Michelle Obama was not happy with the Biden family over the way they treated her good friend Kathleen Buhle following her divorce from Hunter Biden, according to a report.
Two sources familiar with the relationship between the former first lady and the incumbent president’s family told Axios that Michelle has privately spoken about her frustrations at the manner in which the Biden clan mostly exiled Buhle when her marriage to Hunter ended. It’s partly why Michelle hasn’t been campaigning for Joe Biden in his current election rematch against Donald Trump, one of the sources claimed.
The report claims that Michelle Obama was even hesitant about campaigning for Biden four years ago in his first round with Trump, and that despite continuing outward displays of warmth between the Obamas and the Bidens, the families’ relationship changed in 2015.
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That’s the year that Biden’s son Beau died of cancer, an event which marked the beginning of a deeply painful period for the then-vice president’s family. It’s also the year when Biden was considering taking another shot at the presidency for himself—a move that he says Barack Obama did not encourage.
Earlier this month, Buhle testified at Hunter’s federal gun trial that she’d found a crack pipe at their Washington, D.C. home the month after Beau’s funeral, but hadn’t considered separating from her then-husband until after “the infidelity.” Hunter Biden and Buhle divorced two years later, in 2017.
In September of that year, Barack Obama went to a Delaware fundraiser for the Beau Biden Foundation. At the time, Hunter Biden was dating Beau’s widow, Hallie Biden, following his divorce from Buhle. After the fundraiser—which reportedly featured “much of the Biden family”—Barack Obama described the family’s dynamics as “weird shit,” a source familiar with his words told Axios.
Michelle Obama, likewise, privately told others that she thought Buhle had been wronged, according to the outlet. The former first lady had become close with Buhle during the Obama administration and they remain friends to this day. A spokesperson for Michelle Obama told Axios in a statement that she supports Biden’s re-election and “she is friends with Kathleen and with the Bidens. Two things can be true.”
Michelle did get involved in Biden’s White House bid in 2020 despite her purported initial reluctance, supporting his race in social media posts and delivering a speech at the Democratic National Convention. She may yet also take a more active role in helping Biden ahead of the election in November, according to Axios, which reports that Michelle’s top aide and Biden’s senior adviser Anita Dunn have recently discussed how she could become more involved with his campaign.
Her disinclination so far this year to get involved to the same extent as her husband—who’s spoken at Biden fundraisers and starred alongside him in campaign videos—is also partly explained by her dislike of partisan politics, Axios reports, claiming that her attention has been mostly centered on her nonpartisan voter registration organization When We All Vote.
“The Biden and Obama families are like family to each other, and whomever made these claims about that relationship isn’t familiar with it,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told The Daily Beast in a statement. “The former president and first lady have been two of the strongest supporters of President Biden’s leadership and agenda.”
