First lady Jill Biden has slammed the Republican Party’s unyielding attacks on her and President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, as having a negative effect on the younger Mr Biden’s children and the rest of the Biden family, calling the incessant rhetoric directed at her son “cruel”.
Dr Biden defended her son, a Yale-educated attorney and former lobbyist turned visual artist who has struggled with substance abuse disorder for decades, during an interview with MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski which aired Thursday on Morning Joe.
“I think what they are doing to Hunter is cruel, and I'm really proud of how Hunter has rebuilt his life after addiction,” she said after Brzezinski asked how she and Mr Biden have been coping with the targeting of Hunter, who is President Biden’s only surviving son from his first marriage.
Continuing, Dr Biden said she loves her son and said it is “hard” to see him under attack. She added that the GOP targeting of Hunter has also had a negative effect on his children — her and President Biden’s grandchildren.
“It's hurt my grandchildren. And that's what I'm so concerned about that — it's affecting their lives as well,” she said.
Dr Biden’s defence of her son comes just one day after he made a surprise appearance on Capitol Hill, entering a House Oversight Committee markup of a resolution to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Last year, the GOP-led panel issued a subpoena for documents and testimony from Mr Biden, who Republicans have baselessly accused of being part of illicit influence-peddling schemes to take advantage of his father’s position.
Mr Biden has said he is willing to give evidence before the committee, but only in a public setting.
In addition to being the subject of the GOP-led congressional probe, Hunter Biden is also the target of a Department of Justice probe being overseen by David Weiss, a Trump-appointed US Attorney in Delaware who Attorney General Merrick Garland elevated to Special Counsel status last fall.
He is facing charges in Delaware related to his alleged ownership of a firearm while suffering from drug addiction, and he was set to appear in a California courtroom on Thursday to answer federal tax evasion charges. Both sets of charges were filed against him by Mr Weiss.
