WILMINGTON, Del. – On October 12, 2018, former Vice President Joe Biden rode in an SUV with a small group of advisers to Bath County High School in Owingsville, Ky., to campaign with a local congressional candidate. Del. In Wilmington, Hunter parked his father’s black Cadillac SUV outside a gun store and returned to it with a Colt Cobra revolver.
The elder Biden’s visit that day was one of dozens he has made in the run-up to the midterm elections as he builds the political case that will lead him to the White House. His son walking more than 500 miles away could eventually land him in jail.
This confrontation is at the heart of a sad situation for the Biden family: if Joe Biden had not run for president or run for a second term, his son could have avoided not only a potential prison sentence, but also a public dismantling of one. from the most difficult periods of his life?
since Hunter Biden’s criminal case Starting Monday, the Biden family tried to send a message that for them, this is a family affair, not a political one. During and after former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York convictionhis 2024 campaign has become a rallying cry for Hunter Biden Court in Delaware caused him to receive support from his father’s close friends and family the campaign keeps the distance.
“Of course the family is there en masse,” a close family friend, who is in court with the Bidens every day, told NBC News. “Imagine that this was your son, your brother. This is their family. Their lovely family.”
The show of strength began with first lady Jill Biden sitting behind her son in the courtroom each day until she left Wednesday afternoon to travel to France to attend the D-Day commemoration with her husband. The first lady then left less than 24 hours later to return to Wilmington ahead of her son’s trial, which resumes Friday, and she plans to return to Paris on Saturday for a state visit.
The stormy transatlantic liners underscore the family’s anxiety over Hunter Biden’s trial, the first of two scheduled for this year. While in France, the president and first lady often asked their aides for court updates between official events.
While Jill Biden flew across the Atlantic Wednesday night, the president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, took a red-eye flight from the West Coast to take the first lady’s place in court Thursday alongside Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen-Baden. .
A rotating cast of allies in the courtroom includes Hunter Biden’s sister Ashley and several close friends. Others represent the network of friends and supporters his father amassed over more than 50 years in politics, including the Rev. Dr. Christopher Bullock.
They bowed together on the fourth floor of the federal courthouse, named after the man Biden won his first Senate election in 1972. Before the process held on Wednesday, they prayed, “May God bless this process and let justice be established.”
Bobby Sager, who has been Hunter Biden’s friend for the past two years, told NBC News that he had dinner with Hunter, his wife and son on Tuesday night — while eating slices of pizza while watching the 4-year-old run named after Biden’s late brother. around, “always doing something cute.”
“They’re both doing pretty well,” Sager insisted. “All I care about is hugging them and letting them know that a lot of people love them.” Hunter Biden and his young daughter Macy were spotted eating pizza outside of a popular downtown Wilmington eatery on Thursday night.
Still, public attention and attacks from political opponents have sometimes taken a toll on the family over the years. Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Melissa Cohen-Biden angrily confronted former Trump aide Garrett Ziegler, who was in court, calling him a “Nazi” in response to anti-Semitic “slander” he told NBC News. describe their families. Ziegler denied such comments and told NBC News he was not a Nazi.
The trial also revealed painful crosscurrents within the Biden family.
After Beau Biden’s death in 2015, some family members who mourned together testified about the dark moments that followed. Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, testified Wednesday that she believes her brother relapsed more than a month after his death.
Hallie BidenBeau’s widow discussed how she started smoking cocaine after becoming romantically involved with Hunter.
“It was a horrible experience that I had and I’m embarrassed and ashamed of that period of my life,” she said.
Although Hunter Biden’s eldest daughter Naomi’s husband, Peter Neal, accompanied Jill Biden to court on Monday, none of President Biden’s grandchildren have yet attended the proceedings. Naomi Biden may be called as a defense witness.
Five years ago, Hunter’s well-being was the X-factor when Joe Biden was considering whether to run in 2020. His family members raised the question of whether they were ready for public scrutiny at a meeting called by his grandchildren in early 2019. may come, including ways that then-President Trump or his supporters might go after them.
Hunter Biden wrote in his memoir that the biggest argument he had with his father during the 2020 campaign was “Who should apologize to whom?”
“When I apologized to him for bringing so much heat to his campaign, he said he was sorry for putting me on the scene, for bringing so much heat on me, especially when I was so determined to recover. ,” he wrote.
After the book was released, Joe Biden told CBS News that it “gave me hope to read it” and praised the “honesty with which he stepped forward and talked about the problem.”
“I will bet that there is no family that does not have a drug or alcohol problem in the family.”
This week, Hunter Biden’s own voice reading this book was presented as evidence against him by the prosecution, helping their case that he lied when he confirmed that he was not an addict when he purchased this revolver. Ashley Biden and her mother wiped away tears as they listened to Hunter Biden’s voiceover describing his addiction, looking up at Hunter.
A source close to the president said it is unlikely that Biden, who is scheduled to return to Wilmington from Europe on Sunday, will attend the trial himself.
The president spent a lot of time with his son in the run-up to the trial and was often miles away from the courthouse on Monday as jury selection began. During an interview with ABC News in France on Thursday, Biden differed with Trump, who blamed his legal problems on a biased justice system and plans to appeal his felony convictions.
Asked whether he would accept the outcome of his son’s trial, Biden simply answered: “Yes.”
He asked if he would not exclude one pardon for his son If found guilty, the president again gave a short answer: “Yes.”