“How many Grandchildren do you have?” is not, at first blush, an awkward question for any politician. For some, like Boris Johnson, “how many children do you have” can be more troubling. But grandchildren are generally in a different basket: They don’t exist as a result of any direct action on your part, and can generally be accounted for fairly easily.
Except, that is, in the case of Joe Biden.
Biden’s official position is that he has six Grandchildren. The problem is that he has seven:
BIDEN: "I have six grandchildren…"
Unmentioned: Hunter's 4-year-old daughter, who the Bidens refuse to acknowledge pic.twitter.com/XRrgPollou
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 27, 2023
Biden’s seventh grandchild is the son of his troubled – and increasingly politically troublesome – son Hunter, who conceived his now four year old daughter with a woman in Arkansas, and then forced her to take a paternity lawsuit to prove that Hunter was, in fact, the father. The child is real, and the Biden paternity is not in doubt.
But to Joe Biden, officially, the child does not exist.
This is a problem for Biden politically. Ordinarily, horrible family law type situations might be understood to occur in many families, with the Bidens being no different. But in this case, it goes right to the heart of Biden’s political brand.
The cuddly “grandfather of the nation” schtick, after all, does not work quite as well when you have an entirely innocent four year old grandchild who you do not only fail to acknowledge, but who you openly exclude. Nobody asked Joe Biden how many grandchildren he has, you’ll note: He makes a point of referring to “six” of his own volition.
And when his Press Secretary is asked – as she is with increasing regularity – it doesn’t go much better:
White House reporter brings up an NY Times article on Hunter Biden's daughter in Arkansas and asks if the president acknowledges the little girl as his granddaughter.
KARINE: "I don't have anything to share from here. pic.twitter.com/bUmYXlyqV4
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 5, 2023
The problem for Biden here is that his strength politically – especially against Donald Trump, who looks depressingly likely to be the Republican nominee – is disproportionately drawn from women. Without the granddaughter, his son Hunter’s record of poor treatment of women might well be forgiven on the basis that the father is not responsible for the sins of the Son.
In this case, however, Biden quite clearly endorses the sins of the Son. His eldest son has fathered a child, abandoned it, and received support in so doing from the President of the United States of America. It is not hard to imagine how many women voters might derive a bad impression of him from that.
What’s more, in Trump, he will have an opponent who will make no bones about ruthlessly exploiting this particular family tragedy to hurt Biden. You can expect to see TV ads about it, and probably Trump asking Biden on stage why he won’t even acknowledge the child’s existence.
If you were to list Biden’s political strengths, “likeability” would probably be at the top of the list – all of his most relatable moments tend to come from displays of empathy or kindness towards others, such as this interaction with a young boy, in the last campaign, who had a stutter:
When I met Brayden this week, he had a familiar anxiety on his face. It was the anxiety of a kid with a stutter, something I struggled to overcome when I was a kid too. Here's what I told him. pic.twitter.com/IIF386n2GU
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 7, 2020
Against Trump, in 2020, that likeability was a weapon: Do you pick the guy who can’t shut up on twitter, or do you pick the kindly old granddad who is nice to children?
If that image is tarnished, then one of Biden’s key strengths against Trump gets neutralized.
Which is why this is a story that you’re going to hear a lot about, even if the rest of the Irish media refuse to talk about it until they are absolutely forced to do so.