As jury selection began on Monday for Hunter Biden’s gun possession trial, President Joe Biden issued a statement reflecting the delicate balance he must maintain during his re-election campaign.

“I am the president, but I am also a dad,” Joe Biden said.
His statement expressed support for his son, who faces up to 25 years in prison for allegedly lying about his drug addiction on background documents for a 2018 handgun purchase.
“As president, I don’t and won’t comment on pending federal cases,” he continued. “But as a dad, I have boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his strength.”

Hunter Biden’s battles with drug addiction are well-known. He has spoken about them publicly and detailed them in his memoir, making them evidence in his trial and fodder for public scrutiny.

Joe Biden has previously addressed his son’s struggles. During the first presidential debate with Donald Trump in 2020, he expressed pride in his only surviving son.
“My son, like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem,” he said. “He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it.”

Four years ago, Biden was responding to Trump’s attacks on the debate stage. Now, his statement seems to be an effort to navigate a politically sensitive moment where his son’s troubled past—and by extension, the Biden family’s—will be in the spotlight.

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, is anticipated to testify about her former husband’s drug addiction. Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s brother Beau, who later became romantically involved with Hunter and disposed of the handgun in question in a Delaware trash can, is also listed as a prosecution witness.

“It’s definitely not a good look,” says Kate Andersen Brower, an author specializing in US presidents, their families, and first ladies. She points out that presidents have dealt with family issues before, citing sibling embarrassments faced by Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. However, a president’s child facing a criminal trial is unprecedented, placing the elder Biden in a difficult position.

President Biden spent the weekend with his son in Delaware and remained in Wilmington, where the trial will occur, on Sunday night. The Biden family was well represented during jury selection on Monday.

However, the president had returned to Washington by then. While he has expressed support for his son, he is maintaining a distance from the case itself.

First Lady Jill Biden attended the trial, sitting behind Hunter Biden. The two shared an embrace during a morning break and again at the end of the day’s proceedings. Jill was accompanied by Hunter’s current wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, who held his hand as they left the court, and his half-sister, Ashley Biden, along with her husband.

Jill Biden married President Biden after his first wife, Hunter’s mother, died in a 1972 car accident that also injured Hunter and Beau. The tragic accident claimed the life of their infant sister, Naomi.

President Biden often speaks about the closeness of his family, incorporating this devotion into his political identity. He frequently recounts taking the train home from Washington to Delaware each night during his tenure as a US senator to say goodnight to his children. He wrote a book on coping with grief following Beau Biden’s death from brain cancer in 2016 and has openly discussed the emotional trauma he endured after his first wife’s death.

Now, the more sensational aspects of the Biden family saga will be on public display, including text messages between Hunter Biden and his family, with intimate exchanges involving Beau’s widow. Additionally, photographs and details of Hunter Biden’s crack cocaine use will be presented, some of which likely originated from his laptop, a controversial element during the final days of the 2020 presidential election.

Hunter Biden’s trial follows closely on the heels of one of the biggest stories of the 2024 presidential election so far: Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Although the two cases are fundamentally different—one involves charges against a candidate, while the other concerns a candidate’s son—the concurrent trials will inevitably invite comparisons.