President Biden took his embattled son, Hunter, and his sister and former campaign manager, Valerie Biden Owens, on his first presidential trip to Ireland Tuesday to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Bidens boarded Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and headed for the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast, where the president will embark on a four-day tour in an effort to “keep the peace” in the region.
President Biden was asked by reporters on the tarmac whether any family members were accompanying him on the trip, but he didn’t give names.
“Just two of my family members who haven’t been there before,” he responded.
BIDEN SPOTTED WITH SON HUNTER AT WHITE HOUSE EAST EGG ROLL AS INVESTIGATIONS HEAT UP
Biden’s trip to Northern Ireland, where he will reportedly be met by United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, will mark 25 years of peace since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 formally ended decades of “The Troubles” – an oft-violent conflict between the proverbial Orange and Green – largely-Protestant Unionists loyal to the Crown, and largely-Catholic republicans supportive of a unified Ireland.
Biden will also give a speech at Ulster University before departing for Dublin to meet with Irish President Michael Higgins.
Security concerns were reportedly raised prior to Biden’s trip after demonstrators lobbed gasoline bombs at law enforcement in Derry/Londonderry, one of the cities where violence cropped up during the Troubles. Northern Irish police also disrupted a bomb plot from the “New IRA” members ahead of Biden’s visit.
Biden, who is also set to meet with distant relatives during the trip, has frequently commented on how his Irish heritage shaped his life.
“I’m the proud son of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden,” Biden said at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon last year. “And like so many Americans of Irish heritage, I love Ireland and I was raised in a circumstance where you would have thought my whole family… they came in 1844 and 1845, but you’d think they’d all lived in Ireland the last 60 years — the previous 60 years.”
Biden’s granddaughter, Hunter’s daughter, is named Finnegan.
Hunter was spotted Monday with his father mingling with visitors on the South Lawn of the White House during the annual Easter Egg Roll, as dual federal investigations into the Biden family heat up.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware launched a criminal investigation into Hunter’s business and tax dealings in 2018, and it is still ongoing. Meanwhile, House Republicans have launched their own investigation into Hunter’s business deals and any potential involvement by President Biden.
JOE BIDEN MET WITH AT LEAST 14 OF HUNTER BIDEN’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATES WHILE VICE PRESIDENT
President Biden has repeatedly insisted he had no knowledge of his son Hunter’s business dealings, despite mounting claims to the contrary.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Biden met with at least 14 of Hunter Biden’s business associates while he was vice president in the Obama White House, and that four business partners, a vice president, and two assistants at Hunter Biden’s now-defunct firm visited the White House more than 80 times when his father was vice president.
Hunter, who has adamantly denied any wrongdoing, has not been charged with a crime related to the investigations. The president has maintained he had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings.
Fox News’ Charles Creitz and Paul Best contributed to this report.