Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Hunter Biden’s White House State Dinner attendance was not optically easy for the White House.
The younger Biden attended the dinner held Thursday after pleading guilty to illegally possessing a handgun and failure to pay federal taxes in 2017 and 2018. Psaki told Tuesday’s “Morning Joe” panel the White House is “putting [their] head down” during the investigations into Hunter, and the president’s son appeared at the dinner to illustrate that President Joe Biden “loves his son.”
“I don’t spend too much time on right-wing websites, but I can completely concur with what you’re saying about what’s out there and the challenge the White House has right now. For them, if you’re sitting in the White House right now, you’re putting your head down around all these investigations. They’re not going to comment, or that is their strategy on the specifics of any of Trump’s legal woes and the same thing with Hunter. What we saw with Hunter appearing at the State dinner was in my suspicion the President’s son wanted to come, so his son’s going to come to the dinner. Was that optically easier for the White House or the White House’s communications team? Absolutely not.”
“But I suspect that was more in the family circumstance of him wanting to come and the president wanting to show that he loves his son and standing by him,” she continued. (RELATED: ‘He’s An Addict’: ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Attempt To Defend Hunter Biden Attending State Dinner After Guilty Plea)
She added the White House “will be very quiet” regarding Hunter’s legal investigations and charges, but will have to address things by “drawing the morals and values contrast” between President Biden and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race.
“There’s one president who values our national security and protects our secrets, and there’s a former presidential candidate who doesn’t,” she said. “There’s one who stands up for democracy and democratic values and one who doesn’t. There’s ways to draw the contrast without getting into the specifics, but I think we’re not going to see that for a little while.”
The President has continued to stress he knew nothing of his son’s alleged business dealings. Biden told reporters June 20 he is “very proud” of his son and did not comment further.