Politics
REPORT: Michelle Obama Is NOT Happy With The Bidens, Won’t Campaign For Joe
Former first lady Michelle Obama is extremely unhappy with President Joe Biden after his family largely shunned a close friend in the years following her divorce from Hunter Biden.
Hunter, the embattled first son who was recently convicted on federal gun charges, was previously married to Michelle Obama’s close friend Kathleen Buhle for 24 years before separating in 2017. Since then, the close-knit Biden clan has turned a cold shoulder toward the former daughter-in-law, prompting Michelle to return the gesture to the president, Axios reported.
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During President Barack Obama’s second term, Michelle became extremely close with Buhle and the family’s relationship with then-Vice President Biden, his wife, and sons was strong. That changed in 2015 when Beau Biden died of cancer and Obama discouraged Biden from running for president in 2016, allowing then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to largely clear the field. Hunter and Buhle divorced the following year.
The tumultuous separation was stripped bare when Hunter began dating Beau’s former wife, Hallie Biden, in 2017. In the fall of that year, Obama attended a fundraiser in Wilmington, Delaware for the Beau Biden Foundation — but Michelle was conspicuously absent. The former president left the event and described the Biden family dynamics as some “weird s***,” according to a person familiar with the comment who spoke with the outlet.
In his 2021 memoir, Hunter wrote about the bond forged between Michelle and his ex-wife, revealing that they “worked out together at the gym and often had evening cocktails at the White House, at both formal and informal events.” The friendship has continued since and veered into the professional, as when Buhle relied on Michelle’s publisher for dissemination of her own memoir in 2022.
Michelle has since told confidants that she believes her close friend has been wronged. While President Obama has appeared on the campaign trail with Biden, including at a recent high-dollar Hollywood fundraiser, Michelle hasn’t so much as posted on social media in support of the Democratic incumbent’s campaign. She was dragged into participating in Biden’s 2020 campaign only after top national Democrats warned her about the stakes of a second Trump administration.
Michelle, no fan of partisan politics, has largely focused her civic activities on a non-partisan voter registration group When We All Vote. She has had warmer recent moments with the Biden family, such as when First Lady Dr. Jill Biden attended the funeral for her late mother Marian Robinson, a source familiar with the travel told Axios. However, that’s where the entreaties may end: A spokesperson for Michelle declined to state whether she would be speaking or otherwise taking a large role at the Democratic National Convention in August.
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