President Joe Biden fears he will die before his son Hunter’s legal troubles are resolved as the family worries the situation will get worse before it gets better, according to a new report released Tuesday.
Biden, 80, has spoken behind closed doors about his fear of death, sources close to the Bidens said NBC News.
It contrasts with Biden’s public persona, where he joked about being the oldest president in American history. At a fundraiser in New York on Monday evening, Biden cited his age as experience.
‘A lot of people seem focused on my age. Believe me, I know better than anyone,” he said. ‘When this country was flat on its back, I knew what I had to do.
“I am more optimistic about the future of this country than I have been in the 800 years I have served,” he added with a laugh.
The president has a clean bill of health from his doctor and the best medical care in the world. Still, he sometimes has trouble walking and has made verbal stumbles.
President Joe Biden, 80, fears he will die before his son’s legal troubles are resolved, a new report claims
If Biden wins a second term in next year’s election, he would be 86 when he leaves office.
And polls show voters are concerned. Biden is too old for four more years in the White House.
Moreover, some Democrats are concerned that the president, who defeated Donald Trump, 77, in the 2020 election, may not have the energy to do it again next year.
“He’s at a time in his life where death and death are imminent,” Sharon Sweda, the leader of the Democratic Party in Ohio’s Lorain County, told me. The Washington Post . ‘We’re all on a ticking clock. But when you’re his age or Trump’s age, that clock ticks a little faster, and that’s a concern for voters.”
Compounding the age problem, some aides are concerned that Hunter’s legal troubles could divide the president’s attention when he should be focusing on running the country and campaigning for reelection.
Aides say both the president and first lady Jill Biden are reluctant to hear about any political implications of the case and have accepted the fact that Hunter’s legal troubles are likely to worsen in coming months. NBC News reported.
A source told the news station that the subject of Hunter is so sensitive that “everyone in the West Wing is walking around on eggshells” and is reluctant to raise the issue.
Hunter Biden, meanwhile, is going on the offensive after being hit with three federal charges related to his 2018 gun purchase and facing an investigation into his taxes. He has sued the IRS for releasing his tax information, which he claims should have remained confidential.
President Biden has not publicly discussed his son’s latest legal troubles. But he did tell MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle earlier this year that he was proud of Hunter’s recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.
“It affects my presidency because it makes me feel proud of him,” Biden said.
President Joe Biden with wife Jill, son Hunter, Hunter’s wife Melissa and their son Beau in November 2022
Hunter with President Joe Biden in June 2023 – aides worry his son’s legal troubles could distract the president
The Biden family suffered another blow earlier this summer when Hunter’s plea deal with federal prosecutors collapsed.
US Attorney David Weiss and Hunter’s attorneys reached a plea deal in July that called for the president’s son to plead guilty in Delaware federal court to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes in exchange for a probation recommendation from prosecutors.
A separate weapons crime charge for illegally possessing the special Colt Cobra .38 pistol would have been dropped within two years if Biden had complied with the terms of what is known as a diversion agreement.
The plea deal, which Republicans labeled a “sweetheart deal,” fell apart in a Delaware courtroom as the president began questioning some of its details, including one that would theoretically protect Hunter Biden from other tax-related crimes during the same period. .
Prosecutors said that would not be the case. Hunter’s lawyers said yes. The agreement fell apart. The three federal charges related to the gun purchases were announced earlier this month.
Two of the charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, while the third carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
Moreover, Biden now faces an impeachment inquiry of his own. Republicans in the House of Representatives argue that the Biden family has benefited from Hunter Biden’s business deals, which they say came about because Joe Biden was vice president.
President Biden has said he has never been involved in his son’s business affairs.
Brushing aside the impeachment inquiry, he told donors last week: “I have work to do. Everyone always asked about impeachment. I wake up every day, no joke, not focused on impeachment. I have a job to do. I deal with the issues that affect the American people every day.”
Republicans claim Joe Biden spoke to Hunter’s business associates, who called him the “big man.”
The White House said these discussions were informal and did not involve business deals.
President Biden with first lady Jill Biden, son Hunter and grandson Beau in July 2023
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, under intense pressure from the right wing of the Republican Party, launched an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden
Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee in testimony this summer that Hunter had put his father on speakerphone about 20 times during business meetings.
At the time of Archer’s closed-door testimony, Democrats in the room said Archer described the calls as personal.
“The witness indicated that Hunter spoke to his father every day, and approximately twenty times over the course of the ten-year relationship, Hunter may have spoken to his father on the phone with a number of different people, and they never once discussed any matters.” also spoken. business,” Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York said at the time.
“The way he described it, it was all casual conversations, nice things, the weather, what was going on. There was no discussion whatsoever about the business dealings that Hunter had,” Goldman noted.
But Republican Chairman James Comer of Kentucky said Archer testified that Joe Biden “attended Hunter Biden’s dinners with his foreign business partners in person or on loudspeaker more than 20 times” and was put on the phone to “brand.” to sell.
Comer said the testimony shows that “Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge of or involvement in his son’s business dealings. Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family.”
The White House has accused Republicans of electoral politics with its impeachment inquiry.