President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have finally acknowledged that they have a seventh grandchild, four-year-old Navy Roberts. She is the daughter of First Son Hunter Biden and 32-year-old Lunden Roberts. The admission came in a written statement to People on Friday evening.
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Ruthless co-host Josh Holmes to discuss the timing of the Bidens’ announcement and what it means for the president’s image ahead of the 2024 election.
The Friday Night News Dump
There is a general understanding in the news business that if you want a story to fly under the radar, release it on a Friday afternoon. That effect is compounded when it’s a summer Friday, which is part of what makes the White House’s announcement about the previously ignored grandchild particularly interesting. “Friday night in the middle of the summer at 5pm in a paper statement… [is] an acknowledgment that there is a Navy and that she is the president’s seventh grandchild,” Megyn noted.
The statement, which was first reported by People magazine, read:
“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.
This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter. Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
The long-awaited recognition comes on the heels of a New York Times report earlier this month that took a closer look at Lundon and Navy and the child support agreement Hunter reached with his former mistress, who is believed to have been working at a Washington, DC-area strip club when they met.
From the time of Navy’s birth in August 2018, the Biden family has actively tried to distance itself from the child and her mother – though a paternity test proved that Hunter is the father. He has subsequently sought to minimize his financial contributions and block his daughter from using the Biden surname. Hunter and Roberts settled their years-long child support dispute in late June, staving off a trial.
According to The New York Post, Roberts agreed to a reduced monthly payment and will also drop her demand that Navy be allowed to take the Biden family name. Hunter, meanwhile, will reportedly have to give his daughter some of his paintings.
‘An Obvious CYA’
Both Megyn and Holmes questioned the timing and sincerity of the acknowledgement. “I’m sure Navy is going to wrap it around her like a hand-knitted shawl at Christmas, a lovely gift from Grandpa Joe,” Megyn quipped. “One paragraph in a paper statement on Friday at 5pm – this is such an obvious CYA [cover your ass].”
Much of President Biden’s public image has centered around him as a family man. Holmes believes ignoring Navy was increasingly becoming a political liability. “What’s so bad about this is it exposes the cynicism of the Biden family in the politics of this issue,” he said of the statement. “I’ve long felt like this is as big a liability as President Biden has because he… was seen as a family man, seen as a good person.”
This situation, he noted, undermines that narrative. “Of course people remember his tragedy as a young man and also with the death of his son Beau,” he explained. “But then you get to a point where he’s not acknowledging a granddaughter and that takes… a proactive act.”
In his view, it was a nonpartisan issue. “I thought that that cut deeper into the center left or center right of the electorate than almost anything that Joe Biden can do because it’s about him,” he said. “It’s about his integrity; it’s about who he is as a person.”
While the First Family claims to want privacy and the media is running interference for the them by blaming Republicans for “weaponizing” Navy (as former Biden special assistant Michael LaRosa did on CNN over the weekend), Megyn and Holmes said President Biden has brought this on himself. “He keeps saying, ‘I’ve got six grandchildren. I speak to them every day. This is what I tell them about the importance of being a dad, the importance of family,’” Megyn noted. “He is running on his ‘Grandpa Joe’ image.”
Holmes agreed. “Republicans didn’t create this problem – Hunter Biden did,” he concluded. “What’s not disgusting is asking questions. What is disgusting is when you hang six stockings for each grandchild at the White House, omitting the seventh, and then hanging one for the dog… The dog gets a stocking but not Navy.”
You can check out Megyn’s full conversation with Holmes by tuning in to episode 598 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.