A family affair, as ever, as Biden bids farewell at Democratic National Convention

CHICAGO - For better or worse, politics has always been a family affair for

President Joe Biden, and his emotional farewell

at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is no exception.

First, his wife and fierce defender, Dr Jill Biden, the 73-year-old First Lady, was expected to take to the stage on Aug 19 to speak about a presidency she reportedly believes was unfairly cut short.

Then their daughter Ms Ashley Biden, 43, will ascend the podium to give an introduction to the speech by her 81-year-old father in front of thousands of delegates from the party that just pushed him out.

Only after that will the US President himself deliver the speech that less than a month ago he still thought he would not have to give – the one passing the torch to his vice president.

“The First Lady and the family are going to be joining him tonight. It’s a big night,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters flying with Biden on Air Force One.

The presidential jet was itself loaded up with family members travelling to Chicago, including Dr Biden, Ms Ashley Biden’s husband, Mr Howard Krein, and Mr Peter Neal, the husband of Mr Biden’s granddaughter Naomi.

But then Mr Biden has always surrounded himself with family throughout a long political career.

He has consulted with them, leaned on them and often used stories about them to give a folksy tone and middle-class credentials to his political speeches.

He has kept them by his side even when – as in the case of Hunter Biden with his series of personal and legal woes – he has drawn flak from Republicans.

Mr Biden has made a show of appearing with Hunter even in his eldest surviving son’s toughest moments – such as

Hunter’s recent conviction on gun charges,

which stemmed from a period of crack addiction.

And he has taken all the toughest decisions of his political career with family – including the momentous decision in July to drop out of the White House race.

Mr Biden hailed from an already tight-knit Irish Catholic clan, but his close family was forged in tragedy. His first wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi died in a car crash in 1972 that also badly injured his young sons Beau and Hunter.

He credits Dr Biden, whom he married in 1977 and shares daughter Ashley with, for rebuilding the family and making it even stronger.

While he has always relied on her advice, over the course of his five-decade political career, he increasingly relied on the counsel of his sons too.

When Mr Biden accepted the nomination as Mr Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008, his son Beau, then the Attorney-General of Delaware, introduced him at the convention.

Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46, but before he died, he made his father promise that he would carry on pursuing the dream of becoming president.

Then in 2020, Ashley and Hunter introduced him for his 2020 nomination speech, with video clips of the late Beau, before he went on to beat Republican Donald Trump.

The family were there for Mr Biden too when

he decided to drop out of the 2024 race.

While he took the decision on his own, suffering from Covid-19 and virtually isolated at his beach house, he consulted with the First Lady and spoke with Hunter by telephone.

Sitting in the background, they were there too when Mr Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office in July – the First Lady and Ashley holding hands while Hunter and a number of Mr Biden’s grandchildren sat watching him.

And when the hoopla of the convention speech is over, Mr Biden will follow the same pattern.

He will leave for California at night on Aug 19 to “spend time with his family”, Ms Jean-Pierre said. AFP