Biden backstory: Runs darkened by family trauma, addiction

• When Biden declared for president in 2019, his family was plagued by addiction, grief and soap opera levels of drama, the legal cases involving his son Hunter and daughter Ashley have shown.
• It's affected the president: Aides know to tiptoe around him when there's bad family news, and he's often angry or distracted about the legal and political attacks on them, according to five people familiar with the dynamic.
• His family's struggles — along with the still raw personal grief over his son Beau's death in 2015 — can manifest with tears and an "impenetrable sadness," as one person close to Biden called it.
• It's all led Biden to rely more heavily on those he's known the longest — creating a protective inner circle around him.

Zoom in: Biden announced his 2020 campaign at a time when both of his adult children were struggling with addiction to drugs.

• Hunter was still in a spiral of addiction to crack and alcohol when he left D.C. for California in the 24 hours surrounding his father entering the presidential race on April 25, 2019. That was revealed in bank records presented at Hunter's recent trial, in which he was found guilty of three gun felonies.
• Biden's daughter, Ashley, was in out-patient rehab in Florida and occasionally relapsing in the first half of 2019, according to her recovery diary, which was later stolen and given to a right-wing news source. (Ashley recently confirmed the diary was hers during a trial in which a woman who sold the diary was convicted.)
• Meanwhile, Beau's widow, Hallie Biden, had only recently gotten sober from crack cocaine — which Hunter had introduced to her during their tumultuous romantic relationship, according to recent testimony and court filings.
• Hallie also testified that when she and Hunter were together, her two school-age children went through a period when both of the adults in the home were addicts and the kids would sometimes stumble upon crack paraphernalia.

"What if?" questions hung over Hunter's trial in Delaware, even with some Biden aides. Among them: What if Joe Biden hadn't run for president when his family was in turmoil?

• Ashley's rehab diary likely wouldn't have been stolen and published online.
• Hunter and the family's emails, texts, and pictures probably wouldn't have been spread across the internet and the tabloids.
• A special counsel almost certainly wouldn't be prosecuting Hunter, threatening him with decades in jail.
• And members of the notoriously private family wouldn't have been called to testify about the traumatic events of recent years before jurors and dozens of reporters.

Between the lines: President Biden has confessed to feeling guilty about Hunter and Ashley's plights, and worries about them relapsing, people familiar with the matter told Axios.

• Neither Ashley nor Hunter wanted to be the reason their father didn't run — and they encouraged him to do so. So did Jill Biden and the grandchildren.
• As Hunter wrote in his memoir: "Beau and I always knew that Dad wouldn't retire until he became president."

Joe Biden's sister Valerie Biden Owens, however, had serious doubts about her brother running.

• "I didn't want the family to go through it. I was worried the family couldn't go through it. I worried about Hunter. The grandkids. And Joe," she wrote in her memoir, "Growing Up Biden."

• "Part of me wanted to say to those urging him on, "Look, he's done enough. Leave him alone," wrote Biden Owens, known as Val.
• Joe Biden's 2020 run was the first campaign that Val, who'd managed every campaign of his before 2020, said she had never had such doubts.

Biden aides could tell that members of the family were struggling during the 2020 campaign, and that Biden's mood could be greatly affected by it.

• They noted it was strange to have Biden's grandchildren on the campaign trail, but rarely their parents.

Hunter's troubles have been well-aired, but Ashley Biden also has paid a heavy price under the glare of the presidential spotlight.

• In the criminal case for the woman who sold Ashley's rehab diary, the first daughter penned a letter in April to the judge pushing for prison time and lengthy probation.
• "I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online…The despair I have often felt will never truly go away," Ashley wrote.
• She added that she was a "private citizen, targeted only because my father happened to be running to be president."
• The woman, Aimee Harris, recently was sentenced to one month in prison, three months of home confinement, and three years of probation.

Zoom out: The diary includes Ashley's exchanges with her father in 2019, just before and during the campaign.

• After Ashley learned in early March that he was going to run for president, she relapsed days later and called Biden, Jill, and one of their top aides.
• "Mom + dad worried but incredibly supportive," she wrote in her journal.

In late July after another relapse, Ashley wrote about calling Biden again.

• She wrote: "My dad cried on the phone, saying he has the debate in a week + 'now has to worry about you.' And he cried."
• She continued: "Maybe he knows what he is doing + it's worked but my feelings of guilt often are overwhelming."

Representatives for the White House and Ashley Biden did not respond to requests for comment.