According to two anonymous sources who spoke to Axios, former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed frustrations in private regarding the Biden family, specifically with the way they ostracized her friend Kathleen Buhle following her divorce from Hunter Biden. Michelle has been noticeably absent from the campaign trail, unlike her husband, who recently held a boisterous fundraiser with Hollywood stars and his former vice president.
Michelle was explicitly hesitant to campaign for President Joe Biden in 2020, the sources told Axios. According to these sources, Biden’s family is not telling the full truth when they say their relationship with the Obamas is a happy one. Their relationship went on the rocks around 2015, when Biden first started eyeing the presidency and Barack was reluctant to encourage him. That same year, Beau Biden died of cancer, leading to a cascade of inter-family drama that contributed to Hunter’s divorce from Kathleen in 2017.
Michelle was happy to lend her publishing contacts to Kathleen when she decided to write her memoir in 2022. Michelle and Kathleen became friends during the Obama administration, working out and having cocktail parties together. The Biden family also accuse Buhle of spreading rumors about Hunter’s addictions to the public. But Michelle also dislikes the idea of political endorsements in general, as she is against “partisan politics” and “drilled into [their daughters] so early that you would be crazy to go into politics.”
Barack described the Biden “family dynamics” as “weird shit” after attending a fundraising event for the Beau Biden Foundation, a children’s advocacy group, in 2017—without Michelle. Hunter, who had recently divorced Buhle, was dating Beau’s widow Hallie at the time. The Obama office denied the comment when asked if Barack said it.
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As Valuetainment previously reported, President Joe Biden held a fundraising event with former President Barack Obama in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 15th. They were joined by stars like George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand, and Jack Black, who agreed to help orchestrate it as a form of endorsement. The event was held in the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Clooney and Roberts started the show off, followed by Streisand taking the stage to introduce First Lady Jill Biden. Jack Black and Sheryl Lee Ralph were the musical acts leading up Jimmy Kimmel, who played the role of host for the rest of the night. Kimmel interviewed Obama for nearly an hour. The LA Times divulged that tickets went from $250 to $500,000, the latter including “prime seats, photos with both presidents and a VIP after-party.”
In late March, Obama also held a large fundraising event for Biden alongside former president Bill Clinton in New York City.
Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley had predicted Biden would drop out in March, but former First Lady Michelle Obama, who was the most popular suggestion for a Biden replacement and who allegedly ran polls on donors to gauge support levels, has vehemently denied any intentions to run for office.
“As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” said Crystal Carson, Director of Communications for Obama’s office, in a statement to NBC News. “Mrs. Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign.”
This was intended to lay to rest rumors started by a New York Post columnist in January that Michelle was testing the waters for a potential run.
Watch Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden’s child Navy Joan, on the PBD Podcast.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics and business for VT and a regular guest on The Unusual Suspects. Follow Shane’s work here.
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