Analysis: Biden’s two worst weaknesses were exposed this week

Two major threats to President Joe Biden’s reelection — his son Hunter’s legal troubles and the widespread perception that the 80-year-old is too old for reelection — have caused him great pain this week.

There is plenty to keep Biden busy with his day job. He took action on Friday following a standoff between the United Auto Workers and major US automakers, now that a historic strike is underway. It is a challenging task for a president who is linked to work but wants to protect the economy in general with his self-styled version of “Bidenomics”.

It would be difficult for him not to be distracted by other events this week that hit closer to home.

Hunter Biden was indicted on federal gun charges in Delaware on Thursday, accused of lying about his past drug abuse and violating a gun law when he bought one in 2018, before his father’s presidential campaign.

The gun was later abandoned behind a grocery store by Hallie Biden, wife of Hunter’s late brother Beau. Hallie and Hunter were having an affair at the time.

Hunter Biden’s legal problems

This sad and sordid family drama of addiction could land the president’s son in prison, although separate investigations into tax evasion and foreign dealings have not yet turned into indictments by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was elevated earlier this year to special counsel to ensure the independence of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Although Weiss has found no basis to criminally charge Hunter Biden for his overseas business dealings and no direct connection has been established between his son’s business interests and his father’s political views, House Republicans plan to dig deeper as they look for more evidence during an official impeachment investigation authorized by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this week.

Moving Forward with Impeachment

Impeachment may never occur and the years of investigation may not have exposed any wrongdoing on President Biden’s part, but the inquiry will certainly keep Hunter Biden in the minds of voters who may wonder why the president would allow his family to operate this way. .

Any Democrat who rejects the effort might recall that McCarthy boasted in 2015 that the House’s exhaustive investigations focused on Hillary Clinton hurt her politically.

At the time, he was talking about investigations into the death of a US ambassador in Benghazi, Libya, while she was secretary of state. Today’s GOP effort to link Biden to her son could have a similar effect.

What Americans Believe About Hunter Biden’s Business

Even though there is nothing to link President Biden to the millions of dollars that Hunter Biden and other family members have made from business dealings in China, Ukraine and elsewhere, most Americans are not convinced.

More than half the country, 61%, thinks Biden had some involvement in his son’s business while he was vice president, according to a poll from CNN conducted by SSRS in late August, before the gun charge was handed down but after a previous plea deal fell apart.

Most who think the president was involved at the time also think the actions were illegal.

What’s unclear is whether Hunter Biden’s issues will be a motivating factor outside of the group of voters who already dislike the president. His low job approval rating and concerns about the economy could ultimately be more damaging in an election.

The question of age

The public’s perception of his relationship with his son is not even the most worrying element for Biden in the poll. It would be his age.

“Biden’s age is not just a recurring theme on Fox News; has been the topic of dinner table conversations across the country this summer,” wrote Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, urging Biden to step aside as quickly as possible to give someone else a chance to win the 2024 election .

Nearly a quarter of Americans in the US survey CNN said Biden has the stamina and acumen to serve effectively, far from a ringing endorsement of a president who brought back political victories from a trip to Asia last week, but left the impression he was confused at a news conference.

Appetite for an alternative

Just a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered voters in the survey said they think Biden should be the Democrats’ nominee in 2024. Two-thirds want a different candidate, though almost no one knows who.

Ignatius had enough respect from the president to get an invitation to Biden’s state dinner with the Indian prime minister in June. Hunter Biden also attended. Ignatius is among those who say effusively that Biden has been a very good president, both “successful” and “effective.”

“What I admire most about President Biden is that, in a polarized nation, he has governed from the center out, as he promised in his victory speech,” Ignatius wrote, adding applause to Biden’s domestic achievements and foreign policy leadership.

But Ignatius worries that another Biden run with Vice President Kamala Harris “risks undoing his greatest achievement — which was stopping Trump.”

But who?

Among Democratic voters, the most cited concerns about Biden are his age and the need for someone younger.

The vast majority of Democrats interested in an alternative to Biden chose “just someone other than Joe Biden.” One of the most supported specific alternatives, Senator Bernie Sanders, is older than Biden.

The lack of confidence in Harris to take on the role was evident when Anderson Cooper, from CNN spoke Wednesday night with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is running for re-election to Congress but has stepped away from her leadership position.

Cooper asked Pelosi if Harris was the best running mate for Biden. “He thinks so and that’s what matters,” Pelosi said, though she praised Harris for being “politically astute.”

Pelosi promised that Democrats are behind Biden and considers him the best candidate to defeat Trump. “He has great experience and wisdom,” Pelosi said.

Edward-Isaac Dovere, from CNN writes that the Biden campaign is charting a long-term strategy and that aides blame the media for “what they see as validation of concerns about Biden’s age and about Republican allegations of Hunter Biden’s corruption by covering those concerns, despite what they argue is a lack of evidence.”

They are banking, he writes, on a data-centric emphasis in key states to turn mobile voters away from Trump.

Biden was stronger in 2020

He lost badly in Iowa and New Hampshire in the 2020 primaries, for example, before riding a wave of support from moderates in Southern states for a dramatic turnaround from several younger candidates and those with more committed followings.

Biden emerged from a crowded field four years ago. There is little evidence that it would make sense for him to open the primaries, as Ignatius suggests, to some of these same people today.

Ultimately, there is an open question about what this election will be. If it is a referendum on an elderly president, whose physical condition worries voters and who allowed his son to earn millions in circumstances that raise suspicions, even without proof of irregularities, Biden will have difficulties.

That said, one of the few things voters might like least is a person who tried to overturn an election.