The prosecution's trial ended on Friday. Hunter Biden faces three federal charges related to possessing a gun while under the influence of drugs. The felony firearms charges stem from allegations that Biden lied about being drunk on a firearm purchase application. He has pleaded not guilty in a trial that marks the culmination of a years-long investigation into the president's youngest son, led by Republican lawmakers who are supporters of Donald Trump.
During the trial, prosecutors presented jurors with audio from Biden's memoir, “Beautiful Things,” in which he talks about his struggles with addiction, as evidence that he was not sober at the time of the gun purchase. They also presented a text message exchange between Biden and his then-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, which read: “I may be sober, but I will always be an addict. And as much as you love to hate me, I am an addict.”
To those unfamiliar with addiction, this may seem like some kind of sinister admission by Biden, but anyone who has experienced addiction knows it's not that simple.
I have been sober for 26 years through a program called Alcoholics Anonymous, and we are taught to think of sobriety as a day-by-day thing. We are taught the fundamental belief that even if we are sober, we will always be addicts at heart. We are never cured of addiction. I am given a reprieve from the disease of alcoholism, one day at a time, every day. I was 3 years old when I had my first drink, and 19 when I last had a drink. While the personal details of addiction vary, Biden's struggle with addiction is very typical. I have never drank legally (because I was too young to do so legally). Many alcoholics struggle with sobriety, and some have to go back and forth multiple times before they get “it.” Many of them eventually get it.
While this is not an attempt to prove Biden's innocence or guilt due to his actions, the basis and nature of the prosecution's case is problematic, because Biden's discussion of his “bloodhound” instinct in reaching for crack, his drug of choice, indicates that he suffers from the disease of addiction, not that he is guilty or that his actions were heinous. Hopefully the jury will keep this in mind as they deliberate Biden's fate in the coming days and weeks.
Biden and I are not alone in our addictions: Approximately 16% of Americans (probably more) struggle with alcohol or drug addiction. That's about 48 million people.
Jeanine Pirro, co-host of Fox News' “The Five,” reportedly complained that “eight of the jurors have family members who have had drug or alcohol addiction problems or who have died from alcohol or poisoning, so they chose jurors who were sympathetic.” The Washington Post's Aaron Blake pointed out, “Eight of the 12 jurors = 66 percent, which is right in line with the population.”
Jeanine Pirro on Hunter Biden:
“Eight of the jurors have family members who have had drug or alcohol addiction problems or who have died from alcohol or addiction, so we chose jurors who have compassion.”
8 of 12 jurors = 66%.
That's right in line with the population. pic.twitter.com/u2VHz3Dmcf
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) June 6, 2024
And herein lies the problem with the Republicans’ continuing attacks on Biden. Selecting jurors with varying degrees of addiction experience does not make jurors “sympathetic”; it only makes them more informed. Addiction is a disease. People who suffer from addiction are sick, not bad people. Vast swaths of the country are affected by alcohol and drug addiction, which affects not only the individual but also their family members and those who are only tenuously connected to the individual, such as the addict’s parents, grandparents, children, siblings, and acquaintances. Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases with long tails, diseases that ripple through our society in many ways.
Also on Fox News, host Jesse Watters implied that President Joe Biden is a bad parent and that as a father, he is responsible for Hunter Biden's drug abuse problems. Blaming addicts and their families has long been a cliche. But as we learn more about drug abuse, we now know that it is difficult, even impossible, to fight a genetic predisposition. I truly believe that I was born an alcoholic. My mother was an alcoholic. My grandmother was an alcoholic. My body just processed alcohol differently than people my age. Some nights I'd have 10 or 15 drinks and still seem totally sober, while others would have a bad blackout after one or two drinks that kept me up all night.
Watters made another bold statement: “The Trump kids don't do drugs, they don't smoke, they're part of a family-owned business, and they have a great family.” I don't know if this is true, but I do know that Trump's niece Mary Trump has written about her father losing his battle with alcoholism. This means that both the Bidens and the Trumps have some degree of genetic predisposition to alcoholism, just like my family and many other families.
It's dangerous for Republicans to go after Hunter Biden's addiction in this way. More people than you might think suffer from alcoholism and addiction, and shaming the families of addicts is unproductive and not based on any validity.
Republicans have long used photos of Hunter Biden high on crack as a kind of indictment against his father, but when I look at those photos, I see a warning.
I've been sober for 26 years, but I suffer from the same addiction as Hunter Biden. Being sober doesn't make me a better person than someone who struggles with addiction, it just means I'm luckier than them.
This article originally appeared on MSNBC.com.
