Joe Biden's Son Hunter and Hunter's New Wife Joined the Family to Support Former VP at Democratic Debate
Once again, the Bidens have presented a united front.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was joined by his family — including son Hunter Biden and Hunter’s new wife, Melissa Cohen — before he took to a Detroit stage with other Democratic presidential candidates on Wednesday night, in the second round of debates leading up to the 2020 election next year.
Wednesday’s gathering was one of the first times that Hunter and Cohen, a South African filmmaker, have stepped out in public since their private wedding in May in Los Angeles.
“Grateful to have my family by my side,” Biden wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, captioning a photo of himself with Hunter, Cohen and other relatives.
The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to face President Donald Trump next year, Biden, with decades of public service and a long history of political positions and votes behind him, has been the target of much criticism from other candidates in the debates so far.
In a lengthy series of interviews with The New Yorker earlier this year, Hunter opened up about his father’s support, and the support he has provided in return.
“I’m like his security blanket,” Hunter told the magazine of the former vice president, 76.
“I don’t tell the staff what to do. I’m not there giving directions or orders. I shake everybody’s hands,” Hunter continued. “And then I tell [my father] to close his eyes on the bus. I can say things to him that nobody else can.”
Hunter told The New Yorker he called his father the day of his wedding to Cohen.
“He was on speaker, and he said to her, ‘Thank you for giving my son the courage to love again,’ ” Hunter recalled of his dad.
The secret marriage, which became public in June, surprised many. Hunter, a 49-year-old lawyer, was still fending off interest about his previously romantic relationship with Hallie Biden, the widow of his older brother, Beau Biden, who died from brain cancer in 2015.
While Hunter told The New Yorker that his relationship with Hallie — which the family publicly supported — was only months long, their split was kept quiet until earlier this year.
In his New Yorker profile, published in July, Hunter addressed the end of his relationship with Hallie, his struggle with addiction and his history with his dad.
“Look, everybody faces pain,” Hunter said then. “Everybody has trauma. There’s addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. … [I]t’s a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it.”
He also explained that he first met Cohen, 32, in L.A., and they married days later on the roof of her L.A. apartment where they exchanged “the simplest gold wedding bands he could find,” according to The New Yorker.
“She seems very happy,” Cohen’s father told Page Six in July. “I’ve only spoken to Hunter briefly. She’s a very special girl. She has lots of poise and she’s very present.”
