“Always there for Hunter”: Joe Biden’s son, convicted Tuesday of illegal possession of a firearm, has long been supported by his father, campaigning for an election that promises to be close against Donald Trump.
With his past riddled with addictions and his former business relationships, Hunter Biden is a prime target of the Republican opposition.
A 54-year-old lawyer and businessman turned artist, the president’s son was found guilty of lying when purchasing a revolver in October 2018, claiming that he did not use illegal drugs.
After the verdict, Joe Biden reiterated that he “will respect” the course of justice, he who had promised not to grant a presidential pardon to his son. “Jill (Biden, the First Lady) and I will always be there for Hunter […]. This will never change,” the American president said, repeating that he “loved” his son and was “proud” of him.
The prosecution had insisted, in the presence of Jill Biden who was very present at the trial, that Hunter Biden “knew that he was a crack user or (that he was) addicted”.
His stepson did not testify and pleaded not guilty. His lawyer assured jurors that “he was no longer using drugs” at the time of purchasing the weapon.
Hunter Biden must also appear in California in September for tax fraud, a series of cases that are the focus of conservative media favorites like Fox News, at a time when Joe Biden is seeking to mark the contrast with Donald Trump, the first ex -American president convicted in May in a criminal trial.
Joe Biden has never spoken in detail about his son’s legal troubles, but he assured him of his “infinite love” on the opening day of the trial.
The shadow of the elder
Hunter Biden is also targeted in cases linked to his past as a businessman by Republicans in Congress, who are therefore leading an impeachment investigation into the president, accused of having lied to the American people about his family’s affairs. .
Pure political maneuvering in the middle of an election year sweeps the Democrats aside. The investigation has almost no chance of success.
In public, Joe Biden speaks little about his younger brother while he constantly mentions his eldest Beau – according to him, this darling son would have become President of the United States if he had not died of cancer in 2015 of the brain.
Hunter’s life appears as a negative of that of this brother to whom a powerful bond united him – that of two little boys who were victims in 1972 of a serious car accident in which their mother, Joe Biden’s first wife, and their little sister died.
Where Beau seemed destined for a national political destiny, Hunter had a lackluster career as a lawyer and businessman. Where his brother served in the army in Iraq, Joe Biden’s cadet was discharged from the Navy reserves in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.
Vodka and crack
The trial turned into an unpacking on Hunter Biden, reviving the memory of the torments of an entire family, as when his own daughter Naomi came to testify for the defense.
The prosecution drew heavily on Hunter Biden’s autobiography, The beautiful thingspublished in 2021. He recounts the vodka drunk from the bottle, the nocturnal wanderings in search of crack around seedy convenience stores, the failed attempts at detoxification, the fleeting love affairs with his brother’s widow…
Of his father, he writes: “He never abandoned me, never ignored me, never judged”. “At times his perseverance put me beside myself. »
In 2020, during the presidential debate against Donald Trump, Joe Biden defended his son, testimony to unwavering paternal affection which worked in his favor.
In an interview in May 2023 with the MSNBC channel, the American president declared: “I have confidence in him. I have faith in him,” and “I feel proud of him. »
The son assures that he is now “clean”. Remarried and father of a little boy named Beau, like his late brother, he turned to painting.
But his past regularly catches up with him, and Joe Biden with it. Recently, the Democratic president admitted to having not six, but seven grandchildren, acknowledging the existence of a little girl born from an affair with Hunter Biden.