CNN
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Within the days and weeks main up Hunter Biden’s trial on felony gun charges, President Joe Biden made little try to distance himself from his son. As an alternative, 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 difficult moment for both men.
They attended a White Home state dinner for Kenya final month; marked the ninth anniversary of the dying of Beau Biden, the president’s eldest son, at church final week; and cycled collectively alongside a path in Rehoboth Seashore, 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 ready 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 medication, a violation of federal regulation. 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 cause to tug him shut, somewhat than push him away. Joe Biden has paid little thoughts to a few of his allies who query the strategy. As an alternative, his concern for his son’s well-being surpasses any potential political fallout, advisers have stated.
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 move off a self-destructive cycle.
Joe Biden nonetheless speaks with or texts along with his son virtually day by day, significantly as his authorized points mounted.
The president told an interviewer final 12 months his son had achieved “nothing improper,” and that the one means Hunter Biden’s authorized points had been affecting his presidency was in making a surge of fatherly satisfaction.
“It impacts my presidency by making me really feel happy with him,” he stated on MSNBC.
Because the gun trial will get underway, Biden will likely be heading abroad to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. There may be little query he’ll stay in common contact along with his son whereas overseas and can preserve 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 in regards to the trial. Hunter Biden’s authorized workforce typically operates individually from the president and his marketing campaign, and there are few who imagine there could be a lot profit within the president weighing in publicly.
Prosecutors have stated they plan to name a couple of 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 contains his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle; his late brother’s widow, Hallie Biden, whom Hunter Biden later dated; and Lunden Roberts, the mom of one among his youngsters.
Their testimony may convey to life a interval that Hunter Biden has described as his all-time low, throughout which he was virtually at all times on medication or attempting to get medication. At his tried plea listening to final 12 months, Hunter Biden testified that he has been sober since Could 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 had been dashed when the agreement fell apart 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 will not 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 workforce to go on their very own offense, accusing Republicans and others of attempting to make use of his habit points for political revenue.
“They’re attempting to, of their most illegitimate means, however rational means, they’re attempting to destroy a presidency,” Hunter Biden stated in a podcast launched late final 12 months. “And so, it’s not about me, and … what they’re attempting to do is that they’re attempting to kill me, realizing that it is going to be a ache higher than my father may be capable of deal with and so subsequently destroying a presidency in that means.”