'Evil incarnate': Hunter Biden takes aim at Netanyahu in Tucker Carlson interview

Hunter Biden has described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "evil incarnate" and said that Israeli-linked figures were involved in circulating his personal material ahead of the 2020 US presidential election, as he joined conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in a sweeping attack on Israel's influence over US politics.

"If pointing out that Benjamin Netanyahu is evil incarnate is antisemitic, then I don't know what to tell people anymore," Biden said.

He also defended Carlson against accusations of antisemitism, telling him: "I know 100 percent that you’re not antisemitic", adding that such accusations were being used to shut down criticism of Netanyahu.

The two men also discussed the controversy surrounding Biden's laptop, which emerged shortly before the 2020 presidential election and became a major focus of Republican attacks against Biden and his father.

Biden suggested that several groups had been involved in obtaining or distributing his personal material, including Russian-Ukrainian actors, Americans and what he described as a "Netanyahu operation centre, the Israeli side".

Carlson also said that Israeli figures had been involved in spreading false claims about what was contained on Biden’s laptop.

The conservative commentator said a person "connected to Netanyahu" had approached a producer on his former Fox News programme and claimed the laptop contained abusive images of children.

"That came from the Israelis," Carlson said, before adding: "They were behind that."

No evidence has emerged that the laptop contained abusive images of children, despite conspiracy theories that circulated online following its emergence.

The laptop controversy erupted in October 2020, weeks before Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the presidential election, after the New York Post published emails and other material it said came from a computer Hunter Biden had left at a Delaware repair shop.

Some emails contained in copies of the laptop data were later independently authenticated, but the material also became the subject of numerous unsubstantiated claims about Biden and his family.

Carlson, who at the time hosted one of Fox News's most-watched programmes, was among the conservative media personalities who repeatedly covered the controversy and attacked Biden over his personal life and years-long struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

During Monday's interview, Carlson expressed regret for some of those attacks.

When Biden jokingly reminded him of "the things that you said about me", Carlson replied: "Deep regret".

Despite occupying opposing sides of US politics for years, Biden and Carlson also found common ground over Washington’s foreign policy and the US relationship with Israel.

Biden praised Republican Congressman Thomas Massie and former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, both of whom have broken with sections of their party over foreign policy, saying he was pleased that some conservatives had "woken up".

He also agreed with Carlson's criticism of Fox News over its approach to the war with Iran.

Carlson, once a prominent supporter of Trump, has become an increasingly vocal critic of the president over foreign policy, particularly Washington’s relationship with Israel and the US war with Iran.

Biden also used the interview to attack Trump, describing him as one of the most consequential political figures in modern US history "all for ill" and accusing him of deepening the country’s political divisions.

"I believe Trump is central to why this disease has gone from a local epidemic to a pandemic in the United States of America," Biden said.