Fantastic Josh and totally agree. As someone who has not one but two addicts in their immediate family, it is a burden I would not wish upon anyone. Everything is constantly frantic and chaos. You love them and hate them all at the same time, and every (often bad) decision they make dominates your life as you're left to clean up whatever mess they created. The only way to not have this is to totally let them go, and that is a very, very hard thing to do, especially as a parent. I've seen that battle up close and most parents at their core just can't do it. They always hang onto hope for them, often neglecting their other kids who are not addicts, their relationships with them and others to make that happen. Biden is no different than thousands of other Americans in this aspect.
This is exactly right and it’s an all too familiar pattern to people with loved ones with addiction issues. I also think it’s worth noting that Hunter suffered a serious brain injury as a young child, in the same accident that took his mother’s life. This doesn’t get discussed as much (beyond mention of the obvious trauma of him having lost his mom), but it seems very plausible that Hunter’s “traumatic brain injury” (per the New Yorker) irrevocably affected the areas of Hunter’s brain relating to impulse control. This also makes it extra hard to simply show Hunter some “tough love”—how do you do that if you privately suspect he truly can’t help himself?
The arguments that the President is innocent or guilty of wrongdoing, justified or unjustified in his actions, are all just a red herring.
The only thing we should be discussing is whether or not this mess rises to the level of needing a Special Prosecutor. And, OF COURSE IT DOES. There is a prima facia case being made that the President of the United States was involved in a scheme to trade political favors for money. For our current government to refuse to fully investigate this matter dramatically reduces its legitimacy. If you like Democracy, you should want enough light shed on this mess to determine what actually happened.
Your article is well-written and clearly heartfelt. However, I don't find your arguments about Father's non-involvement persuasive. I think your own logic favors an open investigation to reassure the American public that the Father did not know or benefit from the Son's shady dealings: (1) By your own account, Father did know that Son often had his clients on the phone and was warned by a senior State Dept official that the Son was involved in arguably shady dealings; (2) Father's claimed lack of "bandwidth" offered better cause to pull back than to continue to engage; (3) Father's switch from claiming for years that he had absolutely no contact with Son's business partners raises concerns about possible coverup; (4) the Father's boasts about getting Shokhin fired seem to mesh with Burisma's alleged motives for hiring Son; (5) Son's claims of sharing money with other family members and Father himself would appear to merit investigation, (6) Allegedly numerous Son-related SARS filings by banks, while not proving any wrongdoing, suggest a desire to conceal payments that also merits more investigation; (7) the unusually lenient plea deal that was temporary nixed by a judge suggests that some people in DOJ want to discourage investigation, which again suggests a coverup. To be clear, I'm not saying that any of (1)-(8) proves Father's involvement, and personally I hope your optimistic reading is correct. It just strikes me that a thorough open investigation is the best way to clear the air.
I understand the point of this piece but I feel it is misplaced. For better or worse, Joe Biden is a public figure, and as a public figure of high stature, family comes second to duty. If he felt his son was more important than the Oval Office, he should never have run for president in the first place. Which would have been a fine and supportable decision.
But he did run, and he won. And as a public figure, he needs to publicly denounce that level of corruption, no matter who it comes from.
Call me a bit jaded because every member of Trump’s family got dragged through the mud for far less serious offenses by the mainstream media, but I find this “Joe Biden is just a family man who cares about his son” to be kind of crap. We would not have this same level of sensitivity if this was Eric Trump who did this.
Appreciate the insight and love the article and am happy to be a subscriber, but I have to disagree with you on this one.
This is such a great piece of writing. Hunter is clearly a huge political liability; anyone with half a mind can see it.
But he's Joe's SON.
A little over 50 years ago, Joe's entire family left the house to go out Christmas shopping, and every person who got in that car that day is DEAD, except for Hunter.
To expect the President to renounce him, as so many of us sort of wish he could, for political expediency, is just unrealistic — and I'm not sure I could respect him if he did.
And of course, the hypocrisy from the right never ends: if he doesn't repudiate his son that means he's in on the deal, but he's a monster for "not acknowledging" the granddaughter that son had with a stripper while he was strung out on drugs — despite the fact that it's obvious she and her family would use it as nothing but an opportunity to make his life (and political career) miserable. 🙄
Even a registered Republican like me can feel empathy over the personal tragedies that Joe Biden has had to endure. But I get off the bus when I see the White House stonewalling and the DOJ clearly bending over backward to "contain" the repercussions of Hunter's dealings. What does Josh Barro think about a DOJ lawyer admitting in open court there was no precedent for the structure of the plea agreement the government was presenting to the court? That Trump is a catastrophe does not provide a free pass to his principal political opponent.
