As has been extensively famous, regardless of the authorized deserves of Hunter Biden’s prosecution and conviction, it has most of the qualities of a Greek tragedy. And as his case unfolded, it uncovered probably the most intimate particulars of his non-public life.
The Washington Submit stated fairly merely that “Biden’s trial pulled again [the] curtain on household’s darkish moments.” The truth that Hunter is the son of the President of the US solely deepens the tabloid intrigue.
Right here, I don’t need to concentrate on Hunter and what he did, however as a substitute on what we will study Joe Biden’s character from the best way he has dealt with himself all through Hunter Biden’s case. That case presents one other instance of how a lot we study folks’s character from how they react in tragic conditions.
“Character,” as Suzanne Fields writes, “is decided by how we reply to occasions and circumstances, notably when issues go flawed.” And character will probably be on the poll in November. It is likely one of the many stark divides between President Biden and his Republican challenger, Donald Trump.
Way back, Abraham Lincoln pointed to the significance of assessing the character of our political leaders by contrasting what he referred to as “popularity” with character. “Status is the shadow,” Lincoln stated, “and character is the tree.”
Status, Lincoln understood, “might be faked in politics by the humanities of intelligent image-makers. Character can’t be faked as a result of it’s who we’re when nobody is watching.” Greater than a century after Lincoln, political scientist James David Barber confirmed how presidential efficiency is formed by the character of those that maintain the workplace, by “the best way the President orients himself towards life.”
As a result of Joe Biden has been within the public eye for a really very long time, People already know a lot about how he “orients himself towards life.” However we’ve got just lately discovered rather more concerning the President as he has endured the agony of watching his son introduced earlier than the bar of justice.
The President himself has reminded us that Hunter’s trial has additionally been one thing of a trial for him. At the start, it exams the power of their father-son relationship.
Such relationships are clearly essential to Joe Biden. As journalism professor Chris Lamb argues, “President Joe Biden typically talks concerning the shut relationship he had together with his father and the way this influenced him rising up as ‘the scrappy child from Scranton, Pennsylvania.’”
Biden’s father, Lamb writes, “misplaced his job after World Conflict II and abused alcohol, struggling financially for years earlier than getting again on his ft and discovering middle-class work promoting vehicles close to Wilmington, Delaware.”
The President often tells tales about his father. He cites his father’s recommendation: “The measure of a person is just not how typically he’s knocked down, however how rapidly he will get up.”
Whereas the reality of Biden’s relationship together with his father is extra difficult than might be captured in that one aphorism, his father’s phrases might clarify why President Biden has gone out of his option to reward “Hunter’s resilience within the face of adversity and the power he has delivered to his restoration are inspiring to us. A variety of households,” the President notes, “have family members who’ve overcome dependancy and know what we imply.”
In 2019, Biden posted on Instagram his late father’s perception that “there’s no greater calling for a girl or a person than to be mom or father.” Attempting to be father has all the time appeared to be considered one of Joe Biden’s highest priorities.
Which may be why he went residence to Delaware each evening to be together with his youngsters fairly than staying in Washington, DC, when he began his profession within the Senate. CNN estimated he took about 8,000 spherical journeys on the identical route.
“‘Wanting again on it, the reality be instructed, the true purpose I went residence each evening was that I wanted my youngsters greater than they wanted me,’” he instructed CNN in 2015, “noting that pundits prompt his absences from Washington would wreck his political profession.”
The significance Biden locations on being father might also clarify why, initially of Hunter’s trial, Biden acknowledged that he can be examined in each his private and non-private life by what was about to unfold. “I’m the President,” Joe Biden remarked, “however I’m additionally a Dad.”
“Because the President, I don’t and gained’t touch upon pending federal circumstances, however as a Dad, I’ve boundless love for my son, confidence in him, and respect for his power.”
ABC Information reviews that all through Hunter’s authorized troubles, it has been clear that “the fatherly relationship Joe Biden has together with his son Hunter outweighs considerations about appearances and political implications.” It quotes President Biden, who stated, “‘I really like my son, primary. He fought—an dependancy downside. He overcame it. He wrote about it. And no, there’s not a single factor that I’ve noticed in any respect from that might have an effect on me or the US relative to my son Hunter.’”
In recent times, loving Hunter has not been straightforward.
Hunter makes that clear in his 2021 memoir. He captures the problem when he writes about how his father, then Vice President, reacted when he got here to verify on Hunter throughout considered one of his alcohol and drug benders.
“The very last thing I wished,” Hunter writes, “was Dad displaying up in entrance of my house constructing together with his huge safety element. However nearly a month in, he’d had sufficient. He lowered his safety to a minimal and knocked on my door.”
“I let him in,” Hunter wrote. “He regarded aghast at what he noticed. He requested if I used to be okay and I instructed him, certain, I used to be fantastic. ‘I do know you’re not fantastic, Hunter,’ he stated, learning me, scanning the house. ‘You need assistance.’ I regarded into my dad’s eyes and noticed an expression of despair, an expression of concern.”
Despair and concern, who has not felt each within the face of a kid’s struggles? However, as an ABC Information story notes, “All through the e book, Joe Biden is forged in a recurring function as Hunter Biden’s lifeline, guiding him by way of moments of seemingly insurmountable issue in his relationships and his drug dependancy.”
Whereas I have no idea precisely what Joe Biden feels within the shadow of his son’s prison conviction, I used to be struck by the very public show of affection that the President showered on Hunter the primary time he noticed him after the decision was handed down.
It gave vivid proof of the sincerity of what the President stated on the time. “Jill and I’ll all the time be there for Hunter and the remainder of our household with our love and assist. Nothing will ever change that.”
No matter Joe Biden, the daddy, is feeling concerning the authorized proceedings introduced in opposition to his son, in contrast to Donald Trump, who has bitterly attacked the prosecutors and judges concerned within the numerous circumstances in opposition to him, Biden has stated nothing about U.S. Lawyer David Weiss, a Trump appointee who’s serving as particular counsel in Hunter’s case, or about Choose Maryellen Noreika, who presided on the trial and who was nominated to the bench by Trump.
As a substitute of deriding trials and the juries, as his opponent for the presidency has been wont to do, Biden stated that he would respect the jury verdict, and “When requested by interviewer David Muir of ABC if he would rule out pardoning Hunter Biden, the President gave a one-word reply, “Sure.”
Unfailing loyalty, boundless love, fidelity, and self-restraint of the sort Biden has proven certainly are necessary character traits in somebody who aspires to steer this nation. As Julian Zelizer, a professor of historical past at Princeton College, says, “When push involves shove, a candidate’s character may be an important issue guiding how she or he will make selections and run the White Home.”
Voters can relaxation assured about Biden’s character. He has handed the take a look at posed by his son Hunter’s troubles with flying colours.
