First lady Jill Biden left President Biden in France on Thursday to fly back across the Atlantic to Delaware, where Hunter Biden is on trial on firearms-related charges.
The first lady is due to return to France on Saturday for an official visit, according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander.
The first lady's departure from a high-profile foreign visit may have been the most dramatic display yet of the Biden family's personal priorities, some 3,600 miles from France in Courtroom 4A of the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware.
Hunter Biden is on trial for lying about his drug use on paperwork for a gun purchase in October 2018 and for illegally possessing the gun.
This boomerang journey speaks to the commitment of the first lady, who is not related to Hunter Biden, but who raised him from an early age and, over time, became a pillar of support for the family.
“I'm his mother,” she said in a 2022 interview while Hunter Biden was under federal investigation, “so I have to support him and love him and I'm always talking to him and texting him, 'How are you doing?' Because it's hard.”
If you fly across the Atlantic you'll realise how tough it is.
The first lady has been in court three days so far this week and is scheduled to be back on Friday. On Monday, her 73rd birthday, she spent hours interviewing dozens of potential jurors in mundane interviews. She hugged Hunter Biden during breaks. She has been in court frequently this week, comforting his daughter, Ashley Biden, who grew emotional whenever her brother's ordeal was described. The first lady's eyes were not dry.
While the Bidens have stressed that they are dealing with the same challenge faced by many Americans — addiction — the family's incredibly complicated dynamics have been laid bare this week.
On Wednesday, the first lady stepped out of the room for testimony from Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden's ex-wife, with whom she is said to have a frosty relationship, and on Thursday she was absent from testimony from Hallie Biden, his former daughter-in-law who was in a relationship with Hunter Biden after the death of his brother, Beau.
As their relationship deteriorated and escalated into drug use, Hallie Biden became a key witness for the prosecution – she had thrown Hunter Biden's Colt Cobra gun in a trash can outside a grocery store. A plea deal between Biden and prosecutors collapsed last year, leading to accusations that he lied on a federal application to buy the gun.
Dr. Biden will likely want to be present when the defense begins calling members of the Biden family, a list that includes Naomi Biden, the first couple's eldest daughter and a vocal defender of her father, and James Biden, President Biden's brother, who has been tasked with helping his wayward nephew recover from drug addiction.
Hunter Biden and the first lady (he calls her “Mom”) have a close relationship, according to people who know them. But the nature of their bond is different from the one Hunter Biden has with other family members, namely his aunt, Valerie Biden Owens, who was the first Biden to move in to raise his sons after Biden's first wife, Neilia, and their infant daughter, Naomi, died in a car accident in December 1972.
Hunter and Beau Biden were raised by Biden Owens and their uncle, James Biden, who also helped raise the boys until their father began dating Jill Biden in 1975. The Bidens married in 1977.
Growing up, she shared her sense of humor with Biden's eldest son, Beau Biden, who died in 2015. In his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” Hunter Biden wrote that he sometimes felt left out of their jokes, but he also praised her for “doing a great job, especially with everyone watching.”
In his memoir, “Where the Light Comes In,” Dr. Biden wrote that Hunter Biden was Biden's son “just like me.”
“He didn't like to talk much about his feelings,” she writes, “and although he didn't always know how to express them as a child, he always let his emotions show. He was a warm, loving man.”
Decades later, Hunter Biden would clash bitterly with Dr. Biden, who led his family's efforts to get him drug-free. In early 2019, when Hunter Biden was struggling with drug addiction again, Dr. Biden called him and invited him to dinner at his family's Wilmington home. It turned out to be an intervention. Hunter Biden ran away from home and headed to California, where he continued using drugs until he met his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, according to his memoir.
The extent of his addiction problems was not made public until the contents of a laptop left at a repair shop were made public on a conservative website ahead of the 2020 election.
In the tumultuous years since then, the first lady has tried to keep Hunter Biden close and show her support by inviting him and his family, who live in Los Angeles, to East Wing events such as the White House Easter Egg Roll. After he began painting, the first lady hung one of his pieces in her East Wing office.
She also publicly maintained Hunter Biden's innocence as he was investigated over gun purchases and tax evasion issues, leading to a new set of charges that will see him go on trial later this year.
“Everybody has been investigating Hunter,” the first lady told NBC News in the fall of 2022. “They continue to investigate. I know Hunter is innocent. I love my son and we will continue to move forward.”
That's for the jury to decide.
