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“I know when he’s in pain. He doesn’t talk about it much, most of us don’t,” said the former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who has been friends with the elder Biden for more than four decades. “He has a good personality, and a lot of it comes from scars. And he’s worried.”
Joe Biden’s concern about his son’s survival has increased since he took office, according to aides and confidants — five in total — who all spoke on condition of anonymity. private conversation.
The White House has long stressed that the president does not interfere in matters before the Department of Justice. But in private, concerns about the coming competition and the possibility of criminal trials have become a heavy burden on the president, according to those close to him. The elder Biden told his friends that he was worried that his son might relapse into addiction.
In recent months, Biden has also asked some of his closest friends — those he’s known for years from Wilmington and Washington — to call or email his own son to check on him, so the younger Biden knows he has a supporter. , according to two people who were asked to check on the younger Biden.
Hunter Biden has staked out his own defenses, taking a crackdown on criminals and politics, sometimes to the chagrin of his father’s political advisers. The new charges against him – and the light that accompanies them – come at a difficult time politically for his father, whose polls have slipped and show the heat and the appearance of the GOP, Donald Trump.
Those close to the president do not believe his ability to do the job has been compromised by his concerns about his son. But they can see his concern.
“You can see it in his eyes, and you can see his shoulders slump,” said one of the president’s confidants in describing a recent conversation. “He’s really worried about Hunter. And we are worried that he will be destroyed.”
The younger Biden could face up to 17 years in prison if convicted of three felony counts and six misdemeanor counts — including filing a false tax return — included in the indictment unsealed on last week. He is also facing a felony gun charge in Delaware and facing contempt of court proceedings after failing to appear in closed-door hearings Wednesday before GOP caucuses. to lead the impeachment inquiry against his father.
Hunter Biden has offered to testify publicly, which Republicans have refused. The younger Biden, on the other hand, refused to testify behind closed doors, but he appeared Wednesday on the Hill to defend his father and reject the GOP’s attacks.
“They have taken the light of my father’s love for me and done their best to turn it into darkness,” he said. “They have no shame.”
Members of the president’s inner circle have expressed their displeasure with the way the case unfolded but behind them. Hunter Biden was just minutes from accepting a plea deal that would have kept him out of prison after collapsing in a Delaware courtroom last summer. Some people close to the elder Biden revealed that he had been worried for months about his son’s legal success and was excited about the appointment of a special counsel, when it was announced Attorney General Merrick Garland for private complaints.
President Biden has checked on his son as part of his daily routine. Hunter Biden and his family often visit the White House, Camp David and the family home in Delaware. As attention to the younger Biden grows, the president feels drawn to him, even if it is tempered by his criticism, according to and people close to him.
The 81-year-old president is very sensitive about his son and has criticized aides who thought of Hunter Biden as an electoral liability or who wondered if he should accompany the president to on the road. Many aides have now decided to stay away from the issue, for fear of angering the president, according to two of the five sources. For example, no one raised whether it was a good idea for Hunter Biden to attend the June state dinner for the prime minister of India a few days after accepting an agreement.
However, the president is not shy about expressing his concerns over the phone to family members and a select group of trusted people. He asked them what they thought would happen to his son and revealed that he was more afraid if his son was convicted or faced some kind of prison.
Hunter Biden knows he belongs in politics. In recent conversations with family friends, he worried that he might flee the country if Trump is re-elected president, according to two people who spoke to him. He also worried about the severity of the investigation that his family will face during 2024 – and published in recent days with his own concerns about the harm of his father.
“What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to kill me, knowing that it’s going to be more pain than my father can bear – and so to end a presidency that way ,” Hunter Biden said in the Moby music in a podcast released last week.
Biden’s regular phone calls and text messages to his son are mostly happy, focused on family love, according to a person familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly. They don’t get the stress of 2018 voicemail, published by the Daily MailBiden left his son when the younger man suffered from addiction
“It’s Dad. I’m calling to tell you that I love you. I love you more than the world, my friend,” Biden said at the time, getting emotional. “You need to get help. I don’t know what to do. I know you won’t either.”
That voice mail was played by the media, which believed that it would show Biden that a corrupt man can. Instead, many aides of the White House believe that he was only expressing the concerns of a loving father and listening to the many Americans whose own families have experienced addiction.
According to those close to the president, he is experiencing the anxiety of any parent about a troubled child. But aides note his ability to simultaneously handle the world’s toughest jobs, including managing a pair of foreign wars and rebuilding the economy as he prepares to launch his full re-election campaign. .
But the president is also facing a lot of guilt about the conditions his son is facing, according to two people close to him. Hunter Biden was only 3 years old when he and his brother Beau survived a car accident in 1972 that killed their mother and sister. Beau Biden rose to become Delaware’s attorney general and a political star before dying of brain cancer in 2015 after serving in Iraq with the Army National Guard.
Grieving Joe Biden responded by clinging to his living son. While serving as vice president, he allowed his son to travel abroad with him – a move that raised eyebrows in the Obama White House. Republicans say that immigration helped Hunter Biden enrich himself by offering clients opportunities to his father. But it is not clear whether he offered the sign of the opportunity. GOP investigators have not provided evidence of any illegal behavior by the current president.
Joe Biden, who is very proud of his son’s peace, has confessed to his friends that he knows that his decision to run for president in 2020 has made his son’s life more difficult and next year’s competition will be a big hit. The impact of the investigation into another potential campaign against Hunter Biden was measured, according to three people who were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
Some Democrats believe the lawsuits could damage Biden’s political campaign. And friends of the president and some Democrats are now worried that they could overshadow the competition and that Biden will worry about the young man. But they also noted Hunter Biden’s resilience and vow to fight for his father’s name.
“The president has said over and over again: He is proud of his son,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week, “and he is proud of his rebuilding of his life above.”