President offers love and pride for his son’s addiction recovery after Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden kept his distance from the courtroom where his son Hunter stood trial on felony gun charges to avoid any appearance of meddling but his quick statement reacting to the jury’s guilty verdict Tuesday spoke to where his heart has been all along.

“Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden wrote. “So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.”

Biden aides and allies have privately worried about the toll a guilty verdict would take on the 81-year-old president, for whom personal loss has been closely intertwined with his public life. They say the president is less worried about any personal political cost he might incur, than concerned as a father for a son who is only a few years removed from the throes of severe drug addiction.

It was clear that the president’s son’s legal drama was causing at least some confusion at the White House. After the verdict was announced, the White House canceled press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s scheduled briefing and announced that Biden would helicopter to Wilmington, Delaware, for an unplanned overnight visit with his family. A bus with Biden staff and reporters drove with lights and sirens from the White House in an effort to meet the president’s arrival in Wilmington.

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