“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care” — but in Biden’s White House, how many are there?
Zero, according to photos of the State Dining Room, where the Bidens have adorned the mantle with stockings for their grandkids each Christmas since moving in. Later on Monday, First Lady Jill Biden will unveil this year’s Yuletide decor, which includes almost 15,000 feet of ribbon, nearly 100 trees, more than 350 candles, more than 142,000 twinkle lights, and close to 34,000 ornaments. It’s a holly, jolly extravaganza.
But amid all the excessive trimmings, the number of grandchildren’s stockings is the only quantity that really matters. Instead of recognizing their grandkids on the mantle, the Bidens are reportedly paying homage to their pets, one of which was exiled from the White House after biting Secret Service agents and a number of staffers. A spokesman explained that “[t]he family will be spending Christmas at Camp David” so “their family stockings will be there.”
But that’s not really why the grandchildren’s stockings aren’t featured at the executive mansion.
While 2023 marks the third year of the Bidens’ holiday oversight at the White House, this is only the first Christmas since the family finally publicly acknowledged their seventh grandchild: Hunter Biden’s love child, Navy Joan Roberts. For the past two years, Jill Biden has hung Christmas stockings for only six grandchildren, not seven, refusing to recognize and honor the innocent child born out of wedlock in 2018 to former stripper Lunden Roberts and the Bidens’ wayward son.
This was all part of the Bidens’ long-established “six grandchildren” narrative. As the president loved to tell, “I have six grandchildren, and I’m crazy about them. I speak to them every single day.” In 2020, Jill Biden dedicated her children’s book “To my grandchildren,” with a list of six names. And The New York Times reported over the summer that in White House strategy meetings, the president’s aides were instructed that Joe and Jill Biden have six grandchildren, not seven.
As the New York Post’s Jesse O’Neill wrote last Christmas, “The only thing worse than getting coal in your stocking is not even having one hung for you.” Indeed, and now the president and first lady are proving the depths of their disdain for Navy Roberts: They’d rather not acknowledge their other six beloved grandchildren than honor their seventh with a stocking.
The snub is even further aggravated by the Biden patriarch’s constant appeals to the importance of family in every other context. Entanglements in bribery scandals? No, just a father’s love for his son. Federal gun crimes? Nah, just a close-knit family grieving.
When it comes to little Navy Joan Roberts, however, Biden likes to play the family card again — in this case to tell inquiring minds to buzz off. “This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” President Biden told People magazine at the end of July when he first acknowledged the child. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
That’s a tough claim to square with reality, considering Joe Biden has aided and abetted the son he’s “very proud” of in ignoring his daughter. Hunter claimed in his memoir that he’s “taken responsibility” for the mess he created during his affair, but that’s not true. Instead of a meaningful relationship with her father — or even more than a delayed and compulsory acknowledgment of her existence after a positive paternity test — Navy has had to settle for child support payments he negotiated down and a few of Hunter’s lousy paintings. She can’t even have the Biden family name.
As for the grandparents, there’s still no evidence they’ve met their granddaughter.
So now what of this “family matter”? It’s about time Navy Joan Roberts gets a place of honor at the White House. But considering Joe and Jill Biden would apparently rather not recognize any of their grandkids than hang a little stocking for her, it’s painfully clear she’ll never have her place on their mantle — and certainly not a seat at their table.