Memory of son informs Biden’s picks
The late Beau Biden continues to influence his father, whose new administration is looking like a reunion.
WASHINGTON — One of President- elect Joe Biden’s latest Cabinet picks is seen by many in his party as a political trailblazer, a technocrat and an intellectual wunderkind.
But Biden sees something more in Pete Buttigieg: a glimmer of his late son.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son Beau,” Biden said in March, when Buttigieg announced he was endorsing Biden after battling him for the Democratic presidential nomination.
From Biden, that was the highest praise. Yet the president- elect’s announcement Wednesday that Buttigieg, a 38- year- old former mayor of South Bend, Ind., is his pick for Transportation secretary is only the latest prominent reminder that Biden’s memories of Beau Biden, who died in 2015 of brain cancer at 46, are a guiding force.
Beau Biden’s friendship with Vice President- elect Kamala Harris is cited as a reason his father was able to reconcile with Harris, another former presidential rival, after she attacked his early record on school desegregation in the 1970s.
And stories about the younger Biden’s close working relationship in Iraq with retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin were the emotional center of last week’s announcement that Austin would be nominated as Defense secretary.
People close to Biden say the inf luence of his eldest son — who while dying re
portedly urged his father to run for president in 2016 — goes beyond Biden’s personnel choices or his decision to run this time. That inf luence is expected to affect Biden’s governing, increasing his focus on issues including healthcare and cancer research.
“That comes directly out of his experience with Beau,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who was elected in 2010 to Biden’s former Senate seat. “Joe is someone for whom his family and his faith are absolutely fundamental to who he is.”
Coons said Biden’s son was a sounding board who helped his father assess others’ character.
Beau Biden served as a judge advocate officer in the Delaware Army National Guard in 2009, putting him
on Austin’s staff when the general led American forces in Iraq. When the presidentelect introduced Austin last week, he named Beau Biden as one of many young people inspired by the general, describing his son’s belief that the respect Austin earned from his platoon sergeants was the most important measure of his worth.
Austin spoke of an enduring friendship with Beau Biden, calling him “a very special person, a true patriot, and a good friend.”
Beau Biden worked closely with Harris in 2012 on a national mortgage settlement with the banking industry after the near- collapse of the financial system, when they were state attorneys general for Delaware and California, respectively.
Both resisted strong public and political pres
sure, including from the Obama administration, to settle with the f inancial industry. Harris has said she spoke with him almost daily.
“That pressure she felt was huge, to do something that she felt uncomfortable with,” said a former Harris aide. “One person who shared that perspective for sure was Beau Biden.”
That solidarity made it all the more painful for Joe Biden when Harris attacked him in personal terms over the issue of busing during their presidential campaign rivalry, including in a nationally televised debate.
“I wasn’t prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me,” he told CNN in July 2019, days after the debate. “She knew Beau. She knows me.”
Yet by August of this year, when Biden selected Harris as his running mate, he was calling her “an honorary Biden.”
“My campaign has always been a family affair, every campaign I’ve run,” he said, explaining the moniker. Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, has had top leadership roles in his campaigns for five decades. Harris’ sister, Maya Harris, also chaired her presidential campaign.
The focus on family has made it all the more difficult for Biden to weather persistent questions about his surviving son, Hunter, and the latter’s lucrative past work on behalf of private clients in Ukraine and China. Hunter Biden announced last week that he is the subject of a federal tax investigation.
President Trump made Hunter Biden a central focus of campaign attacks on his Democratic rival, and some other Republicans have signaled that they intend to keep the issue front and center in Congress — including at the Senate confirmation hearing for whomever Joe Biden selects as attorney general, given the Justice Department’s role in federal criminal inquiries.
The president- elect has not been implicated in the investigation, which his allies call a partisan fishing expedition. But the situation has already created awkward moments for Biden, and they could continue if Republicans keep control of the Senate. They hold a slim majority in the chamber heading into a pair of runoffs in Georgia on Jan. 5.
“It certainly has the potential to be an unnecessary distraction for Biden and his team. I don’t expect Republicans to let go on this, and they’ll keep trying to gin up controversy,” said James Manley, a former Senate Democratic leadership aide.
Biden ignored shouted questions about Hunter Biden’s case at an event last week, except to say, “I’m proud of my son.” On Tuesday, in response to another shouted question, he said he was “confident” his son did nothing wrong.
The reliance on family connections in choosing advisors could feed criticism from within his party that Biden is too dependent on old alliances in setting his agenda.
One veteran Democratic operative who has worked with Biden, speaking under anonymity on the sensitive issue, said Biden’s tendency to put his trust in a small group of tested people plays a big role in his decisionmaking. Given that, connections with Beau Biden have been a way for some newer associates to break into the circle.
“Personal chemistry is huge with him — you’re either someone he’s really close to or you’re not in the circle,” the person said. “Biden never had a huge network of people to draw upon. Politically, he was running for reelection in Delaware, and never built a big operation. It was always a small campaign run out of his sister’s kitchen.”
Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a progressive group that scrutinizes the executive branch, said his group counts Beau Biden as one of the best state attorneys general in the aftermath of the mortgage crisis and is gratif ied the president- elect is guided by his son’s governing instincts.
But he said Biden should look beyond those who served in the Obama- Biden administration.
“Our concerns are more about insularity and lack of fresh blood,” Hauser said. “We hope Biden will choose more people like Beau Biden, but outside his familialsocial network.”