WILMINGTON, Del. – On October 12, 2018, former Vice President Joe Biden piled into an SUV with a small group of counselors and headed to Bath County High School in Owingsville, Kentucky, for a campaign rally with a local congressional candidate. In Wilmington, Del., Hunter parked his father’s black Cadillac SUV in front of a gun store and returned with a Colt Cobra revolver.
The elder Biden’s trip that day was one of dozens he made in preparation for the midterm elections while building a political case that took him to the White House. Your son’s trip more than 500 miles away could land him in jail.
This juxtaposition is at the heart of a harrowing what-if for the Biden family: If Joe Biden had not run for president, or sought a second term, his son could have avoided not only a potential prison sentence, but also a public deconstruction of a the most difficult periods of your life?
Since Hunter Biden criminal trial began on Monday, the Biden family sought to send the message that for them this is a family matter, not a political one. Although former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, and subsequent convictionhas become a rallying cry for his 2024 campaign, Hunter Biden’s trial in Delaware generated support from close friends and family as his father’s son campaign keeps its distance.
“Of course the family is there in droves,” a close family friend who has been in court with the Bidens every day told NBC News. “Imagine if this was your son, your brother. This is their family. Your loving family.”
The show of force began with First Lady Jill Biden taking a courtroom seat behind her son each day until leaving late Wednesday afternoon to travel to France to participate in a D-Day commemoration ceremony with her husband. . The first lady left less than 24 hours later to return to Wilmington before her son’s trial resumes on Friday, and she is scheduled to return to Paris on Saturday for a state visit.
The whirlwind transatlantic trip underscores the family’s concern about the toll Hunter Biden’s trial — the first of two scheduled for this year — could take. While in France, the president and first lady frequently asked aides for updates on the trial between official events, according to a person familiar with the requests.
As Jill Biden crossed the Atlantic overnight on Wednesday, 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 on Thursday, alongside his wife. Hunter Biden, Melissa Cohen-Biden.
The rotating cast of allies inside the courtroom included Hunter Biden’s sister, Ashley, and several of his close friends. Others represent the network of friends and supporters his father accumulated over more than five decades in politics, including the Rev. Christopher Bullock, pastor of New Castle’s Canaan Baptist Church, NAACP leadership member and union boss.
Together, they bowed their heads on the fourth floor of a federal courthouse named for the man Biden defeated in 1972 to win his first election to the Senate. And before Wednesday’s proceedings, they prayed that “God would bless this process and that justice would be served.”
Bobby Sager, Hunter Biden’s friend for the past two years, told NBC News that he had dinner with Hunter, his wife and their son on Tuesday night — eating slices of pizza while watching the 4-year-old boy named after Biden’s late brother. Biden running around, “doing something cute all the time.”
“They are both doing very well,” Sager insisted. “What matters to me is giving them hugs and letting them know that so many people love them so much.” On Thursday night, Hunter Biden and his youngest daughter, Maisy, were seen enjoying pizza outside a popular food hall in downtown Wilmington.
Still, several years of public attention — and attacks from political opponents — have at times taken their toll on the family. Outside the courtroom on Tuesday, Melissa Cohen-Biden angrily confronted Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump aide who was attending the trial, calling him a “Nazi,” which she told NBC News was in response to “ anti-Semitic slurs” that she said he was used to. describe your family. Ziegler denied making such comments and told NBC News that he is not a Nazi.
The trial also exposed painful crosscurrents within the Biden family.
Some family members who cried together afterwards Beau BidenThe 2015 death testified to the dark times that followed. Kathleen Buhle, Hunter’s ex-wife, testified Wednesday that she believed he relapsed a little more than a month after his brother’s death.
Hallie BidenBeau’s widow, discussed how she began smoking crack after she and Hunter began a romantic relationship.
“It was a terrible experience that I went through and I am ashamed and ashamed of that period of my life,” she said.
None of President Biden’s grandchildren have attended the proceedings yet, although Peter Neal, the husband of Hunter Biden’s eldest daughter Naomi, accompanied Jill Biden to court on Monday. Naomi Biden may be called as a defense witness.
Hunter’s well-being was an for the public scrutiny that may arise, including the ways in which then-President Trump or his supporters may persecute them.
In his memoir, Hunter Biden wrote that during the 2020 campaign, the biggest debate he had with his father was, “Who should apologize to whom?”
“Whenever I apologized to him for bringing so much heat to his campaign, he responded by saying how sorry he was for putting me in a difficult situation, for bringing so much heat to me, especially at a time when I was so determined to get better. . ,” He wrote.
After the book was released, Joe Biden told CBS News that “it gave me hope when I read it,” praising “the honesty with which he came forward and talked about the issue.”
“I bet there isn’t a family you know that doesn’t have someone in the family who has a drug or alcohol problem,” he said.
This week, Hunter Biden’s own voice reading that book was introduced as evidence for the prosecution against him, contributing to the case that he lied by certifying on a background check form that he was not addicted at the time he purchased the revolver. Ashley Biden and her mother appeared to wipe away tears as they listened to Hunter Biden’s voice describe his addiction, keeping their heads up and looking at Hunter.
A source close to the president said it was unlikely that Biden, who is expected to return to Wilmington from Europe on Sunday, would attend the trial in person.
The president spent significant time with his son before the trial and was within a few miles of the courthouse for most of Monday as jury selection began. On Thursday, during an interview in France with ABC News, Biden made a distinction with Trump, who attributed his legal problems to a biased judicial system and plans to appeal his criminal convictions.
Asked if he would accept the outcome of his son’s trial, Biden simply responded: “Yes.”
Asked if he would rule out a forgiveness for your son if convicted, the president again responded tersely: “Yes.”
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
