During a crucial month in former President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, he allegedly said the “only thing” he cared about was that his son Hunter Biden avoided jail, the authors of a new book claim.
According to an excerpt of 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, published in the Wall Street Journal, Biden was “distracted” by his son’s legal battles, which coincided with a key moment in his doomed campaign.
The former president was said to be “devastated” by Hunter’s legal troubles and months later, as one of his last acts in office, made the stunning move to pardon his son after his conviction on federal gun charges.
June 2024 was a key period in Biden’s reelection campaign – but the then-president suffered enormous setbacks that eventually derailed his bid for a second term.
The former president didn’t recognise his long-term friend and ally George Clooney at a star-studded fundraiser mid-way through the month, according to a tell-all book on his decline. The interaction, in part, is said to have influenced the actor’s decision to pen an op-ed in calling for him to drop out the race.
Then, two weeks later, Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump caused further concern within his own party.
While all of that was going on, the book’s authors — The Journal’s Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager of the New York Times, and the Washington Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf — claim that Biden confided in a close friend: “The only thing I care about is that my son is not convicted.”
However, Hunter was equally concerned by his father’s performance against Trump.
“Hunter watched the debate from his home in Los Angeles, and his reaction was ‘What the f***?’,” the book claims. “He had never seen his father so out of it, and worried about his well-being. A few days later, when Hunter arrived at Camp David for a visit, he told his father, ‘I love you’ and ‘Get some sleep.’”
The next morning, Hunter’s “concerns had softened,” the book says. “He thought Biden had just been exhausted during the debate…No one discussed Biden dropping out of the presidential race.”
However, a few weeks later, as Biden was recovering from Covid and holding meetings to determine his future, Hunter called and said he would support whatever decision was made, but “would sure love having” his father back, according to the book. The next day, the book claims, Biden dropped out of the race.
The account is said to be based on interviews with “more than a dozen prominent Democrats” working on Biden’s campaign and within White House.
The book, out next week on July 8, follows another explosive publication detailing the alleged cover-up of Biden’s mental and physical decline while in office written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson. It was released around the same time Biden announced that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
On December 1 last year, Biden issued a pardon to his son, who he said had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” by the Justice Department. In a lengthy statement, he said he hoped the American people would understand his decision as a father.
It came less than two weeks ahead of Hunter’s sentencing for his conviction on federal gun charges.
The pardon was a full reversal of the stance he took six months prior, when he announced publicly he would not pardon Hunter if he was convicted.
It prompted widespread outrage amongst Republicans and Democrats, with many calling it “an improper use of power.”
