A story that sticks in my craw

I just keep thinking about it.

(President Joe Biden and his grandkids)

On July 1, the New York Times ran a story headlined: “Hunter Biden’s Daughter and a Tale of Two Families.”

It detailed the daughter that Hunter Biden, the son of the president of the United States, had with a woman named Lunden Roberts. The little girl is now four years old.

The part that really stuck with me is that the little girl is basically unacknowledged by the Biden family — including her grandfather, Joe Biden.

This paragraph, in particular, really bothered me:

[Biden’s] public image is centered around his devotion to his family — including to Hunter, his only surviving son. In strategy meetings in recent years, aides have been told that the Bidens have six, not seven, grandchildren, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

And this one is a doozy too:

But the president has not yet met or publicly mentioned his other grandchild. His White House has not answered questions about whether he will publicly acknowledge her now that the child support case is settled.

Look. I am not as Hunter Biden hater. Or a conspiracy theorist.¹

I am actually sympathetic to him. He is clearly someone who struggled (and struggles) with addiction. His father is, well, his father, and loves him unconditionally. (As a dad of two boys, I get this.)

And, I get why people want to see all of this in a political light. As the Times notes, Roberts hired an attorney who had done work for Donald Trump’s campaign to represent her in the paternity case. That lawyer then brought in a guy who was knee deep in the Hunter Biden laptop story.

Not a great look. And plenty of fodder for Democrats who see this whole thing as just another Republican attempt to get Hunter Biden — of which there have been many. (Worth noting: Biden was set to plead guilty to tax charges today as part of a plea agreement but the agreement fell through at the last minute.)

That said, Hunter’s behavior in all of this has been deplorable. He initially denied paternity. And this paragraph from the Times report is brutal:

In mid-2018, Ms. Roberts was working as a personal assistant to Mr. Biden, according to a person close to her and messages from a cache of Mr. Biden’s files. Their daughter was born later that year, but by then, Mr. Biden had stopped responding to Ms. Roberts’s messages, including one informing him of the child’s birth date. Shortly after their daughter was born in November 2018, he removed Ms. Roberts and the child from his health insurance, which led Ms. Roberts to contact Mr. Lancaster.

Of course, we already knew Hunter behaved badly — very badly — in the throes of addiction. That’s not to excuse his behavior —far from it — but rather to acknowledge that he was an addict and did ugly things.

For me, the thing I can’t get past is how Joe Biden has reacted to the existence of this little girl.

Whatever you think of Biden, he seems to be a genuinely committed family man whose family, in turn, seems to really love and value him.

To me, that’s hugely important. And it’s why his treatment of his granddaughter is so, so problematic.

Regardless of the circumstances of the child’s birth, she’s here now. And utterly blameless in all of this. She’s just a kid. A kid who deserves to know — and have a relationship with — her grandfather.

One thing I learned when CNN laid me off is that kids don’t really care WHO you are. My kids were disappointed that I was sad and that I didn’t work for CNN anymore. But, they got over it in like a day.

All that my kids — and any kids — wanted is to get to spend time with me, to know they were and are loved and appreciated.

That’s true of ALL kids — including the president’s unacknowledged granddaughter. She doesn’t care that her grandfather is the president. Or that the circumstances of her birth have become a political football for lots of people. She’s just a kid who wants to be loved.

I am under no illusion that this is the most important story of the day, week or year. Donald Trump, not exactly a moral paragon in his family life, appears to be on the verge of a third indictment. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s one-time lawyer, just admitted he made up election fraud allegations against two women in Georgia. Ron DeSantis’ campaign is in the midst of a slow-motion collapse. The war in Ukraine rages on. Sea temperatures are reaching record levels.

But, it’s a story I can’t seem to shake. I just keep thinking that, at root, this is about a little kid and her grandpa. And her right to have some sort of relationship with him.

I know not everyone will agree with me on this — and that’s ok. I am not angry about it nor do I think it’s disqualifying for Biden. And, like I said, I am generally sympathetic to Hunter Biden’s plight. Addiction is a hell of a thing.

It’s just something that keeps coming back to the top of my mind when I think about the president and the broader context of where we are in this American moment.

And it disappoints and saddens me. Because there’s a little girl out there who doesn’t know her grandfather. That’s it. Thanks for listening.

1. I do not, for example, think the cocaine left in the White House earlier this summer belonged to Hunter Biden.