Very beautiful essay. Empathetic and touching. It's my favorite you've written since "Let me tell you about the day in Paris I decided to get married".
As Vice-President and later as President, Joe Biden's duty to his office and to the American public trumped his duty to his family, whenever there was a conflict between the two duty realms. President Biden must be an idiot to keep defending Hunter. Isn't loyalty to Donald Trump above all else, Trump's trademark? I think it's way past time for both men to turn toward their own respective houses and try to get them in order, which will require them to leave the public service realm entirely, because there is no way they can can put America first when their own personal houses are so totally disarrayed.
Oh put away the violins and smell the coffee. Hunter and Jim Biden have been the bagmen for Joe Biden's shakedowns for long before crack was invented. Why do we need student loan relief? Because MBNA hired Hunter at $3.5 million a year as a lobbyist while his dad was rewriting the Bankruptcy Code, and student loan discharges were left out of the bill. The Bidens and the Wilmington
Democratic machine took the state of Delaware away from the DuPont family in 1972, and they have practiced old school machine politics and machine graft ever since.
If Hunter had ever been forced to get a real job he might have hit bottom and cleaned himself up, Joe made sure he never did.
This is a really strong article that addresses complicated topics: Joe's duty to his son vs the country; the parental bond in light of other fallen loved ones; bad people with charisma, etc. Well done.
"What I see here is a father who knows his son has tremendous issues, including a deep-seated need to feel useful and successful (like his late brother was) even though he fundamentally isn’t." Yup.
Very few addicts can maintain a costly addiction without enablers. His father looks to be chief among them. Joe looks almost as broken as Hunter. It’s a family disease.
I can buy all of this, but I have no reason to believe that large media outlets would have given anywhere near this same deference to a Republican president. The idea that the "illusion of access" talking point gaining purchase amongst CNN and NY Times writers and editors for a Republican president is absolutely ludicrous.
On the Tragedy of Hunter Biden
Fantastic Josh and totally agree. As someone who has not one but two addicts in their immediate family, it is a burden I would not wish upon anyone. Everything is constantly frantic and chaos. You love them and hate them all at the same time, and every (often bad) decision they make dominates your life as you're left to clean up whatever mess they created. The only way to not have this is to totally let them go, and that is a very, very hard thing to do, especially as a parent. I've seen that battle up close and most parents at their core just can't do it. They always hang onto hope for them, often neglecting their other kids who are not addicts, their relationships with them and others to make that happen. Biden is no different than thousands of other Americans in this aspect.
This is exactly right and it’s an all too familiar pattern to people with loved ones with addiction issues. I also think it’s worth noting that Hunter suffered a serious brain injury as a young child, in the same accident that took his mother’s life. This doesn’t get discussed as much (beyond mention of the obvious trauma of him having lost his mom), but it seems very plausible that Hunter’s “traumatic brain injury” (per the New Yorker) irrevocably affected the areas of Hunter’s brain relating to impulse control. This also makes it extra hard to simply show Hunter some “tough love”—how do you do that if you privately suspect he truly can’t help himself?
I think this is one of your best pieces. Less *fun* than "Gavin Newsom Is Gross and Embarrassing", but really nails something far more complex.
The arguments that the President is innocent or guilty of wrongdoing, justified or unjustified in his actions, are all just a red herring.
The only thing we should be discussing is whether or not this mess rises to the level of needing a Special Prosecutor. And, OF COURSE IT DOES. There is a prima facia case being made that the President of the United States was involved in a scheme to trade political favors for money. For our current government to refuse to fully investigate this matter dramatically reduces its legitimacy. If you like Democracy, you should want enough light shed on this mess to determine what actually happened.
Your article is well-written and clearly heartfelt. However, I don't find your arguments about Father's non-involvement persuasive. I think your own logic favors an open investigation to reassure the American public that the Father did not know or benefit from the Son's shady dealings: (1) By your own account, Father did know that Son often had his clients on the phone and was warned by a senior State Dept official that the Son was involved in arguably shady dealings; (2) Father's claimed lack of "bandwidth" offered better cause to pull back than to continue to engage; (3) Father's switch from claiming for years that he had absolutely no contact with Son's business partners raises concerns about possible coverup; (4) the Father's boasts about getting Shokhin fired seem to mesh with Burisma's alleged motives for hiring Son; (5) Son's claims of sharing money with other family members and Father himself would appear to merit investigation, (6) Allegedly numerous Son-related SARS filings by banks, while not proving any wrongdoing, suggest a desire to conceal payments that also merits more investigation; (7) the unusually lenient plea deal that was temporary nixed by a judge suggests that some people in DOJ want to discourage investigation, which again suggests a coverup. To be clear, I'm not saying that any of (1)-(8) proves Father's involvement, and personally I hope your optimistic reading is correct. It just strikes me that a thorough open investigation is the best way to clear the air.
