Federal criminal charges against Hunter Biden in Delaware and California, Americans are divided along familiar partisan lines, but voters are unsurprised and in some cases happy to see President Joe Biden standing next to his adult son as he fights to avoid prison time.
That’s the key takeaway from a series of interviews USA Today has conducted as Hunter Biden prepares to go on trial Monday for lying about his drug use to buy a gun. The case will go before a jury in Wilmington, Delaware, just a few weeks before Biden faces Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump in their first presidential debate in Atlanta.
After a derailed plea deal, 54-year-old Hunter Biden also faces nine tax charges that carry a combined maximum penalty of 17 years in prison in Los Angeles. That trial will begin on September 5, five days before Joe Biden and Trump are expected to meet in another presidential debate.
“On the one hand, what’s a father to do?” said Thomas Brown, 46, an independent from Long Beach, California. “On the other hand, he’s the commander in chief. He has the most important position on earth and that is why there are laws.’
Aware of the politics surrounding the case, Hunter Biden’s attorneys suggested asking potential jurors in Delaware how closely they follow the 2024 presidential election, how they feel about President Biden and his performance, and how closely they hear news about Following Trump.
A dozen Delawareans will serve on the jury that will decide whether Hunter Biden is guilty in his upcoming trial. The voting population of the entire country will have the opportunity to decide his father’s fate in the presidential elections.
More: As Trump’s trial draws to a close, the Bidens are preparing for a month in legal purgatory
‘What every parent would do for their child’
Although he rarely discusses his son’s problems, Joe Biden came to his defense when Trump called out Hunter Biden’s drug use during a 2020 presidential debate.
“My son — like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know at home — had a drug problem,” Biden said. “He caught it up, he fixed it, he worked on it. And I am proud of him.”
Hunter Biden’s drug addiction has long been a sore point for the president. Three Biden advisers recently told Politico that they worry about the weight the trials will place on him and that he worries about his son “from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep.”
The Biden campaign declined comment and the White House did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Some of the president’s supporters find his dedication to his family commendable and relatable. Carol Vasquez, 74, an independent from St. Louis, Missouri, said she thinks the president is an “excellent parent” and a “good family man” for supporting his son.
“That’s the kind of guy you want in this position. A man who has integrity and honesty,” Vasquez said. ‘They are always your children, no matter how old they are, or how old you are. Once you have kids, you have them.”
However, Republicans and Trump, who were found guilty by a jury on Thursday in a hush money and election interference case, are likely to use the Hunter Biden cases to attack the president and his family.
But even for those who disagree with the president’s policies, his defense of his son doesn’t seem to make them love him any less.
“I think any parent would do that for their child,” said Jane Dhemecourt, 67, an independent woman from Abita Springs, Louisiana, who plans to vote for Trump in November.
Political motivations ‘no coincidence’
Half of Americans say they believe Hunter Biden received favorable treatment from prosecutors because he is the president’s son, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll last summer. The poll found that Republicans (75%) were much more likely to report this than independents (42%) or Democrats (33%).
Hunter Biden has called the rarely filed gun-related charges against him politically driven and accused Republicans of using his past drug addiction to attack his father during a contentious election.
Deanne Robinson, 56, a Democrat from St. Petersburg, Florida, agrees. She plans to vote for Biden in November.
‘It’s no coincidence. It’s a ploy to tie Joe and Hunter together, as if it’s Joe who’s facing this charge,” Robinson said. “But my thoughts are: if he is found guilty, let justice be served.”
Mike McCombs, 67, a Republican from Lincolnton, Georgia, said he sees the Hunter Biden trials as payback for the president’s family after Trump’s six-week trial in Manhattan. He plans to vote for Trump in November.
“I think karma caught up with him and the whole family,” McCombs said. ‘The reality of politics has caught up with them. All this time they’ve been trying to put Trump in jail and they’ve done much worse.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that his presidential election opponent rigged the New York trial, but the case was brought by prosecutors and not led by the Biden administration.
Brown said he believes the trials of both Trump and Hunter Biden are politically motivated and a “mockery” of the justice system. He said he doesn’t like either major party candidate and doesn’t plan to vote for president in November.
“I thought [Trump] should have been impeached, but honestly, this prosecution in New York, as far as I know, is the definition of political persecution,” Brown said. “The same goes for Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden is an asshole. The idea that the president’s child is an asshole is not surprising, but this is another definition of political persecution.”
Trials are unlikely to change voters’ minds
A majority polled last summer said Hunter Biden’s indictment will not affect their support for his father in 2024. Across the political spectrum, voters said Hunter Biden’s lawsuits will not change their vote in November. Some have no intention of following the processes at all.
“It’s not something I pay attention to. It’s not going to change the way I think about the direction of the country and it’s not going to change my vote in any way, shape or form,” said Dhemecourt, the Louisianan. who added that she is more focused on Trump securing the southern U.S. border. “I think it’s just a media distraction from what’s really going on. I mean, we have real problems in this country that are really, really important.”
Vasquez said she plans to pay attention to coverage of the trials, but that they will not affect her vote for Biden in the fall.
“I don’t think everything our kids do – you know, they’re adults. I don’t think that would affect how I vote,” Vasquez said. “I hope it won’t be the same for other people.”
Robinson said nothing she learns during the trials is likely to change her vote for Biden in November, but it could change the president’s response to them.
“If he charged his son, I wouldn’t come to the polls,” Robinson said. “A parent must stand by and support their child in difficult times.”
Rachel Barber is USA TODAY’s 2024 elections staffer, focusing on politics and education. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, as @rachelbarber_
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hunter Biden trial divides voters on political grounds as election looms
