🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The Biden family has had their worst days, fears, and experiences thrust into the public eye, for all to gossip, pontificate, and judge, with no real point other than to push an agenda, not a conversation.
This is nothing new in politics—attack the other side on a distracting, newsworthy issue, and hope that it makes up for the shortcomings of your side. But is that really the conversation that we should be focused on this year when overdose is on the rise, children are impacted by mental health challenges at an alarming rate, and no one seems to know what to do to turn our country around with respect to drug and alcohol use?
Recently, a public conversation is being floated as to whether President Joe Biden is doing the right thing by standing in support of his son Hunter and his child. Republicans, and some Democrats, have criticized President Biden for not recognizing his seventh grandchild, highlighting his firm commitment to family values, and this most recent position as being antithetical to his political legacy.
But is that really the case?
It is well documented that Hunter Biden is in recovery and that his father is steadfast in his commitment of unconditional love and support. Talk to anyone in recovery and you will hear that support is needed not just in the crisis days, but also the months and years that follow, well into sobriety.
It is well known that President Biden is focused on protecting his son from relapsing. As family and friends of addicts know, especially a parent, difficult decisions need to be made to ensure their child stays on the right path. And talk to anyone who has buried a child, and you will hear a parent say that they could care less what anyone thinks of them and their decisions—they lost everything, and they would do literally anything to prevent that from happening again.
How do we know that is not what President Biden is doing right now—literally anything to help keep his son sober, and to avoid having to replay another tragic day? Moreover, how do we know that President Biden will never recognize this little girl?
To suggest this has anything to do with moral uprightness, integrity, or even family values is disingenuous and hypocritical. It also fails to address the elephant in the room that we all know to be true: Families are complicated. And families in crisis must make decisions that are oftentimes matters of life and death.
Addiction in the context of family dynamics is a private matter for the vast majority of Americans. Close friends, trusted advisors, even other family members are often kept in the dark about substance abuse issues within a family. But for President Biden, the challenges of his son Hunter have been played out in the public eye and in the political arena.
Often considered one of the most devastating and unbearable experiences a parent can face, President Biden has had the unique misfortune to not only bury one child, but two, plus his first wife. A forever changed existence, these untimely and tragic deaths alter the lives of parents, leaving an indelible mark on their personal and familial narrative. The overwhelming grief and emotional turmoil that surfaces from this pain has a profound impact on the entire family unit. Parents of lost children have described the feeling as though a part of themselves had been taken away, forever changing their perception and their place in it. In essence, the way they look at life is naturally different than those who have not experienced such a loss. This shared experience speaks to the fact that regardless of political affiliation, families who have suffered the devastation of addiction find it disgusting that anyone's drug misuse problems would be used as a political tool, which is the case with Hunter Biden and his never-ending list of grievances by the Right.
The experiences of the Biden family serve as a poignant reminder that addiction continues to bear a profound stigma, despite progress made in the understanding and perception of the illness.
Rather than criticizing the president, how about we ask ourselves: What hard decisions would we make as parents to keep our children alive?
Daniel Zamora is a legal advisor and crisis expert for families and corporations.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
