In the midst of the 2024 presidential election, America has faced two challenges. One involves Donald Trump, former president, whose sentencing is scheduled for July 11. The other case involves Hunter Biden, son of the current president. Thousands of hours of airtime and miles of newspaper coverage have been generated to cover these courtroom tragedies, with experts analyzing every legal nuance and making informed statements about what the two The proceedings are about politics and justice in this country.
I’m interested in what they say about family.
By pure coincidence, last Wednesday I went to Wilmington, Delaware, to speak at the SNF Dialogue’s Consumer or Citizen conference, hosted by the University of Delaware’s Biden School of Public Policy and Management. I am considered the mainstream Republican voice in opposition to my former colleague and political partner from Showtime’s Circus, Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri, some time Vanity fair Contributors. When I receive invitations, I want to make sure the sponsors know that for the past year I have been harsh criticism Presidential Joe Biden, but they assured me that they had done their due diligence and thought my presence would add credibility to the discussion.
When the plane landed, I received an emergency call from my wife. She informed me that my brother, Chris, had passed away suddenly. It was a huge emotional shock and I briefly thought about canceling. After all, over the past two years, I’ve lost my sister, my mother, and now my brother. As the sole survivor of our nuclear family, I am now reeling from the emotional toll.
However, I quickly realized that it would take at least until the next morning, with all the logistics of the trip, to get to Chris’s house in Santa Fe and be with his wife. So I concluded: I’ll go ahead and stick to the plan. My reason: If anyone knows the loss of a family, it’s this gang. And who better to be with? Surely they would understand if I stopped playing—literally in this hour of sadness.
I spent time with President Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, who were on the show that night. (The next day, she attended a gathering with nephew Hunter and many other Bidens to honor Beau Biden on the anniversary of his death, in 2015, from a brain tumor.) Just as I suspected. , Valerie offered appropriate words of comfort and understanding for my own loss.
On the flight home, lost in my own thoughts, I scrolled through the headlines about the Trump and Biden trials and at one point had to ask: What does my time in Delaware and these two legal challenges say? What about family?
Apparently, one of them is about a man found guilty of 34 felony charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star Daniels storms to cover up an allegedly consensual sexual encounter—an encounter that Daniels claims occurred just months after Trump’s third wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. And during that trial, Mrs. Trump never appeared to show her support. In fact, according to journalists observing the proceedings, the defendant largely seemed isolated, isolated, even lonely.
The other trial, which just got underway, involved the prosecution of Hunter Biden on charges of lying about drug use on a gun purchase application. Sitting front and center on his first day in court was his stepmother: the first lady Jill Biden. It happened to be her birthday. She’s with Hunter’s wife, Melissa, and his half-sister, Ashley.
“Jill and I love our son and we are very proud of the man he is today,” the president said. statement refers to Hunter’s struggles with substance abuse. “Hunter’s resilience in the face of adversity and the strength he brings to recovery are inspiring to us…. Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I will continue to stand by Hunter and our family with our love and support.”
The pain Joe Biden feels is palpable. He clearly knows that if he is not president and does not run for re-election, his son will almost certainly not be prosecuted for the crimes he has been accused of. But Biden, taking a page out of Job, does the best he can with the support of his family. He lost his wife and young daughter in a car accident. He lost a son to brain cancer. And now he can see a son imprisoned – simply because of politics. One can only imagine the feelings of anger and guilt swirling around and inside him – along with all the grief.
