Hunter Biden’s conviction punctuates the president’s family’s protracted struggle.

In 2014, after Hunter Biden was sentenced to discharge from the Navy Reserve for taking cocaine, his father, Joe Biden, who was serving as Vice President at the time, sent a brief statement to his family that summarized the situation.

In an email, he indicated that it was time to move on.

Moving forward from Hunter’s struggles with addiction has proven to be one of the most difficult challenges for the Bidens. The worst days of the family’s existence continue to carry repercussions in ways that weigh hard on the president, despite the fact that their son is now clean and lives in California with his young family after his recovery from substance abuse.

In what has been a protracted and challenging ordeal, Hunter Biden’s guilty conviction on three federal firearms counts took place on Tuesday. However, the decision did not bring an end to the situation.

Despite the fact that Joe Biden had intended to spend Tuesday night in the White House, he made his way back to Delaware late in the day in order to surround himself with members of his family, many of whom had spent the previous week attending the trial.

When he arrived at the stairs leading to Marine One, his son, who had only five hours earlier left the courts in the downtown area after being found guilty, was there to greet him.

The family did not seem to be in any kind of distress, at least not in front of the cameras, if they were experiencing any. The president, on the other hand, greeted his family with a kind grin, embraced Beau, the infant son of Hunter Biden, and kissed him on the forehead.

When it comes to dealing with his son’s conviction, Joe Biden does not have much of a template to follow. The direct family member of a president has never previously been found guilty of a crime while their father was serving in office.

This has never happened before. It is a particular responsibility for him to bear as president, despite the fact that his family shares the emotional weight and stress that he is experiencing.

A person familiar with the planning said that the president’s schedule was not altered in any way, save from the last-minute trip to Delaware, which was first discussed late on Monday night. A decision was made on Tuesday afternoon following the announcement of the verdict. He nonetheless proceeded to speak on Tuesday afternoon at a gun violence prevention event in Washington, D.C., in spite of the politically sensitive nature of the topic. Furthermore, he still plans to go to Italy on Wednesday to attend the G7 summit.

The way that the president handled his son’s legal problem was in line with the Tuesday tarmac demonstration of love. Unlike the more circumspect Democrats who may want to push Hunter Biden away, the president has kept a solid connection with him throughout his ordeal.

After hugging each other warmly amongst Biden family members and personal assistants at the airport, the party drove separately to the president’s home in a peaceful Wilmington neighborhood so that they could discuss the events in privacy.

For the most part, Joe Biden and his family have kept their concerns about their son’s legal issues to themselves, confiding in one another in private chats. The president has been reluctant to speak about the matter in public, and his aides are reluctant to bring it up either.

During an interview with ABC the week before, Biden was questioned about the issue and just offered a single word in response.

“Yes,” he said, agreeing to the verdict. “Yes,” he said, signaling that he had made up his mind not to pardon.

The shocking revelation of horrifying events that transpired during the trial last week was made much more unpleasant by the fact that the case’s circumstances were confidential.

The president’s granddaughter Naomi had a deep emotional influence on a number of the president’s family members. Furthermore, word spread within the greater Biden group that Hallie Biden, the late president’s son Beau’s wife, had also used crack cocaine. Hallie Biden later became acquainted with Hunter Biden.

Joe Biden made a statement as soon as the verdict was made, framing the conviction from the perspective of a father as opposed to the president.”Jill and I adore our kid and are really proud of the adult he has become. The president stated, “So many families who have watched loved ones battle addiction can relate to the sense of pride you feel when someone you care about overcomes addiction and emerges from it so strong and resilient.”

Additionally, he made an effort to make a subtle but obvious contrast from former President Donald Trump, who has accused the legal system of being “rigged” after his own felony conviction for allegedly fabricating company records.

The president added, “As Hunter considers an appeal, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the legal system.” “Hunter and the rest of our family have our undying love and support,” said Jill. That won’t ever change for anything.

It is still unclear what impact the verdict will have on November’s election, despite the fact that many Republicans and Biden’s staff have played down the possibility that the president’s son’s legal issues could influence voters.

After learning of the judgment, Biden aides informed supporters that, in spite of the first-ever conviction of the son of a sitting president, the campaign would continue as normal, according to two people with knowledge of the campaign’s plans.

Officials inside the president’s Wilmington campaign headquarters insisted that voters recognize the clear-cut distinction between Trump, a former president who is currently serving a prison sentence, and Hunter Biden, a private citizen despite being the president’s son. This was stated even as Hunter Biden’s trial was beginning.

According to one of the two individuals, Wilmington officials spoke about the guilty conviction, which was not unusual, but the source did not elaborate on the nature of those discussions.

The president’s reelection campaign revolves on few matters that are more delicately handled within the White House than those pertaining to his family, a fact that Biden loyalists are well aware of.

For some of Biden’s acquaintances, the potential human cost of the decision may be more concerning than the political ramifications, especially as the president prepares for a brutal rematch with Trump. Every day, Biden texts or talks with his son, and throughout the entire ordeal, he has been worried about his welfare.

It is still anticipated that the president would take his time in the next weeks to be ready for his June 27 debate with Trump. Not only that, but Biden is scheduled to depart for a three-day trip to Italy for the G7 conference the day after one of the most traumatic experiences of his family.

The coincidence of the timetable illustrates the delicate balance that Biden has had to maintain throughout his son’s legal processes. Last week, Biden was in France marking D-Day while the trial was in progress.

Aides said that the president was monitoring the trial from afar and kept in contact with his daughter Ashley, the president’s brother James, the first lady’s sister Bonny Jacobs, and his son, Jill Biden, who was a frequent visitor to the courtroom.

The president spent a good deal of time in Delaware both before and after that trip, staying at the family beach house in Rehoboth the weekend before jury selection. He went straight to the Wilmington family home after his return from France.

The Biden family’s identity is centered on the city. There is now a rail station named in the president’s honor that he traveled through hundreds of times while serving as senator and vice president. The

Republican senator who Biden lost to in 1972 is honored in the courtroom where the trial took place. The presidential reelection campaign headquarters are just a short distance away.

The lakefront house the Biden family has visited in happy and sad times is located farther out of town. Hunter Biden’s father once pursued his son in the driveway outside after an attempted intervention, hugged him tightly in the dark, and sobbed.

This incident occurred at the height of Hunter Biden’s addiction.