By During a prime time interview last Friday, Joe Biden said that only an act of God would cause him to leave the race for reelection following his disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump.
Passions have flared between the president’s staff and the Biden Family, tearing open “longstanding” rifts between the president’s political aides and his most trusted members of his family, including Hunter Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
President Joe Biden’s family is attempting to become more involved in his campaign and White House affairs as their anger with his staff spills into public view. However, another person close to the president told NBC News that the Biden family is not seeing the political reality clearly, calling it “Shakespearean.”
“The debate fiasco has opened up a lane for the family to surpass staff and start helping out their father and brother who they love dearly,” one of the people with knowledge of family dynamics said.
The split between the president’s family and some of his closest aides has long been simmering, and his debate performance has exacerbated the dynamic, 13 sources familiar with the dynamics told NBC News. In the view of some Biden aides, the family is seizing on an opportunity to try to settle old scores. In the view of family members, the debate is the culmination of misguided advice from aides who they don’t believe have helped the president best showcase his political appeal.
The infighting has angered some Biden staffers, who have found the finger-pointing to be getting in the way of all-hands-on-deck approach needed to help the president battle this crisis.
“It’s not helpful,” one Biden campaign aide said. The view of some Biden allies is that the president’s aides are doing the bulk of managing and coordinating the post-debate strategy, while the family is approaching the situation more emotionally.
The Hill reported that “the close-knit Biden family, Jill Biden and Hunter Biden, are known for their loyalty and protectiveness of the president. The president leaning on them during a crisis, like ongoing calls for him to drop out of the race following a dismal debate performance, is evident of that relationship.
‘He’s always leaned on Hunter, because Hunter is politically and media savvy. Like Jill, he has the wisdom and experience of living through the last four decades in a front-row seat to American politics,’ said Michael LaRosa, First Lady Jill Biden’s traveling press secretary during the 2020 campaign. ‘Hunter and Beau [Biden] and Jill were in the room with the advisers when they were deciding what to do in ‘87.’
Hunter Biden was seen at the White House again Wednesday, in the audience at a Medal of Honor ceremony. The first son’s presence comes as the White House and President Biden have tried to stop the bleeding since the debate, forcefully insisting that the president is staying in the race. But Democratic operatives, former aides and two sitting House Democratic lawmakers have called for Biden to step aside.
‘Perhaps more so than recent presidents, Joe Biden relies on his family for advice, guidance, and solace. After a very difficult several days, it would be surprising if he didn’t surround himself with family,’ said Biden ally and former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.).”
According to reports, both staff and Biden’s liberal political allies have been shocked at how Hunter Biden has become the “gatekeeper” to the White House, causing some to demand that he drop out by the end of the week, noted New York Magazine.
“It’s hardly novel for presidents to turn to family members for comfort or guidance. But Hunter Biden, a recovering drug addict and convicted felon, is totally unqualified to advise the president on the matter of his own fitness to serve in office and run for a second term. He lacks any relevant expertise, and his only relevant credential is an abiding love and admiration for his father that renders him totally unable to divorce the family’s interests from those of the country.
Indeed, Hunter’s looming prison sentence creates a massive conflict of interest. President Biden has said he won’t pardon his son, but that is a promise he could violate with little penalty after the election. And if Joe Biden steps down as a presidential candidate, he may also have to relinquish the presidency, thus forfeiting any chance to pardon his son.”
The move by the Bidens has seen the patience grow thin for many of the president’s Democratic allies.
A staff member of the White House who works closely with the president has, anonymously , said the president needs to step aside.
Axios reports that “outside Biden’s protective bubble, a fast-growing number of Democrats are praying for —and plotting — a more earthly intervention. They want everyone from the Obamas to congressional leaders to beg Biden to drop out by this Friday.”
[Read More: Biden Facing More Calls To Step Down]
