Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, White House correspondent Mike Memoli examines the defiant tone the Biden family has taken on following Hunter’s conviction. Plus, chief political analyst Chuck Todd explores what recently release secret recordings reveal about Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
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What comes next for the Bidens after Hunter’s verdict
By Mike Memoli
After he was convicted on three felony gun charges, Hunter Biden pledged to keep “moving forward.” President Joe Biden was still processing the legal setback hours later as he praised gun safety advocates for turning their “pain” into “purpose.” And first lady Jill Biden, who had largely cleared her schedule to be with Hunter during the trial, is now set to embark on an extended five-state campaign swing.
The personal and political toll of Hunter Biden’s legal struggles may not be immediately apparent, but the tone he and his parents are trying to set after the trial seems clear. As the president is fond of quoting his father as saying, “When you get knocked down, you have to get back up.”
It’s a defiant posture that people close to the family say is both intentional and familiar to them after having experienced even greater setbacks in the past.
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Biden’s own campaign quickly signaled Wednesday that it will not let Hunter’s conviction prevent it from attacking former President Donald Trump over his. A news release noted that while Biden was traveling to to Italy for the G7 Summit and his campaign was holding events across the country, Trump had nothing on his public schedule.
Jill Biden had joined her husband for parts of last week’s trip to France, shuttling back and forth to Delaware twice to be present for Hunter’s trial. The Biden campaign had kept her schedule on hold during the trial, but her advisers on Tuesday afternoon locked in plans for one of her busiest campaign swings to date. She’ll make at least five stops in three days in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada and Arizona, while also raising money in California.
Perhaps the biggest test of how the Bidens emerge from the trial will come in two weeks during the first presidential debate. The campaign is bracing for the possibility that Trump will aim to personalize the June 27 faceoff, hoping to rattle Biden by invoking his son. But advisers note that the tactic appeared to backfire four years ago when Trump tried to raise Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Read more on the Bidens’ defiant posture →
Still, as we also reported today: The road forward for the Bidens may only get more difficult — personally, politically and legally.
The president’s aides are already anxiously looking ahead to Hunter Biden’s September trial in California on accusations of tax evasion. While the gun charges trial put humiliating, personal family dynamics and history on display, the second trial could expose potentially controversial information about Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which Republicans have long sought to tie to his father, without evidence.
Read more on the Bidens’ next challenges →
John Roberts, America’s chief swing voter?
By Chuck Todd
It’s so rare these days for people in positions of power to put the country before themselves, so when it happens, we should ruminate on the moment.
The secret recordings of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, who spoke with a progressive activist posing as a religious conservative at a Supreme Court Historical Society event, offer quite the contrast in how each sees his role on the court. And while many are focused on Alito, not enough focus is being given to the chief justice’s comments.
Whatever you think of Alito as a justice or as a conservative, it does seem as if he’s more comfortable expressing his ideology (in this case, expressing agreement with his undercover questioner) and using his position to push his views, not necessarily having the open mind he claimed to have during his 2006 confirmation hearing.
The real test of character in any position of authority is whether you are the same person when the spotlights are on as when the spotlights are off. Roberts showed us that at his core, he takes his job and the responsibilities that come with them quite seriously, no matter when he’s potentially tested. He’s meeting the moment.
You don’t have to agree with every opinion Roberts authors or signs on to, but it is nice to know that he’s self-aware about his role and truly devoted to doing the job he applied for: upholding and interpreting the Constitution to the best of his abilities.
What I’ll be interested in watching over the next few days and weeks is how liberals and conservatives respond not to Alito’s comments but to Roberts’. Is there universal respect for how Roberts sees the role of the Supreme Court, or do activists get frustrated that Roberts refuses to virtue-signal to either the left or the right?
Ultimately, we learned very little new about Alito in these recordings, but we learned something about Roberts. The recording should serve as reassurance that the person running the country’s third branch of government has the long view about the republic that the founders hoped people would adopt once they accepted the weight of their responsibilities.
That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at [email protected]
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
