Michelle Obama is noticeably absent from President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. In private conversations, the former first lady expresses frustration over the Biden family’s exile of her close friend and Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, Axios reports.
Although her husband, former president Barack Obama, has supported President Biden’s reelection bid on X, at fundraisers, and in campaign videos this year, Michelle Obama, a popular Democratic voice, has distanced herself from the campaign.
After Buhle’s divorce from Hunter Biden in 2017, Michelle—who became close friends with Buhle during her husband’s presidency—privately told others that she felt the Biden family had wronged Buhle, anonymous sources close to the situation told Axios.
Buhle battled through Hunter's drug use and infidelity during their marriage. In the first son's recent trial, Hunter’s ex-girlfriend—and brother Beau Biden’s widow—Hallie Biden testified that her romantic relationship with Hunter began in late 2015 and early 2016—when Buhle had said she and Hunter were not living together but still working on their marriage.
Although Barack Obama has been influential throughout Biden’s presidency and reelection bid, the Obama-Biden relationship has been growing tense since 2015.
That year, then-vice president Biden was weighing a presidential run, and President Obama discouraged it, putting his support behind Hillary Clinton instead. It also was the year Biden's son Beau died of cancer, beginning years of unrest for the Biden family, including Hunter and Buhle's divorce, according to Axios.
Michelle has not entirely cut the Bidens out of her circle. Jill Biden "graciously" joined a memorial service for Michelle's mother on Monday, a source told Axios.
A spokesperson for Michelle Obama told Axios the former first lady supports Biden's reelection. "She is friends with Kathleen and with the Bidens. Two things can be true."