Four ways Hunter Biden could drag down Joe Biden in 2024

President Joe Biden loves his son, yet Hunter Biden‘s legal troubles and very public defense could prove a political headache for the president heading into what’s shaping up to be a particularly nasty election cycle.

The first son is facing federal tax and gun charges and has been a steady target for Republican-led investigations since the GOP reclaimed the House majority in January 2023.

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And though the White House does not comment on the younger Biden’s legal troubles, besides reiterating that Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are “proud” and supportive of their son’s path to recovery, Hunter Biden continues to make headlines.

Here are a few ways he could affect his father in 2024.

The gun debate

One of Joe Biden’s signature pieces of legislation during his 40-year Senate career was 1994’s “assault weapons” ban, and the president has made addressing gun violence a core focus of his time in the White House.

However, Hunter Biden and his attorneys took a position in opposition to his father’s gun control policies in a motion to vacate his firearm charges.

Hunter Biden’s defense team cited the Supreme Court’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen ruling from 2022, which struck down a more than 100-year-old New York law restricting firearm possession, in a December filing that argued his gun charge is unconstitutional. The charge in question centered on Hunter Biden, who is a rehabilitating drug addict, lying on a federal gun form about his drug use to buy a revolver.

“Quite simply, asking about Mr. Biden’s status as a user of a controlled status is constitutionally irrelevant to whether he can be denied his Second Amendment right to gun ownership,” Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys wrote in the motion.

President Biden, for comparison, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the Bruen ruling.

“This ruling contradicts both common sense and the Constitution, and should deeply trouble us all,” the president said in a statement responding to the Supreme Court decision. “I urge states to continue to enact and enforce commonsense laws to make their citizens and communities safer from gun violence. As the late Justice Scalia recognized, the Second Amendment is not absolute. For centuries, states have regulated who may purchase or possess weapons, the types of weapons they may use, and the places they may carry those weapons.”

An impartial Justice Department

Since entering office, Joe Biden has made a point of stating that the Justice Department will be “totally independent” of the White House as a means of differentiating himself from his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

Joe Biden frequently criticized Trump for threatening to weaponize the DOJ for his political gain and has stressed that the department operates separately from the White House, including by not consulting the president’s team ahead of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s selection of a special counsel to investigate Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

On the other hand, Hunter Biden continues to claim that the gun charges brought against him by special counsel David Weiss and House investigations into his business dealings are politically motivated.

Two of Hunter Biden’s four motions to vacate said gun charges focus on Weiss, with the first arguing that Weiss’s appointment to U.S. attorney during the Trump administration “flatly precluded” him from serving as special counsel.

Furthermore, Hunter Biden’s attorneys filed a 69-page motion arguing the gun charges are a “vindictive prosecution” aimed at undermining Joe Biden’s reelection chances. The attorneys wrote that Weiss’s “high-profile flip-flop” over bringing charges was due to political pressure from Republicans and is evidence “on steroids” of a vindictive prosecution.

Another impeachment

House Republicans will look to open the new year by starting an impeachment inquiry of the president, arguing that the Biden family used then-Vice President Biden’s political position to enrich themselves during and after the Obama years.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who is spearheading investigations into the Biden family, has claimed to have compiled a mountain of evidence, including tax records, bank statements, emails, and other correspondences, that indicate Joe Biden was in on the alleged corruption scheme. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has suggested that Republicans’ case for impeachment “makes Watergate look like a walk in the park.”

Hunter Biden was also subpoenaed for closed-door testimony by Republican lawmakers in December, but instead of cooperating, the 53-year-old held a press conference on Capitol Hill in which, in a very Trumpian move, he declared that investigations into his business dealings were part of a political witch hunt to damage his family. The younger Biden could be slapped with a contempt of Congress charge, just like former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee.

The president has maintained since at least his 2020 campaign that he did not know about his son’s business dealings. However, polling indicates that voters do not buy his defense.

A November poll conducted by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies found that 60% of respondents believed that Joe Biden “helped and participated in Hunter Biden’s business.”

A poll from CNN in August similarly found that 61% of respondents believed that Joe Biden was involved in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, with 42% believing he broke the law in doing so and 55% answering that the president acted impartially regarding his son and brother’s business pursuits.

Finally, an October poll from the Associated Press found the country split into thirds on the matter, with 35% saying Joe Biden acted illegally, 33% saying he acted unethically, and 30% claiming he did nothing wrong regarding his son’s dealings.

Out of sight, out of mind

Given the constant attacks from Republicans, it’s natural for Hunter Biden to want to defend himself in the court of public opinion.

But by doing just that, Hunter Biden might be hurting his father’s reelection chances, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki argued.

Psaki, who works for NBC News, said during a recent episode of Meet the Press that White House aides are privately miffed at Hunter Biden’s very public defense and want him to “go away right now.”

“Look, I think if you’re sitting in the White House right now, you’re like, ‘Please, Hunter Biden. We know your dad loves you. Please stop talking in public.’ This is not helpful to any of them for him to be out there,” Psaki stated.

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Still, Psaki cited a recent NBC focus group to predict that Joe Biden’s support for his son — despite his legal, financial, and drug problems — could endear him to voters.

“That takes precedent over anything else. That is appealing,” she explained. “I’m thinking of the woman in your focus group who talked about family. He loves his son. He loves his family. He’s worried about his mental health. But, yes, the White House would like him to probably go away right now.”