President Joe Biden is abroad for the second time in as many weeks, this time for the Group of Seven summit as he and other world leaders deal with a war in Ukraine and another between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
But Biden is also in Italy as his family contends with the personal and political consequences of his only surviving son, Hunter Biden, being convicted this week on federal felony gun charges and as Europe comes to terms with the overperformance of far-right political parties in last weekend’s European Parliament elections.
En route to Fasano, Italy, the site of this year’s G7 summit, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not answer questions regarding how Joe Biden found out about his son’s guilty verdict Tuesday after his weeklong jury trial in Delaware, a first for a first son and one that covered his illicit drug use and relationships with his late brother Beau Biden‘s widow and a stripper.
Jean-Pierre also did not answer why Joe Biden helicoptered from Washington, D.C. to Delaware on Tuesday to spend time with his family when Hunter Biden departed for California shortly after his arrival or which family members were accompanying him on his three-day trip to Italy. All three children Hunter Biden had with his first wife, Kathleen Buhle, were reportedly aboard Air Force One.
“In anticipation of your questions, I just want to read the president’s statement from yesterday,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on the plane Wednesday. “I don’t have anything beyond the statement.”
Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in federal prison for one count of unlawfully having a firearm in 2018 when he was a drug addict and two counts of not disclosing his drug use when he purchased the revolver. He has also been charged in California with nine counts of federal tax crimes, including tax evasion. That trial is scheduled to start in September, weeks before the 2024 election, and is expected to concern some of his foreign business transactions, which congressional Republicans have investigated as part of their impeachment proceedings into his father.
Aside from the personal repercussions, Joe Biden, the White House, and his campaign anticipate that former President Donald Trump and Republicans will continue to criticize him and his son, particularly during this month’s debate. Polling is yet to capture the political ramifications of the younger Biden’s latest legal complications for the elder.
“This has been a tough week for Biden,” Rutgers University history, media studies, and journalism professor David Greenberg told the Washington Examiner. “He’s not implicated in his son’s crime, and there’s an enormous difference between Hunter’s offense and Trump’s. Still, the conviction may taint the president by association, if even a small number of people conclude that ‘both sides’ are corrupt.”
“He’s an adult, and he’s been at the center of the political controversies since his laptop was discovered four years ago,” Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley added. “He’s put himself in the middle of the maelstrom. Republicans have every right to criticize him for his illegal behavior, for his illegal gun possession, and for his conviction. He’s fair game. He’s an adult. His last name is Biden. Trump’s children, all his children, encountered their own criticism. So now it’s sauce for the goose.”
Biden and his aides are trying to underscore the differences alluded to by Greenberg between the president and his predecessor, including on the matter of democracy after Trump challenged the results of the 2020 election.
But Biden’s promotion of democracy and defense of Ukraine were undermined last weekend by right-wing and Euro-skeptic parties in Europe, including Marine Le Pen‘s National Rally in France and Alternative for Germany, which outperformed expectations in the June 6-9 European Parliament elections. Even before the results were finalized, French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved France’s national parliament and announced a snap election for seats in the lower house, with the first round of voting to take place on June 30 and the second on July 7.
“The European elections, meanwhile, are a bad omen,” Greenberg said. “Remember, in 2016 everyone was stunned when Brexit passed in Britain — and it seemed to presage Trump’s victory.”
On Air Force One, Jean-Pierre did answer questions related to Biden’s approach to the G7 after the European Parliament’s elections and as Trump retains an advantage over him in battleground state polling.
“Some of you traveled with us when he went to Normandy and visited the beaches of Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and you heard the president talk about the importance of our alliances and our partnership and how it is important that we fight for democracy and our freedom because it matters for all of us,” she said. “You’ll see the president at the G-7, another important opportunity to engage with our allies and partners on what’s going on globally in the world.”
But Shirley remained skeptical about Biden and his prospects before November, asserting his message has “become lost in his problems.”
“His message is completely obliterated by many varied problems that he has,” Shirley told the Washington Examiner. “His son’s convictions — he’s still got another trial in California — the anti-Jewish protests by the Democratic Left, crime in American cities, the border, inflation. He’s near a tipping point where his presidency falls into the abyss.
“All presidents face this moment in time, and some recover and some don’t,” he said. “As far as Normandy and Reagan and Biden, Reagan’s speech was an address for the ages. Biden’s speech was an address for the minutes.”
Forty years before Biden traveled to France’s north coast, Reagan similarly delivered two addresses honoring U.S. soldiers who died during World War II, which served as an inspiration for the incumbent.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In addition to his G7 meetings, Biden’s agenda includes a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a sit-down with Pope Francis.
Alongside Jean-Pierre on Air Force One, national security adviser Jake Sullivan outlined a new long-term bilateral security agreement Biden and Zelensky will sign after the event.
