CNN anchor Dana Bash said President Joe Biden’s refusal to acknowledge his son, Hunter’s, out-of-wedlock child is “disturbing on so many levels.”
The younger Biden refused to acknowledge or meet his four-year-old daughter, Navy Joan Roberts, who was born to former stripper Lunden Roberts in 2018. After a DNA test proved his paternity, Hunter and his family have continuously ignored their relation to the girl.
While Bash said the story is “disturbing,” she accused Republicans of “taking advantage” of the reports in an “unfortunate and inappropriate” manner.
“This is a story that is sad and disturbing on so many levels. Yes, it is political for a couple of reasons,” Bash said. “Number one, yes, Republicans are using it and are going to take advantage of it in a way that is unfortunate and inappropriate. But the reason they are doing it and are able to do it is because of the brand and the kind of person we all know and believe Joe Biden to be, because it’s who he says he is, and it’s somebody who is a family man and that’s somebody who we see all of the time.”
The panel played a clip of Biden telling the press on April 27 that he has six grandchildren, despite having seven, and claimed they are “crazy” about him. (RELATED: White House Aide Told To Not Talk About Biden’s Real Number Of Grandchildren: Report)
Jackie Kicinich, the Washington Bureau Chief of The Boston Globe, said the situation of the estranged granddaughter differs from the image of Biden being a loving grandfather. CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes described Biden at a funeral with his grandchildren “hanging off of him,” but simultaneously ignores the existence of one of his grandchildren.
“It does break your heart out of the political realm because you know that there’s a seventh grandchild out there who is listening to that or might listen to it at some point and know that she’s not getting it all everyday,” Holmes said.
“And the president’s gonna have to answer questions about this at some point,” CNN chief correspondent Manu Raju added. “It’s going to come up on the campaign trail. The White House does not want to engage about these questions given how sensitive it is, given it’s a family issue, given that there is a little girl whose life is being discussed around all of this. But he is the president of the United States, this is his image and this is a question that is gonna continue to come up on the campaign trail.”
Roberts previously alleged that he stopped answering her text messages by the time of the baby’s birth and removed her and the child from his health insurance, according to The New York Times.
The president has repeatedly claimed to have six grandchildren and during Christmas, he and first lady Jill Biden hung up stockings with all their grandchildren’s names, except Navy’s.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer whether Biden acknowledges his seventh grandchildren at a July 5 press briefing.