Joe Biden's Endearing Defense of His Son Hunter - SLATE

[mzmolly]

A supposed “gotcha” is really a sad, humanizing portrait of a family working through a difficult time.

Last week, the New York Post began publishing reports on a series of photos, emails, and documents allegedly taken from a laptop hard drive that belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. As it became increasingly clear that the Post was using hacked, unverified information that may have been manipulated by a foreign entity for the purposes of influencing the upcoming presidential election, social media companies started to ban or otherwise attempt to reduce the spread of the Post’s initial story. But the tabloid continued printing information from the hard drive, a copy of which it says it received from disgraced Donald Trump associate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Given that Giuliani and Steve Bannon were the Post’s two sources of information about the hard drive, the provenance of the Rupert Murdoch­–owned paper’s information is more than a little suspect. Giuliani, for one, has said that there’s a 50-50 chance he worked with a Russian spy to dig up embarrassing material about the Biden family. And the computer repair shop owner who allegedly obtained the hard drive and turned it over to Giuliani’s lawyer doesn’t exactly seem like a trustworthy fellow either. So it is with a massive grain of salt that we consider the contents of the hard drive itself. One of the stories contains an alleged text exchange between Hunter and Joe Biden from two months before Joe announced his presidential campaign. It began with a text Joe sent around 7 a.m. to Hunter, who was residing in a rehab facility. “Good morning my beautiful son,” the text reads. “I miss you and love you. Dad.”

...


As a foil to the way Trump conducts his personal relationships, the Biden texts are bracingly tender. The current president appears to favor his children in proportion to their loyalty and political utility. He has made multiple public comments on the sexual desirability of one daughter’s body, and he’s allegedly ridiculed the other’s. Trump rushes to disassociate himself from those who reveal any semblance of vulnerability. Even when his wife and son had COVID-19—when it would have been politically advantageous for him to mention his love for them—his public statements were limited to his own condition. He expressed no concern on their behalf.

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Joe Biden’s palpable love for his son is a reminder of what it could feel like to have a love-capable person leading the country again—a person with the capacity for gentleness as well as rage, someone who does not derive his life’s sole satisfaction from self-aggrandizement and contempt. In a time of concurrent national crises, with hundreds of thousands of Americans grieving friends and family members lost to an ongoing pandemic, it could be nice to have someone at the top who knows the value of voicing and acting on compassion. Joe has suffered a great deal of grief—decades before Beau’s death, he lost his first wife and infant daughter in a 1972 car crash—and his well-known ability to comfort those in mourning has been called his “superpower.” The alleged texts Joe sent, in addition to his public defense of Hunter, flesh out another, related facet of his family life: his role as a father who showers his son with effusive expressions of love.

More at: SLATE

[tulipsandroses]

1. Trump and his minions attacking Hunter will backfire spectacularly. They have failed to read the

temperature of the nation. They are so wrapped up in the MAGA and Fox Bubble that they can't see it. People don't even have to like Joe Biden or be democrats to see how disgusting this is. Just as how so many became horrified at families being torn apart at the border despite their tough stance on immigration. This is going to turn off the very people he needs most. Women. Suburban women A lot of mothers, parents in general, have watched their child struggle in one way or the other. Whether it was a physical illness, a mental illness, substance abuse, struggle to get on their feet when life knocked them down. Most parents are protective of their children, no matter how old they get. They will not see attacks on Hunter Biden as OK. Trump will lose on this one. Only his most ardent fans appreciate the attacks on Hunter. Yesterday it came out that 545 children have basically been orphaned by Trump. Proving once again, only one father in this race, protects children.

On top of that, in a time when the Virus has taken over our lives, most people don't give a damn even if the allegations are true. They want to know what do you plan to do about stopping this virus. Why are you chasing down what Hunter Biden, a private citizen did years ago, and not protecting us from a deadly virus.

[moonscape]

2. Yes. Ukraine, Burisma, years ago,

‘He did what again?’

‘I dunno. Something’

‘Anyway, who are you voting for?’

‘Joe. The man who loves his son like I love you’

‘Me too pops’

[mzmolly]

4. Right.

[mzmolly]

3. Well

said.