Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images; Samuel Corum via Getty Images
- Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Hunter Biden crossed swords over drug use during a deposition.
- Gaetz asked Hunter if he'd been on drugs while serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
- "Mr. Gaetz, look me in the eye. You really think that's appropriate to ask me?" Hunter replied.
A new transcript shows the tense moment Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida decided to go after Hunter Biden with probing questions about drugs — and what happened next.
Biden was testifying at a closed-door session with the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday when the GOP congressman raised the issue of drug use. Congress has been investigating Hunter Biden's business relationships as part of a GOP-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
"Were you on drugs when you were on the Burisma board?" Gaetz asked, referencing the Ukrainian energy company that Hunter Biden had served as a board member for.
"Mr. Gaetz, look me in the eye. You really think that's appropriate to ask me?" Biden replied.
"Absolutely," Gaetz said.
"Of all the people sitting around this table, do you think that's appropriate to ask me?" Biden asked Gaetz.
The tense moment comes on the heels of numerous news reports about Gaetz's partying. In April 2021, CNN reported that Gaetz had attended parties where people would share drugs like ecstasy and cocaine.
And in October, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Gaetz had boasted to other lawmakers about taking erectile dysfunction drugs with sports drinks so that "he could go all night."
"This is obviously before he got married," Mullin told CNN's Manu Raju.
Gaetz previously denied Mullin's claims in a statement to BI, calling it "a lie from someone who doesn't know me."
To be sure, Hunter hasn't shied away from talking about his battle with drug addiction. In his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," Hunter revealed that he was smoking crack cocaine every 15 minutes back in 2018.
"I will answer it this way: I have been absolutely transparent about my drug use," Hunter told Gaetz on Wednesday.
"Was I an addict? Yes, I was an addict," Hunter said. "What does that have to do with whether or not you're going to go forward with an impeachment of my father other than to simply try to embarrass me?"
Representatives for Gaetz and Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.