President Joe Biden has finally decided to acknowledge his seventh grandchild, Navy Joan Roberts.
Biden did so, according to Fox News, in a statement that he released on Friday.
"Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward," Biden said.
He added, "This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter. Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy."
Navy is the daughter of Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts, a former stripper. The four-year-old girl was born in 2018 suggesting that she was conceived at about the time when Biden was in a relationship with Hallie Biden, the widow of Biden's deceased brother, Beau Biden.
Biden, initially, denied that he was the father of the child. But, a subsequent court-ordered DNA test determined "with near scientific certainty" that Biden is indeed the girl's father.
A legal battle ensued over child support payments. Initially, Biden was ordered to pay $20,000 per month.
But, about a month ago, Biden reached a settlement with Roberts in which the child support payments were lowered to $5,000 per month. Biden also was successful in preventing the girl from taking the "Biden" surname.
In exchange, Roberts and the girl received guaranteed child support payments until the girl reaches 18 years of age, marries, or passes away. The girl also gets to have at least one of Biden's infamous paintings.
During all of this time, from 2018 to this past Friday, President Biden refused to acknowledge Navy as his grandchild. Biden, on some occasions, even went so far as to stress that he only has six grandchildren, making it clear that he does not consider Navy one of his own.
Biden, particularly recently, has received much criticism for this, and some of this criticism has even come from some of his fellow Democrats.
Now, however, Biden has suddenly decided to recognize the girl. The big question, of course, is "Why now?" Neither the Biden White House nor Biden has answered this question.
But, many are arguing that Biden's decision to recognize the girl is likely a purely political move designed to silence those who have criticized him for refusing to do so in the past. They argue that this is evidenced, in part, by the fact that Biden essentially attempted to do this in as inconspicuous a way as possible, via what some are referring to as a "Friday night news dump."
There certainly seems to be some sense to this explanation of things.
