On the day President Biden’s career in national politics began in 1973, he walked up to a lectern set up in a Delaware hospital room while holding his 3-year-old son, Hunter, in his arms. Both Hunter and his older brother Beau, who was lying in a hospital bed nearby, were recovering after being in a car accident that had killed their sister and mother weeks earlier.
Biden was there to take the oath to become a senator, a ceremony held at the hospital so his sons could be there. And, he suggested, if there was ever a “conflict between my being a good father and being a good senator,” he would step aside.
He never did, but a tension between parenthood and politics would come to define his presidency.
On Sunday, nearly 52 years after taking that oath and now nearing the end of his political career, he again held up Hunter, at least symbolically, pardoning his son for a decade of legal trouble that included federal convictions on gun and tax charges.
It was an extraordinary move that came after he and his press secretary repeatedly insisted he would not pardon his son. It seemed to upend Biden’s attempts to portray himself as an institutionalist. But it wasn’t a surprise to those who have observed his relationship with his son.
My colleague Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent who has written extensively about Biden and his family. We talked today about how Biden’s complex relationship with his son set the stage for a pardon that has drawn bipartisan condemnation. Our conversation was condensed and edited for clarity.
JB: Biden has long said he would not pardon his son. What do we know about why he ultimately decided to do so?
KR: I think that Biden’s thinking on this has evolved as outside circumstances have changed. He was adamant that he would not issue a pardon as president in the summer, when Hunter was convicted on federal gun charges. But a lot has changed as summer turned into fall. Biden dropped out of the presidential race. The vice president’s campaign failed, and a former president, Donald Trump, was elected while promising to stock his administration with vengeful characters who were making no secret of their interest in going after political enemies. The only thing that hadn’t really changed was Hunter’s legal circumstances.
It’s always been a hugely distracting thing for the president. For the better part of last week, he was with his wife, Jill Biden, and Hunter in Nantucket. The first lady had been supportive of a pardon. Hunter Biden has certainly been in support of a pardon for himself. And surrounded by family, the president finalized that decision on Saturday night and told his senior aides on a conference call that it was “time to end all of this.”
Hunter Biden has been a Republican attack line, a media story line and a presence in the White House. How has Hunter shaped his father’s presidency, and how has his father responded to the focus on his son?
Hunter is in the center of his father’s circle of trust, as was his older brother, Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015. He has weighed in on speeches, particularly those that deal with the fight for democracy. Hunter was one of the only people in the room with his father when he made the final decision to drop out of the presidential race, and Hunter was in the room with the president when he neared this decision to pardon him.
He has unfettered access to his father, and with that comes access to some of the biggest decisions he’s made as president and as a presidential candidate. The Bidens have always been really palpably defensive of Hunter, whether it’s about his addiction issues or his influence with his father. It is really the one line they don’t let anybody cross with them.
I think critics and allies alike would say that’s an enormous blind spot. It’s also something that Biden aides have to clean up retroactively, which is something the press secretary is having to do today, as the president is making one of the most potentially damaging decisions to his legacy.
How have the criminal and political investigations of Hunter Biden weighed on his father?
The president believes that Hunter was singled out only because he’s the president’s son, and I think President Biden, publicly and privately, feels enormous guilt over Hunter’s legal problems. One of the president’s allies told me this afternoon that the president’s decision can’t be defended, only explained — and that his love for his son is so powerful that he’s willing to take the heat that’s going to come from this.
Are we seeing a conflict between Biden the institutionalist — a guy who loves to uphold the nation’s political norms — and Biden the father?
We’re not even seeing a conflict. We’re seeing which side won out. Those two parts of him are always in tension with the other, especially since Hunter’s addiction problems really came to the fore.
People who know the president and talk to him — these are people who love him, his allies — say it’s no surprise that this was coming. It was just a matter of when the anguished father would overtake the politician who has been promising principled leadership.
A survey by the Pew Research Center this year found that 42 percent of Trump’s supporters believed it would be acceptable for him to pardon family, friends or political supporters who have been convicted of a crime. Only 8 percent of Harris supporters believed that about her. How has Trump — who pardoned his son-in-law’s father, after all — made this easier for Biden in a sense?
It’s not unheard-of for presidents to do this. Republican voters have already seen Trump pardon people close to him. Bill Clinton pardoned his half brother. But I think one of the more influential factors, even than Trump setting the terms, is Trump’s promises to install people in the government who would basically eliminate checks on the system Biden said he wanted to defend.
The statement we saw from Biden was laced with bitterness and even cynicism about the legal system, as it stands now. I think it came from an embittered president, and an anguished father.
What do we know about Hunter Biden’s reaction to all of this?
Hunter issued a statement last night saying that he was going to dedicate his life to making things better for people like him, and that he was going to find some purpose in this. He has not answered my questions today, but I think he’s a grateful and relieved son today. His father has made one of the most politically impactful decisions of a half-century career to benefit his son.
I would imagine there’s immense relief for Hunter. I don’t know if the president feels the same.
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