Podcast Summary: The Political Scene | The New Yorker Episode: The Family Heritage That Led to Hunter Biden
Date: July 19, 2023
Host: Tyler Foggatt
Guest: Adam Entous (Reporter, The New Yorker)

Overview

This episode focuses on the lesser-known history of the Biden family, revealing how a complicated legacy of wealth, loss, class conflict, and addiction informs President Joe Biden's public and private identity—and by extension, the much-discussed struggles of his son Hunter Biden. Guest Adam Entous, author of The New Yorker’s in-depth article “The Untold History of the Biden Family,” shares findings from his investigation into the Bidens’ rags-to-riches-to-rags story, challenging the familiar narrative of “Middle-Class Joe” and exploring the family dynamics that shaped both Joe and Hunter Biden.

Major Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Public Narrative vs. The Hidden Family History

• The Standard Story:
  • Joe Biden has long presented himself as coming from humble origins, a narrative consistently told since Richard Ben Cramer’s 1992 biography and Biden’s memoir “Promises to Keep.” ([03:09]–[04:55])
  • “The stories are basically the same. And aside from that, nothing has been written. Every book...basically repeats that same story over and over again.” – Adam Entous ([04:31])
• Investigative Curiosity:
  • Entous began exploring Biden’s family history while researching Hunter Biden’s business activities. Early interviews hinted at “weird and interesting” stories about Joe Biden’s father and grandfather, inconsistent with Joe’s well-publicized working-class image. ([05:16]–[07:45])

2. The Biden-Sheen-Robinette Family Web

• Elite Connections and Division:
  • The Bidens’ background is more intricate, marked by intermarriage with the Robinette and Sheen families—Baltimore elites with connections to wealth, war contracting, and even aristocratic myths.
  • “His mother’s side, Jean Finnegan’s side...are Irish...look down on the elites. And Joe Biden's dad comes from...elites, English, very prideful. So you had...a rift in the family...” – Adam Entous ([07:55])

3. The Rise and Fall of the Family Fortune

• Wealth, War Profiteering, and Scandal:
  • Biden’s father, Joseph Biden Sr., was swept into the Sheen family’s pursuit of wealth—especially during WWII, through war contracts involving a “plastic armor” business.
  • The Sheens’ business practices led to government investigations for wage violations and excessive wartime profits.
  • “In some cases...they were charging the government and pocketing a 50% profit, not 8%. So...they basically say...you have to pay two-thirds of your profits back...they didn’t exactly have all that money sitting in the bank...this leads to the beginning of the end.” – Adam Entous ([20:45])

4. Family Secrets, Class Clashes, and Stigma

• Internalized Shame:
  • The collapse of the Sheen business and ensuing scandals meant Joe Biden Sr. ended up “penniless”—explaining the family’s loss of status and wealth.
  • The Finnegan side, by contrast, were upright, service-oriented, and Catholic—fostering a deep split and a sense of inferiority in the next generation.
  • “This is why [Joe Biden Sr.] hides the fact that he used to have these glory days right in his closet. It's because he's internalized this kind of shame...” – Adam Entous ([22:21])

5. The Impact on Joe and Hunter Biden

• Dynasty, Envy, and Addiction:
  • Joe Biden inherited both pride in (and shame about) his elite roots, translating into both a public persona championing the middle class and a private yearning for wealth and status.
  • “He sort of had this idea of dynasty for his own family...but without the money…they both want to be the Finnegans, but they also want to be the Bidens, and they want to be like a wealthy family. And this is a conflict within the family, and I would say an unresolved one, you know, one that actually contributes, I think, to Hunter's addiction issues later.” ([33:37])
  • “Keeping up with the Joneses is a big part of the dynamic here...the stress of trying to keep up...why [Hunter] ends up having relapses.” – Adam Entous ([33:37])

6. The Political Ramifications and Media Oversight

• A Family Story Untold:
  • Joe Biden’s “Middle-Class Joe” image is both real and constructed—rooted in economic loss, but also obscuring a fraught and complicated family past with class mobility, scandal, and secrecy.
  • The depth of this history went unchecked by journalists for decades in part due to missing or misspelled names and a reluctance to probe deeply into the biography of a major political figure.
  • “He has run for president three times...he's had many opportunities to tell his story. And...journalists should have checked his story. And repeatedly…he's basically not been subjected to this sort of scrutiny...” ([36:55])

Notable Quotes

• “[Joe Biden] always likes to make these snide remarks in meetings about people who went to sort of Ivy League schools... He's got this thing about the elites and the wealthy.” — Adam Entous ([06:01])
• “There's this element of shame that came across…Working Class Joe being obsessed with mansions, and...secret polo mementos...in his closet. Why wasn't he more open about it?” — Adam Entous ([05:50])
• “Joe Biden grows up without money in Scranton...because Joe Biden Sr.'s mistake was attaching himself to these relatives who were alcoholics and were not trustworthy and who got into trouble.” — Adam Entous ([22:21])
• “It's not like the Sheens had much to offer [Biden Sr.] at that stage...he decides to go back and join his family in Scranton...he is treated like an outcast on the Finnegan side because they know he was a war profiteer.” — Adam Entous ([29:10])
• “We’re not rich, but at least we’re honest.” — Anecdote attributed to Jean Biden ([30:03])
• “He seems to be sort of drawn to things that are trappings of wealth. And it's sort of almost ingrained in him. And frankly, it's not just him, it's also his brother. It's also his kids. Right. Beau and Hunter.” — Adam Entous ([31:33])
• “Keeping up with the Joneses is a big part of the dynamic here...that's the main reason why [Hunter] ends up having relapses.” — Adam Entous ([33:37])

Key Timestamps

• [01:15] – Introduction to the episode and main themes
• [03:09] – The traditional Biden family story and public narrative
• [05:16] – How Adam Entous began his investigation
• [10:17] – Finding the Sheen family and unlocking the real story
• [11:42] – Deep dive into inter-family relationships and class divides
• [15:44] – The wartime Sheen business and Biden Sr.’s involvement
• [20:45] – Government investigations, profit scandals, and financial downfall
• [22:21] – The family’s internal shame and division
• [26:23] – Finnegan values versus the Biden legacy
• [29:10] – Biden Sr. returns to Scranton and faces outcast status
• [31:33] – “Middle-Class Joe”—Reality, self-perception & family patterns
• [33:37] – The family’s unresolved class conflict and Hunter’s struggles
• [36:55] – Media oversight and the consequences of an unchecked biography

Conclusion

Adam Entous’s research reframes the Biden family saga as not just a story of resilience and “working-class” roots but also one of class insecurity, lost aspiration, and inherited family secrets. The revelations contextualize not only Joe Biden’s self-presentation but also Hunter’s vulnerabilities—illustrating how patterns of ambition, envy, and addiction recur across generations. The episode ultimately challenges listeners to reconsider the origins of political personas and the importance of probing beyond official narratives.