For more than 50 years, President Joe Biden’s reputation as a family-oriented public servant has served as a defining political asset, helping him win the argument that, when measured against “the alternative” rather than “the Almighty,” he performs admirably.
In a political career that has brought him from Delaware’s New Castle County Council to the White House, he has never lost to an opponent in a general election.
But in light of a tight election in 2024, Biden’s reputation is being put to the test like never before. Some of the president’s Democratic supporters are concerned about possible repercussions from a convergence of family drama that has spilled into the public eye and from Republican accusations that pierce at the foundation of Biden’s long-standing political appeal.
The extent to which Biden assisted his son Hunter Biden in obtaining millions of dollars from international business ventures while serving as vice president is being looked into by the GOP-controlled House.
Republicans claim that Hunter Biden’s Justice Department attempted to provide him a “sweetheart” plea bargain in relation to his accusations of federal tax evasion and handgun possession. However, the agreement collapsed last month after a court questioned its provisions. Meanwhile, a federal special prosecutor is looking into Biden’s handling of secret information after his two stints as vice president.
In a far more personal issue, Biden has revealed that he has a seventh grandchild, Navy Joan Roberts, the 4-year-old child of Hunter Biden, who claimed in a biography that he doesn’t recall his “encounter” with her mother. This is the first time Biden has publicly acknowledged having a seventh grandchild.
“The recent events with Hunter Biden truly are in conflict with the present perception of his public image of being squeaky clean,” said Mike Noble, CEO of the nonpartisan Noble Predictive Insights and a leading pollster in the Southwest, of the president.
Noble claimed that Biden’s reputation consistently performs better than his job approval in his company’s trackers, particularly in the crucial 2024 states of Arizona and Nevada.
Regarding the multiple criticisms of Biden and his family, he stated, “I think this potentially hurts his image.
Democrats who are worried about the potential political harm to Vice President Joe Biden are more reserved, and they privately point out that this GOP tale is different from criticism of the president’s age — 80 — or his management of the economy because it is so central to the type of leadership he is providing voters.
In reference to the president’s poor approval rating among Americans, one Democratic strategist observed, “There’s a reason why the numbers are the way they are.” Like other Democrats, the strategist asked for confidentiality to avoid reprisals from other Democrats.
The strategist said of potential causes for Biden’s low job approval, “It’s not just the economy.” “It’s not only that people are worried about inflation, either. Not only are people worried about his age, but other factors as well. Both he and those around him have hurt his brand.
The strategist adamantly refuses to put his name to his comments, nodding to the concern Democrats have of being held responsible for harming their own candidate or arousing his wrath: On the books? F— no! Are you insane, he asked.
According to a June poll by NBC News, 48% of respondents had negative opinions about the president, while 39% had good ones. The remaining 12% were neutral.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted earlier this year, 65% of Americans were concerned that Republicans in Congress would spend too much time discussing Hunter Biden and not enough time discussing issues that affected everyday people.
However, Republicans want to spend the next 15 months making every effort to weaken Biden’s significant electoral asset.
A new commercial that portrays the president as dishonest about his involvement in Hunter Biden’s profitable international business activities was published on Monday by the political action committee of former President Donald Trump, who is currently the front-runner in the polls for the Republican nomination. A spokeswoman for the PAC Make America Great Again said that $1.9 million will be spent on the advertisement.
Brad Parscale, the head of Trump’s 2020 campaign, claimed that recent data gathered by the public opinion polling website Campaign Nucleus indicates at least a glimpse of vulnerability where Biden has long found strength. According to Parscale, a partner at the company that runs Campaign Nucleus, while support for Biden personally is at 43%, it is lower – at 40% — when it comes to matters impacting his family.
According to Parscale, “This net negative feedback of 3% is a significant drag on his overall appeal.”
When compared to the alternative, which according to recent polls is likely to be Trump, who has been charged three times and twice impeached, Biden is going to depend on voters to see past any dissatisfaction with the nicks in his story.
Democrats say they are sure that Biden’s record, both in terms of programs and character, holds up considerably better to scrutiny than Trump’s, even if Biden and Trump are practically even in recent national polls.
According to Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, “Republicans have spent four years & millions of dollars disseminating lies about President Biden and his family because it’s simpler than talking about their wildly unpopular and extremist agenda.
According to Moussa, “it hasn’t worked and it never will because Americans understand that Joe Biden is a fundamentally wonderful man who loves his family and whose passion for his nation has made him one of its most effective presidents in a generation.
