WILMINGTON, Del. — On October 12, 2018, former Vice President Joe Biden With a small group of advisers, he piled into an SUV and headed to Bath County High School in Owingsville, Ky., for a campaign rally with a local congressional candidate. In Wilmington, Del., Hunter parked his father’s black Cadillac SUV outside a gun shop and returned to it with a Colt Cobra revolver.
The elder Biden’s trip that day was one of dozens he made in the run-up to the midterm elections as he built a political case that led him to the White House. His son’s outing more than 500 miles away could ultimately land him in jail.
That juxtaposition is at the heart of a poignant “what if” story for the Biden family: Had Joe Biden not run for president, or sought a second term, his son could not only have avoided a possible prison sentence, but also a public deconstruction of it. of the most difficult periods of his life?
Since Hunter Biden’s criminal trial began Monday, the Biden family has tried to send the message that for them this is a family matter, not a political one. While former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, and subsequent conviction, became a rallying cry for his 2024 campaign, Hunter Biden’s trial in Delaware has led to a blanket of support from close friends and family as the campaign of his father keeps his distance.
“Of course the family is there in droves,” a close family friend who was in court with the Bidens every day told NBC News. ‘Imagine if this was your son, your brother. This is their family. Their beloved family.”
The show of force began with First Lady Jill Biden taking a seat behind her son in the courtroom each day until she left late Wednesday afternoon to travel to France to attend a D-Day commemoration ceremony with her husband. The first lady then left less than 24 hours later to return to Wilmington before her son’s trial resumes Friday. She will return to Paris on Saturday for a state visit.
The whirlwind transatlantic shuttle underscores the family’s concerns about the toll the Hunter Biden trial — the first of two planned this year — could take. While in France, the president and first lady regularly asked aides for updates on the process between official events, according to a person familiar with the requests.
While Jill Biden flew across the Atlantic Ocean overnight Wednesday, the president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, took a red-eye flight from the West Coast to take the first lady’s seat in court Thursday, sitting next to the woman by Hunter Biden, Melissa Cohen-Biden. .
The rotating cast of allies in the courtroom included Hunter Biden’s sister, Ashley, and several of his close friends. Others represent the network of friends and supporters his father built over more than five decades in politics, including the Rev. Dr. Christopher Bullock, the pastor of New Castle’s Canaan Baptist Church, a member of the NAACP leadership and a union leader.
Together they bowed their heads on the fourth floor of a federal courthouse named after the man Biden defeated in 1972 when he won his first Senate election. And ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, they prayed that “God would bless this trial and that justice would be done.”
Bobby Sager, a friend of Hunter Biden’s for the past two years, told NBC News that he had dinner with Hunter, his wife and their son Tuesday night — eating slices of pizza as they watched the 4-year-old, named after Biden’s late brother, eat running was around, “always doing something fun.”
“They are both doing remarkably well,” Sager emphasizes. “What is important to me is giving them hugs and letting them know that many people love them very much.” On Thursday evening, 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 sometimes taken their toll on the family. Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Melissa Cohen-Biden angrily confronted Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump aide who attended the trial, and called him a “Nazi,” which she told NBC News was in response to anti-Semitic “insults” she said that he was used to it. describe their family. Ziegler denied making such comments and told NBC News he is not a Nazi.
The trial has also exposed painful contradictions within the Biden family.
Some family members who mourned together afterwards Beau Biden‘s death in 2015 have testified to the dark moments 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 Biden, Beau’s widow, discussed how she started smoking crack cocaine after she and Hunter began a romantic relationship.
“It was a horrible experience that I went through, and I am ashamed and ashamed of that period in my life,” she said.
None of President Biden’s grandchildren have yet attended the proceedings, although Peter Neal, the husband of Hunter Biden’s eldest daughter Naomi, accompanied Jill Biden to court on Monday. Naomi Biden could be called as a witness for the defense.
Hunter’s well-being was an X-factor five years ago when Joe Biden was considering whether to host 2020. His relatives raised questions at a meeting called by his grandchildren in early 2019 about whether they were prepared for the public scrutiny that could come, including ways that then-President Trump or his supporters could come after 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 on the spot, for bringing so much heat to me, especially at a time when I was determined to get better. ,” He wrote.
After that book was released, Joe Biden told CBS News that reading it “gave me hope,” praising “the honesty with which he stepped forward and talked about the problem.”
“I bet there isn’t a family you know that doesn’t have someone in the family that has a drug problem or an alcohol problem,” he said.
This week, Hunter Biden’s own voice reading that book was introduced as evidence against him by prosecutors, adding to their case that he lied when he stated on a background check that he was not an addict at the time he bought that revolver . Ashley Biden and her mother both appeared to wipe away tears as they listened to Hunter Biden’s voice describing his addiction as they held their heads up and looked at Hunter.
A source close to the president said it was unlikely that Biden, who is due to return to Wilmington from Europe on Sunday, would attend the trial himself.
The president spent a lot of time with his son in the lead-up to the trial and was just miles from the courthouse for most of Monday when jury selection began. On Thursday, during an interview in France with ABC News, Biden drew a distinction from Trump, who blames his legal troubles on a biased legal system and plans to appeal his felony convictions.
Asked whether he would accept the outcome of his son’s trial, Biden simply replied: “Yes.”
Asked whether he would rule out a pardon for his son if convicted, the president again responded curtly: “Yes.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
