Michelle Obama has severed her relationship with the Biden family due to the way the family treated her close friend and Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, according to an exclusive Axios report.
One of the Democrats’ most well-liked voices hasn’t endorsed President Biden for reelection in part because of personal conflicts and the former first lady’s contempt for political politics, two sources told the site.
According to reports, Michelle Obama was also “initially reluctant” to support Joe Biden as his 2020 nominee.
However, the source claims that Michelle Obama wasn’t the only person who felt uneasy with the Biden family.
A source acquainted with former President Obama’s comments claimed that he had informally referred to the Biden family dynamics at the Beau Biden Foundation fundraiser in the fall of 2017 as “strange sh*t.”
Hunter Biden had just separated from Buhle when he saw Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden.
Michelle Obama believed that the Biden family had harmed Buhle at the time, blaming her for releasing “salacious” facts about Hunter Biden’s behavior after she had dealt with his drug use and infidelity. Michelle Obama did not attend the fundraiser.
On the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), File/Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) welcomed Obama daughters Malia and Sasha to Invesco Field at Mile High. (Charles Ommanney via Getty Images)
However, the story claims that there were conflicts between the Obama and Biden families even before Hunter Biden and Buhle’s divorce.
When President Obama dissuaded former Vice President Joe Biden from seeking the presidency in 2016, the two men’s relationship “changed in 2015.”
Long-time Obama officials have said in private that their sadness over the loss of their son, Beau, prevented Biden from entering the race. But Biden believed his employer was trying to talk him out because he thought Hillary Clinton was a better fit.
However, before that, according to Axios, Hunter Biden had also “come to despise the Obama White House” after Obama’s team forced him to resign from his position as a lobbyist over concerns about the optics.
In his memoir, Hunter described leaving that position as being like “riding the escalator without an exit.” I had to work extremely hard to start over in a new career because I once again had enormous bills and no savings.
Additionally, Hunter had written about how some Obama aides would disparage and undercut his father.
According to Axios, Hunter wrote, “I didn’t hang around the White House much. I did not want to be in the situation of strolling into a BBQ on a Sunday after reading about somebody throwing my dad under the bus.” “I knew I could not keep my mouth shut and manage my temper.”
Notwithstanding these differences, the two sides have had “discussions” over the well-liked former first lady’s campaign for Biden this year.
Top White House aide Anita Dunn and top Michelle Obama aide Melissa Winter reportedly discussed “particular ways Biden’s campaign may incorporate the former first lady” during a recent lunch.
For the time being, both sides are pretending to be amicable. According to a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama, she backed Joe Biden’s reelection and is “friends with Kathleen and the Bidens.” Spokesman Crystal Carson told Axios, “Two things can be true.”
According to White House spokesman Andrew Bates, the two camps “are like family,” and he denied any problems.
“Whoever made these accusations about the bond between the Biden and Obama families isn’t familiar with it,” he continued, comparing them to one another as “like family.”