I understand the point of this piece but I feel it is misplaced. For better or worse, Joe Biden is a public figure, and as a public figure of high stature, family comes second to duty. If he felt his son was more important than the Oval Office, he should never have run for president in the first place. Which would have been a fine and supportable decision.
But he did run, and he won. And as a public figure, he needs to publicly denounce that level of corruption, no matter who it comes from.
Call me a bit jaded because every member of Trump’s family got dragged through the mud for far less serious offenses by the mainstream media, but I find this “Joe Biden is just a family man who cares about his son” to be kind of crap. We would not have this same level of sensitivity if this was Eric Trump who did this.
Appreciate the insight and love the article and am happy to be a subscriber, but I have to disagree with you on this one.
This is such a great piece of writing. Hunter is clearly a huge political liability; anyone with half a mind can see it.
But he's Joe's SON.
A little over 50 years ago, Joe's entire family left the house to go out Christmas shopping, and every person who got in that car that day is DEAD, except for Hunter.
To expect the President to renounce him, as so many of us sort of wish he could, for political expediency, is just unrealistic — and I'm not sure I could respect him if he did.
And of course, the hypocrisy from the right never ends: if he doesn't repudiate his son that means he's in on the deal, but he's a monster for "not acknowledging" the granddaughter that son had with a stripper while he was strung out on drugs — despite the fact that it's obvious she and her family would use it as nothing but an opportunity to make his life (and political career) miserable. 🙄
Even a registered Republican like me can feel empathy over the personal tragedies that Joe Biden has had to endure. But I get off the bus when I see the White House stonewalling and the DOJ clearly bending over backward to "contain" the repercussions of Hunter's dealings. What does Josh Barro think about a DOJ lawyer admitting in open court there was no precedent for the structure of the plea agreement the government was presenting to the court? That Trump is a catastrophe does not provide a free pass to his principal political opponent.
Very beautiful essay. Empathetic and touching. It's my favorite you've written since "Let me tell you about the day in Paris I decided to get married".
As Vice-President and later as President, Joe Biden's duty to his office and to the American public trumped his duty to his family, whenever there was a conflict between the two duty realms. President Biden must be an idiot to keep defending Hunter. Isn't loyalty to Donald Trump above all else, Trump's trademark? I think it's way past time for both men to turn toward their own respective houses and try to get them in order, which will require them to leave the public service realm entirely, because there is no way they can can put America first when their own personal houses are so totally disarrayed.
It’s a horribly sad situation for everyone involved.
Oh put away the violins and smell the coffee. Hunter and Jim Biden have been the bagmen for Joe Biden's shakedowns for long before crack was invented. Why do we need student loan relief? Because MBNA hired Hunter at $3.5 million a year as a lobbyist while his dad was rewriting the Bankruptcy Code, and student loan discharges were left out of the bill. The Bidens and the Wilmington
Democratic machine took the state of Delaware away from the DuPont family in 1972, and they have practiced old school machine politics and machine graft ever since.
If Hunter had ever been forced to get a real job he might have hit bottom and cleaned himself up, Joe made sure he never did.
Josh,
This is a really strong article that addresses complicated topics: Joe's duty to his son vs the country; the parental bond in light of other fallen loved ones; bad people with charisma, etc. Well done.
"What I see here is a father who knows his son has tremendous issues, including a deep-seated need to feel useful and successful (like his late brother was) even though he fundamentally isn’t." Yup.
Josh, you nailed this. Thank you for so eloquently saying what I’ve been privately wrestling with.
Very few addicts can maintain a costly addiction without enablers. His father looks to be chief among them. Joe looks almost as broken as Hunter. It’s a family disease.
I can buy all of this, but I have no reason to believe that large media outlets would have given anywhere near this same deference to a Republican president. The idea that the "illusion of access" talking point gaining purchase amongst CNN and NY Times writers and editors for a Republican president is absolutely ludicrous.