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On June 3, 2024, Hunter Biden was sitting in a courtroom facing federal gun charges. His stepmother, former first lady Jill Biden, sat in the front row to show her support. It was her birthday.He did not take the stand in his defense. Unlike some members of the family, the first lady did not testify, either.But two years on, turns out, both the son of former President Joe Biden and the first lady have plenty to say – and the internet is here for it.Since his debut post on X on May 19, Hunter Biden has amassed more than 780,000 followers within a span of weeks.That post, which is pinned to his profile, reads: “I'm Hunter Biden. You've never actually heard from me.” Meanwhile, Jill Biden’s memoir, “View from the East Wing,” was released on the eve of her birthday and has topped the New York Times’ bestseller list.Hunter Biden on Trump family, addictionHunter Biden, 56, the first child of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime, was pardoned by his father a month before Joe Biden left office. He had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.When an X user remarked “I bet you are grateful for that pardon,” Hunter said simply: “I sure am.”On X, he’s taken on President Donald Trump, who introduced the viral “Where’s Hunter?” line of attack during a campaign speech in 2019 to mock his business dealings in China and Ukraine. (Trump’s campaign even sold T-shirts with the phrase.) The younger Biden has raised questions about Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and their business ventures. He’s taken digs at journalists.But the posts that have resonated the most on X have been the ones about his journey of recovery from addiction to crack cocaine.“Almost seven years clean and sober. Not a victory lap. Just a fact. To anyone in the fight right now: it gets quieter. Not easier. Quieter. In the quiet, you find out who you actually are. That’s the part they can’t take from you,” he said in his first post on the subject.The responses came from people of all political stripes.“We are on polar opposites of the political spectrum, @HunterBiden,” wrote a user ThePolitcialBlonde. “but as someone who lost her baby brother to heroin, I've seen first hand how hard it is. Well done. You survived.”Some urged Biden to run for president. One X user asked what his campaign slogan would be.“Let's take another crack with a Biden,” he responded.In her book, Jill Biden expresses regret for not discussing the addiction publicly during her time as first lady, saying that it was painful to even say the words.While recording her audio book, she says, when she had to say the line "my son was a drug addict," she had a hard time getting through it."It hurts," she said in an interview with NBC's TODAY show. "And I wish I had spoken out about addiction, but having lived through it, it was just so painful."CNN's Jake Tapper doubts Jill BidenCNN host Jake Tapper, who moderated the disastrous 2024 debate that torpedoed Biden’s reelection bid, called Jill Biden out as the “queen of omission” in a video post soon after the release of her book on June 2.Tapper challenged the former first lady’s assertion that if her husband had exhibited cognitive impairment, she and the president’s staff would not have hesitated to say so.“All of that is very hard to believe, if not downright false,” said Tapper, based on the behind-the-scenes interviews he had conducted.In a June 3 post on X, Hunter Biden accused Tapper of attacking Jill Biden while ignoring the Trump family’s business ventures."So let me get this straight. Jake Tapper is focused on attacking my Mom," Hunter Biden wrote. “Jared and Ivanka are building a private island paradise on Albanian protected land. Don Jr married the daughter of Epstein's banker, and a startup his fund backs just got a record $620M Pentagon loan. Eric is taking an Israeli drone company public for $1.5B in the middle of a war with Iran that nobody wanted,” he wrote.In another post, Biden mocked Tapper, comparing him to the clueless newscaster in the movie “Anchorman” for not paying attention to Trump’s frequent medical check-ups and instead focusing on his mother.“Trump hasn’t made a public appearance in 8 days. This after an unscheduled visit to the hospital- because he 'likes getting check ups.' Thank God Jake Tapper (or as I like to call him- the Brick Tamland of his generation) is on the case hunting down clues in a book about my mom’s experience as First Lady four years ago,” he wrote.Last week, Trump was asked by Fox reporter Peter Doocy how he thought Hunter Biden would do in a 2028 Democratic primary.Trump responded by saying “the past has something to do with winning an election."Biden was quick with his response: “Wait…Did he just say checkered past? I’m 28 felonies, 6 bankruptcies, and an Epstein bromance short of his checkered past.”Then he turned his fire toward Doocy, whom he described as a MAGA whisperer: “I would like @peterdouchey to please ask the president when I get my royalty check for those where’s Hunter t-shirts. It’s been 4 years now and he keeps telling me the check is in the mail.”As for his presidential aspirations, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely considered to be a 2028 Democratic presidential frontrunner, jokingly introduced Biden as “Presidential candidate Hunter Biden 2028” on his June 12 podcast, Biden made light of it.“Here's the deal. I'll run, but only as your VP because the truth of the matter is that the Vice President's residence is a lot cooler. It's a lot easier job, too,” he said.But back on X, he left a cryptic note:“Just saying… No Democrat has won the White House this century without a Biden on the ticket,” he wrote.Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
