[x]

Joe Biden had to know about the legal and ethical vulnerabilities of his son, but he went forward with running for the Presidency anyway.

That could be one reason why Obama told him he didn't have to do it. Probably not, but it's possible.

[cgbg]

The issue, of course, is not just the vulnerabilities of Hunter Biden.

It is the fact that the Bidens were running a variation on the Clinton’s pay to play influence peddling and extortion scam, and Hunter was the bagman.

Obama certainly knew about _that_, and certainly knew that the cokehead Hunter was a key player, and certainly knew that the Trump campaign would know about it....so Obama would have known a Biden campaign would be a risky bet.