With questions about his whereabouts now an internet refrain, Hunter Biden made his first in-person campaign appearance alongside his father, Joe Biden, for the apparent president-elect’s “victory” speech.
Hunter Biden, 50, joined his extended family on stage Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware, for a firework display punctuating the two-term vice president’s remarks. The younger Biden carried his infant son with his second wife, South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen.
He was also alluded to in his father’s address.
“I would not be here without the love and tireless support of Jill, Hunter, Ashley, all of our grandchildren and their spouses, and all our family,” the elder Biden said.
Hunter Biden, who also has three adult daughters with ex-wife Kathleen Buhle and a toddler son with Lunden Alexis Roberts, was conspicuously absent since his father announced his third White House bid in April 2019.
He appeared in a video introducing his family’s patriarch at the Democratic National Convention in August and granted ABC News an interview in October 2019 after President Trump’s interest in his work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings prompted an impeachment investigation.
A tranche of emails and photographs purportedly from his laptop that suggested he had offered to arrange a meeting between a Burisma executive and his then-vice presidential father in 2015, among other allegations, were then made public in October. Their emergence, which occurred two weeks before Tuesday’s election, threatened to derail his father’s campaign, but it mostly served to gin up Trump’s base. Joe Biden denied having any involvement in his family’s foreign business dealings and dismissed the reports as being part of a “smear campaign.”
Joe Biden’s speech precedes the Trump camp stepping up its legal challenges to the vote-counting process in the crucial battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Aides have also foreshadowed recounts in Georgia and Wisconsin, given the narrow margins in those states.
