President Biden gave his first interview where he openly spoke about Hunter Biden’s daughter, Navy, his seventh grandchild, who had been at the centre of a contentious legal battle over paternity.
During a taping of the mental-health-focused On Purpose podcast with Jay Shetty, the president spoke with the host about the importance of showing up for one’s children. He described how when he was growing up, whenever he had a problem, his parents “stopped and heard you, listened to you,” no matter what they were doing.
“I did the same with my children and they do the same with theirs,” he said.
“It’s a matter of them knowing they are the most important thing in your life and if they’ve got a problem you’re there to listen,” he continued. “I have seven grandkids. Four of ’em, five of ’em old enough to talk on the phone. You know, every day I either text them or call them.”
Elsewhere in the podcast episode, Mr Biden revealed other personal details, from sharing a story about his mother giving him 50 cents to punch a bully who had been harassing him, to looking forward to watching the film Oppenheimer.
Last week, the president acknowledged Navy for the first time, following attacks from Republicans who criticised the president for not speaking out about his seventh grandchild.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward," the president told People.
Joe and Hunter Biden— (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter," the statement added. "Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
As recently as April, the president referred to himself as only having six grandkids, even though the four-year-old Navy brings the total to seven.
In June, Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts of Arkansas settled a long-running legal dispute over the child which began in 2019.
Mr Biden initially denied paternity, but a DNA test confirmed he was Navy’s father, and he later agreed to pay $20,000-per-month child support, a sum he at one point tried to reduce.
The terms of the settlement are unknown, though Ms Roberts has dropped her demand to change the girl’s last name to Biden, CNN reports.
Republicans have hit out at the president over Hunter’s child.
“The Harris-Biden administration is obsessed with Florida...yet they ignore the chaos at the border, crime-infested cities, economic malaise, and the military recruitment crisis,” Florida governor and 2024 candidate Ron DeSantis wrote in a tweet last week. “Maybe if Biden’s granddaughter moved to Florida he’d actually visit her.”
Hunter Biden’s personal and professional life has been a consistent source of criticism and intrigue from the right against the president.
Last week, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to tax misdemeanour charges and entered into a diversion programme on a gun-related charge, as he works to reach a final plea deal with prosecutors.
As far back as 2019, then-president Donald Trump tried to blackmail Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into announcing sham investigations into Hunter Biden and his father, who was then contemplating a run for president in the 2020 election.
