During the course of research for Breaking Biden, my new book that was released earlier this week, there were only a few moments that humanized the current president.
Though I tried to locate the humanity in Joe Biden time and again, I was shocked at how infrequently I was able to do that. I concluded that a key reason Joe Biden has a “DGAF” attitude is that he has faced personal tragedy so acute that it’s hardly a surprise that being the subject of online ridicule doesn’t faze him.
The first of those tragedies took place on December 18, 1972, when his wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, age 30, and their infant daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash when their station wagon collided with a hay truck while they were out shopping for Christmas presents. His two young sons, Hunter and Beau, were badly injured in the accident, requiring extended hospitalization, but survived. As it would have any human, the accident took an incalculable toll on Joe.
The country wept for Joe.
Newly elected Senator Joe Biden with his wife Neilia in 1972. (Fairchild Archive/Penske Media via Getty Images)
The remains of the car in which Neilia Biden and