Jury deliberates in Hunter Biden gun trial

As President Joe Biden takes on the biggest fight of his political life with a campaign focused on democracy and the rule of law, the most intimate details of his family’s personal tragedy were publicly dissected in court last week.

Hunter Biden’s struggle with drug addiction following the death of his brother, Beau Biden, was the focus of hours of testimony during his federal criminal trial, exposing some of the Biden family’s most personal issues. The president’s son has pleaded not guilty to three felony charges related to a gun he purchased in October 2018.

For decades, the president has wrestled with the sometimes-conflicting demands of his political career and fatherhood, especially when it came to Hunter Biden. Part of the president’s enduring brand is his ability to empathize with the personal tragedies of others, born out of the hardships his family experienced, including the deaths of his first wife and daughter and severe injuries to Beau and Hunter in a 1972 car accident, followed by Beau’s death from brain cancer in 2015.

Some of the most emotional testimony in the trial came from those closest to Hunter Biden, including his daughter Naomi, his former girlfriend and brother’s widow Hallie Biden, and his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.

While the questions they were asked were aimed at determining whether Hunter had used drugs in 2018, the impact his drug use had on their own lives was inescapable.

“I’m a president, but I’m also a father,” Biden said in a statement at the start of the trial. “Our family has been through a lot together, and Jill and I will continue to offer our love and support to Hunter and his family.”

Last week, the president denied pardoning his son.