlson thanked the president’s son for writing a letter for his son and suggested they meet for dinner.
“I can’t thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Buckley’s behalf,” he wrote in an email.
“So nice of you. I know it’ll help. Hope you’re great and we can all get dinner soon.”
Ms Carlson also responded by telling Mr Biden: “Tucker and I have the greatest respect and admiration for you. Always!”
The emails were discovered on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden which he reportedly left at a computer repair store in 2019.
The laptop fell into the hands of Donald Trump’s attorney and promoter of the “Big Lie” Rudy Giuliani who later handed the hard drive to several media organisations.
The Washington Post said it had verified the emails between Carlson and Mr Biden with the help of a forensic specialist.
The emails reveal an unlikely connection between Carlson – who uses his show to push right-wing conspiracy theories – and Mr Biden – the son of the Democratic president.
But they also indicate that the Fox host is willing to use his own position of power and important connections to his son’s advantage – something that he has long accused Hunter Biden of doing with his own father’s position of power and important connections.
In the years after the email communications, the Fox host has often hit out at Mr Biden on his show, accusing him of benefitting from business dealings because of his father’s position as vice president and then president.
During one show in January 2020, Carlson accused Mr Biden of getting “lucrative jobs” because of his “important father” and “shamelessly cashing in on his family name”.
It is unclear if the Fox host’s son was accepted into Georgetown or not thanks to help from Mr Biden.
Buckley Carlson ended up going to the University of Virginia and now works as the communications director for Republican Rep Jim Banks.
When asked about the emails, Carlson told The Washington Post – with apparent irony – that the emails were “Russian disinformation”.
“I can’t confirm these emails. The emails that you’re referring to were described by our intel community as Russian disinformation,” he said, an apparent reference to past claims from US intelligence officials.
In October 2020, after the New York Post first reported on the contents of some of Mr Biden’s emails, dozens of officials agreed that their release had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”.
Carlson has often mocked those claims on his show – where he has also repeatedly spoken about the contents of Mr Biden’s laptop.
Carlson said that he and the president’s son used to be neighbours and their wives were friends.
“I knew him well. I talked to him many times about addiction, something I know a lot about,” he said.
It is not clear what could have led to such a drastic change in relationship between the two men.
