CNN
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Within the days and weeks main up Hunter Biden’s trial on felony gun fees, President Joe Biden made little try to distance himself from his son. As a substitute, Hunter Biden was seen on the White Home and in Delaware at his father’s aspect amid what the president’s allies acknowledge is a tough second for each males.
They attended a White Home state dinner for Kenya final month; marked the ninth anniversary of the loss of life of Beau Biden, the president’s eldest son, at church final week; and cycled collectively alongside a path in Rehoboth Seaside, Delaware, on Saturday.
The president additionally deliberate to spend most of Monday in Wilmington, the place jury choice for the trial – the primary of a sitting US president’s little one – is about to get underway. He traveled there Sunday night, arriving sooner than initially deliberate.
Hunter Biden, 54, is accused of illegally buying and possessing a gun whereas abusing or being hooked on medicine, a violation of federal legislation. He pleaded not responsible to the three fees, although he has been open about his struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine habit.
For the president, the authorized issues going through his son have been purpose to tug him shut, fairly than push him away. Joe Biden has paid little thoughts to a few of his allies who query the strategy. As a substitute, his concern for his son’s well-being surpasses any potential political fallout, advisers have mentioned.
That concern has appeared at moments to be all-consuming, together with within the darkest moments of Hunter Biden’s habit, when the president and his household desperately sought to go off a self-destructive cycle.
Joe Biden nonetheless speaks with or texts together with his son nearly day by day, significantly as his authorized points mounted.
The president advised an interviewer final 12 months his son had performed “nothing mistaken,” and that the one approach Hunter Biden’s authorized points have been affecting his presidency was in making a surge of fatherly satisfaction.
“It impacts my presidency by making me really feel pleased with him,” he mentioned on MSNBC.
Because the gun trial will get underway, Biden might be heading abroad to mark the eightieth anniversary of D-Day. There may be little query he’ll stay in common contact together with his son whereas overseas and can hold abreast of the trial amid a heavy schedule of commemorations, speeches and a state go to in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.
However neither he nor the White Home is predicted to talk proactively concerning the trial. Hunter Biden’s authorized crew typically operates individually from the president and his marketing campaign, and there are few who consider there can be a lot profit within the president weighing in publicly.
Prosecutors have mentioned they plan to name a few dozen witnesses for his or her case.
Most notably, they’ve lined up testimony from three of Hunter Biden’s former romantic companions to testify about his drug use across the time he purchased the gun. This consists of his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; his late brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, whom Hunter Biden later dated; and Lunden Roberts, the mom of one in all his youngsters.
Their testimony might carry to life a interval that Hunter Biden has described as his all-time low, throughout which he was nearly at all times on medicine or making an attempt to get medicine. At his tried plea listening to final 12 months, Hunter Biden testified that he has been sober since Might 2019.
There was a time final summer time when the president and his orbit believed Hunter Biden’s authorized ordeal would finish with a plea deal and that the household would be capable of shut a darkish chapter.
These hopes have been dashed when the settlement fell aside and, weeks later, a particular counsel was appointed to supervise the investigation into the president’s son, opening the prospect of extended authorized battles overlapping with Joe Biden’s run for reelection.
However many in Biden’s orbit counsel his son’s authorized points is not going to be a driving concern for voters heading into November’s election.
Nonetheless, few points are extra delicate contained in the Biden White Home than the president’s son, from his habit battles to his authorized woes.
That has largely left Hunter Biden and his crew to go on their very own offense, accusing Republicans and others of making an attempt to make use of his habit points for political revenue.
“They’re making an attempt to, of their most illegitimate approach, however rational approach, they’re making an attempt to destroy a presidency,” Hunter Biden mentioned in a podcast launched late final 12 months. “And so, it’s not about me, and … what they’re making an attempt to do is that they’re making an attempt to kill me, understanding that it will likely be a ache larger than my father might be capable of deal with and so subsequently destroying a presidency in that approach.”
