Opinion: How the Bidens’ Dark Family Secret Finally Blew Up

The tragedies of the Biden family have played out on the national stage. Over 1,000 people attended the funeral of President Biden’s firstborn child, Beau , which was broadcast live and featured a eulogy from President Obama. His other son, Hunter , was humiliated last month during a trial that spotlighted for the world his sordid history of addiction and infidelity.

Both boys had already survived a fatal car crash, which robbed Joe Biden of his first wife and one-year-old daughter in 1972. Biden had just been elected to the U.S. Senate for the first time and was officially sworn into office at the hospital where he watched over the surviving boys. His public life was always intertwined with personal catastrophe.

This time, in 2024, the Biden clan desperately tried to keep the unfolding tragedy out of the public glare.

Stepping down after one successful term as president is hardly on the same level as losing your wife and children, but Biden had been fixated on ascending to the White House for decades and will be devastated to give that up prematurely—especially while feeling betrayed by so many of his closest colleagues at a time of crisis.

Many families will recognize the tragic, unexpected and sudden onset of major cognitive or physical decline. The instinct to keep the frailties of your newly vulnerable loved-one as a family secret is the most natural thing in the world.

That strategy imploded in epic fashion during the debate against former President Trump , which exposed the truth of Biden’s health to the entire country. It was an historic humiliation with no precedent in six decades of televised presidential debates.

Once again, the family’s reaction was to go underground. While pundits screamed that the president needed to hit the TV studios to prove debate night was a one-off, the Bidens huddled at Camp David alone.

Reports of the countryside retreat revealed a striking new twist in the dynamic of a family that we’ve seen all over our television screens for more than 50 years.

Weeks after he was convicted on 11 felony charges, Hunter Biden was now taking center stage in the world’s most powerful inner circle. A troubled man whose crack addiction and illegal handling of a firearm had just been paraded in front of the media was suddenly being portrayed as his father’s rock and most trusted figure of support.

In less than a month, Joe Biden had gone from powerful father comforting and protecting a wayward son to struggling grandfather relying on his family to rally around and prop him up. “For his whole life, he’s been trying to protect Hunter, encourage Hunter to step up, encourage Hunter to be the person he wants him to be. Finally, Hunter is doing exactly that. He’s stepping up. And who is he protecting? It’s not the father protecting the son. It’s the son protecting the father,” a senior Administration official told Politico .

The inevitable shift of the generations that so obsessed William Shakespeare had taken place at lightning speed with no regard for the standing of either man.

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances…

His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

— William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Sans everything but family, Biden was becoming increasingly isolated, frustrated and paranoid, literally hunkered down at his family home in Rehoboth, Delaware. His main support coming from his wife, Dr. Jill Biden; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens; and, of course, Hunter.

As influential supporters like President Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi withdrew their backing behind the scenes, Biden’s power began to ebb away.

He was reduced and humbled.

“He and his son are playing this victimhood thing—‘I was mistreated under Obama,’” the senior official continued. “It’s insane. He wasn’t mistreated. But he conjures this up in his head and once it’s there, it’s very hard to get out.”

One of the few men still inside the Biden’s inner circle to speak out publicly is Ron Klain. “I think he’s feeling the pressure,” Biden’s former White House chief of staff admitted on MSNBC.

The Washington Post reported that those closest to the family have become increasingly pugilistic as more and more Democrats came forward publicly to push for Biden to leave the ticket. They saw it as a swirling Game of Thrones -style battle between warring factions in the party, suggesting that people were settling old scores. His family insisted that this must be Biden’s decision and his alone—not Obama’s or even George Clooney’s—although sources close to the family have said they are taking the external voices into account: “They are not in a bubble. They don’t have their head in the sand… They’ve been very clear-eyed about this from the beginning. And that has continued.”

Being stuck down by COVID was the final blow to an increasingly bitter Biden. Not only was he isolated politically, he was now in physical isolation to ensure the virus didn’t rip through the entire campaign.

A few hours after Biden announced that he was pulling out of the race, his son issued a heartfelt public statement. “For my entire life, I’ve looked at my dad in awe. How could he suffer so much heartache and yet give so much of whatever remained of his heart to others?” Hunter said. “Unconditional love has been his North Star as a President, and as a parent. He is unique in public life today, in that there is no distance between Joe Biden the man and Joe Biden the public servant of the last 54 years.”

One of the great political survivors, Biden will be hailed and celebrated for his decision to voluntarily step down and pass on the torch. After a life scarred by tragedy, he will now experience the rare pleasure of being able to read his own obituaries.

Nico Hines covered U.S. politics in Washington, D.C. for The Times of London and was London Bureau Chief for Newsweek before becoming The Daily Beast World Editor. As a foreign correspondent he has reported from NATO’s front line with Russia in the Arctic Circle, camped out with the families of trapped Chilean miners in the Atacama desert, and chased down terror suspects in Sydney.

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