However, there is some worry inside the party that the Hunter Biden narratives are detracting from Trump’s persona and the important policy issues that the president’s team believes will ultimately determine the outcome of the election.
Democrats in the competitive state of Wisconsin, according to Felisia Martin, vice chair of the state’s Democratic Party, are becoming increasingly irritated with the attention being given to Hunter Biden rather than pressing issues like inflation.
Martin, who is also a supervisor for Milwaukee County, stated, “We voted for Joe Biden for the position of president of the United States, not Hunter Biden. Unless there’s proof that the president is involved in some shady dealings, I’m not worried because Hunter Biden is not a member of the Biden-Harris government.
Republicans and media outlets have not discovered any proof that Biden received funds from any of Hunter Biden’s business connections.
During a press conference in 2019, Joe Biden stated, “I’ve never spoken to my son regarding his overseas business dealings.”
However, late last month, once it became known that House Republicans had found proof of Hunter Biden chatting to his father while meeting with business acquaintances, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre changed her stance.
When asked if the two Bidens had discussed business ideas, Pierre recalibrated the White House position and stated, “The president was never in business with his son.”
According to a publicly available transcript of his meeting with House investigators, Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s business partners, testified before the House Oversight Committee last week about the value of the Biden “brand” — particularly Hunter Biden’s closeness to his father — in securing and maintaining business.
The influence of the Biden name undoubtedly aided Hunter Biden at nearly every stage of his career, from lobbying Congress while his father was a senator and consulting for MBNA, a Delaware-based bank whose staff members were a major source of campaign funding for the elder Biden, to getting his father’s appointment to the Amtrak board and making a lot of money from international business deals when he was vice president.
Joe Biden had two dinners with Hunter Biden’s international associates in a Washington, D.C., restaurant while he was the vice president, according to Archer. A Russian real estate tycoon and a top official from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm that employed Hunter Biden as a consultant, attended the dinners.
According to Archer’s testimony, the U.S. government has not taken any official action on behalf of Burisma. He said that when speaking with investors and business associates, the younger Biden “would sometimes make it obvious that he spoke to his dad” or put his father on speaker phone.
According to Archer’s testimony, the chats were informal but gave the appearance that the father and son were close. Archer added that he was unaware of any impropriety on the part of the president.
Democrats assert that there is no similarity between Trump and Biden in terms of self-dealing, and they hope that the people will recognize this.
Special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump on several counts relating to his alleged attempt to reverse the 2020 election results and improperly holding onto secret materials after leaving office. The Manhattan district attorney also charged him with fabricating financial records. To all allegations, Trump has entered a not-guilty plea.
Although a resolution to the investigation into Biden’s handling of sensitive materials following his tenure as vice president has not been revealed, one is anticipated in the coming months. Biden has claimed that after leaving the vice presidency, he unknowingly came into possession of confidential materials.
Some of Biden’s supporters believe that he may not have much control over the “family man” brand issue by the time the 2024 campaign rolls around. Additionally, Biden’s supporters hope that people will not criticize him for his actions because they will regard him as a responsible father.
“What’s he supposed to do, cut off his son because he wants to be president?” remarked former Illinois senator Carol Moseley Braun. Because you want to be vice president or president, you don’t stop being a father.
Republicans will find it difficult to destroy a brand that has been created over many years, according to Democrats close to Biden. Democrats are hesitant to publicly criticize the management of his connection with Hunter Biden, in part because of Biden’s reputation for empathy. They frequently have personal experiences with that empathy.
When Bill Houlihan informed Joe Biden that his mother was turning 90 years old, Biden encouraged Houlihan to call his mother and then wished her a happy birthday, according to Houlihan, a longtime Democratic strategist, and adviser to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Houlihan stated, “My mother recited the tale till she passed away. “You don’t do that to gain notoriety; you do that because you love people,” the speaker said.
But in some respects, Joe Biden’s political brand’s most defining characteristic—that he’s a family man—has recently suffered the most damage.
Some Democrats have quietly expressed fears that Biden’s close relationship with Hunter Biden, his only surviving son, and a sober drug addict, is hurting him politically. But Biden didn’t acknowledge his seventh grandchild until last month, despite Republican criticism and some kind reprimands.
According to sources close to him, the president held off on welcoming his granddaughter until Hunter Biden’s legal difficulties with Navy’s mother, Lunden Roberts, were addressed.
However, according to that legal settlement, the Navy is not permitted to use the Biden surname.