White House blocks press from Hunter Biden's daughter's wedding, gives exclusive to 'Vogue' magazine
White House blocks press from Hunter Biden's daughter's wedding, gives exclusive to 'Vogue' magazine
Naomi Biden lives rent free at the White House with her husband
Pres. Joe Biden’s granddaughter from Hunter Biden, Naomi, has been living together with her boyfriend on the third floor of the White House, rent-free. When Naomi got married on Saturday at the White House, her father walked her down the aisle. There are no public photos of Hunter at his daughter’s wedding because the event was closed to all media, except one friendly and fashionable outlet.
Hunter is under multiple investigations for his overseas business dealings, taxes and lying on a gun background check. (Oddly, Naomi constantly tweets about wanting more gun control laws — see here and here — like the one her dad allegedly broke.)
Wedding press ban
The press blackout blew up when “Vogue” magazine published Tuesday an exclusive interview with Naomi and the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden. The magazine story is accompanied by flattering photos of the bride and her grandmother in designer wares.
“Vogue” detailed that the 250 guests watched the ceremony on the South Lawn, attended a lunch, dined in the State Room and danced in the East Room. All of these interesting details (I put a bunch in bullet points below so you don’t have to read the glowy article) almost certainly came with a deal that the magazine would not ask or report on legal or political issues.
The move infuriated mainstream White House reporters who were refused access to the day-long festivities.
A Bloomberg reporter pointed out that White House Press Secretary Karine Jeanne-Pierre said on Friday that the wedding was closed press because it was called a “family event” where no reporters were allowed.
New York Times reporter Katie Rogers tweeted that she asked a month ago about special access given to “Vogue”, and the White House denied it.
Rogers added that the press office said the “Vogue” reporter was not at the White House on the day of the event but was present for a rehearsal two days earlier. (The article is written as if the reporter was actually at the wedding, which is ethically questionable.)
Clearly, the exclusive access to a ch-chi and friendly outlet was well thought out by the Bidens. That’s why a Washington Post reporter called the move “too cute by half.”
Secretly living rent free
Naomi, 28, and her now husband Peter Neal, 25, are both lawyers and fully employed. According to “Vogue”, the couple moved into the White House months ago:
When the couple’s lease ran out on their DC apartment, they asked Nana and the president if they could move in for a few months while wedding planning, along with their mini Australian shepherd, Charlie, who can often be seen gamboling on the South Lawn with the Bidens’ German shepherd, Commander.
“I try to remind myself it’s the White House, but it also gets normalized over time,” says Naomi.
Hunter’s daughter’s constant access to her grandparents was first reported by “People” magazine on the day of the wedding, citing two sources.
In the “Vogue” interview, Naomi talked about going to barre and SoulCycle classes with Dr. Jill and the family movie nights:
Of course, prosaic family activities like movie nights are now held in a White House screening room with freshly made popcorn and Secret Service in the back. They recently watched—and all loved—Top Gun: Maverick,
HIDING HUNTER
Of course, the reason for the media blackout of the wedding was to keep Hunter away from reporters who would ask about all his legal trouble. Democrats and liberal media successfully censored the New York Post’s exclusive news of Hunter’s laptop for years in order to cover up his allegedly working with his father on questionable business deals.
House Republicans are planning their own investigation into Hunter’s activities when they take control in January.
The White House released one photo of the wedding on Saturday (below) but the father of the bride was notably left out of it.
Hunter is barely mentioned in the “Vogue” story and none of it is about his legal problems. That’s the reason the White House granted the luxury magazine exclusive access — controlling the media. The three times Hunter comes up in “Vogue:
He walked his daughter down the aisle with his ex wife
Dr. Jill remembers fondly a young Hunter standing at the altar for her wedding to Joe
This hard-hitting report:
(They amended the menu to chicken pot pie, as a surprise for the father of the bride, as it is Hunter’s favorite and the dish Dr. Biden cooks for him every year on his birthday.)
VOGUE DETAILS
The White House said the wedding was paid for by the family, though it’s unclear if that means Hunter or Joe. It was an expensive event. Here are some of the details from “Vogue” and extra photos they just put on Instagram.
The bridge had THREE designer dresses:
(1) She got married in a high-neck, Chantilly lace Ralph Lauren dress modeled after the famous Grace Kelly wedding dress. It had a “cathedral-length silk organza veil with matching Chantilly lace border” that stretched out “covering the entire blue and yellow carpet of the oval-shaped Blue Room.” She also wore earrings from Tiffany.
(2) For the reception, she “wore a strapless ivory silk Mikado Reem Acra dress with her grandmother Roberta Buhle’s pearls sewn into the sweeping six-foot train.”
(3) For late-night dancing, “Naomi switched to a beaded fringed Markarian mini-dress.”
Dr. Jill wore two designer dresses. For the wedding, she wore a Reem Acra teal wool crepe coat and silk chiffon dress.” For the receptions, she wore a “gold embroidered seafoam blue Reem Acra dress and glittering Jimmy Choo pumps.”
(For the men reading this, these designer dresses all together likely cost tens of thousands of dollars.)
For dessert, there was, natch, ice cream for Joe and much more. The “bride and groom climbed a ladder to cut a seven-foot-tall, eight-tier lemon cake with buttercream frosting, while nearby, a dessert bar included everything from 20-inch apple pie (the groom’s cake) to the president’s favorite Graeter’s chocolate chip ice cream.”
Wedding planning while living one floor above her grandparents, Naomi and Dr. Jill would discuss details “in the evening over a glass of wine—Cabernet for Dr. Biden, Sancerre for Naomi.”
Naomi incorporated details of the White House into the invitations. “I never thought I would care about the color of a font on my wedding invitation, but I think Peter and I spent six hours deciding on that.” (They chose black.)”
BIDEN WHITE HOUSE SECRETS
A president can decide what event is open to the media (the public) and what is not, but making events off the record, it gives the impression there is something to hide. That is why closing down the wedding for even a pool photo op was questionable.
But since the president had to hide Hunter — the father of the bride — from reporters asking legitimate questions, they had to shut down the entire wedding to the political press.
That decision frustrated the beat reporters but lying about it being a private family event while giving an exclusive interview to a magazine that would give glowing coverage does not sit right with reporters from the left and the right.
It’s why the Fourth Estate exists — for the public to have a way to hold public officials accountable. And we can’t do that when we’re locked out of the room while a fashionable, friendly reporter interviews the president’s granddaughter in her pajamas.*