If anyone deserves a lump of coal this Christmas, it’s Joe and Jill Biden—who are celebrating the holidays by once again publicly snubbing their granddaughter, Navy Joan Roberts.
For the first time since Biden became president, the White House’s State Dining Room features no stockings for the Biden grandchildren on the mantel. In 2021 and 2022, the Bidens hung stockings for six of their grandchildren, leaving out Navy, the daughter of Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts.
Until this July, Joe and Jill Biden had steadfastly ignored the existence of Navy, going so far as to reportedly instruct staff to say the Bidens had just six grandchildren. After The New York Times reported on the coldness of the Bidens toward Navy, the first couple finally acknowledged her existence in a statement to People magazine.
But apparently a written statement—not even one uttered on camera or in person to her—is all Navy’s going to get.
Because this year, instead of featuring seven stockings hung with care, the State Dining Room mantel is stocking-free.
An unnamed White House spokesperson told the New York Post that the change was made because the Bidens were spending Christmas at the presidential retreat at Camp David, not at the White House.
How stupid do the Bidens think we are?
The State Dining Room isn’t in the personal quarters of the White House. I highly doubt the Biden grandchildren were actually romping around there Christmas Day and pulling presents out of their fancy stockings. Putting their names on the stockings was about making a public statement, not a practical Christmas measure.
Look, if the Bidens want to call my bluff, I’d welcome it. A photo of seven stockings at Camp David, with Navy’s name as prominently placed as her half-siblings’ and cousins’, would be a welcome sign that America’s first family had stopped snubbing a 5-year-old, just because she was conceived in less than ideal circumstances.
But I’m not holding my breath.
And to add insult to injury, the Bidens haven’t even been particularly choosy about who gets mantel stockings in past years. In 2022, they hung up a stocking for their German shepherd, Commander.
Commander, to put it mildly, doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation at the White House. (As of October, he’s not at the White House, although it’s unclear whether he might return someday.)
According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, Commander jumped on and bit a staffer on Oct. 5, 2022. (There was no injury.) That wasn’t his first rodeo: An email two days earlier had said Commander “had inflicted a ‘friendly soft bite’” on a special agent.
On Oct. 26, 2022, a White House email detailed more signs of aggression from Commander:
Commander has been exhibiting extremely aggressive behavior. Today, while posted, he came charging at me. The First Lady couldn’t regain control of commander [sic] and he continued to circle me. I believe it’s only a matter of time before an agent/officer is attacked or bit.
He would have bit me today if I didn’t step towards him a couple different times.
Commander, undeterred, then bit a Secret Service agent twice on his upper arm and thigh, according to a Nov. 3, 2022, email. (The agent was forced to resort to using a steel cart to shield himself from further attacks from Commander.) That officer subsequently went to the hospital for treatment for the bites.
A week later, Commander charged at a Secret Service officer and bit his thigh, which required medical treatment and was filed as a workplace injury.
And on Nov. 28, 2022, Jill Biden unveiled the White House Christmas decorations—complete with a stocking for Commander and none for Navy.
So, just to sum up the Bidens’ calculus on who merits Christmas stockings and who doesn’t: Dog terrorizing Secret Service agents risking their lives for the first family is a “yes,” while young grandchild who just doesn’t have the right mother is a “no.”
What moral heroes.
Truly, this is gross. Making it even more sickening is that Joe and Jill Biden say their theme this year is literally about the children. No, I’m not making that up.
“The 2023 White House holiday theme is inspired by how children experience this festive season: completely present in the beauty and bounty around them, their senses alight, with hearts open to the magic, wonder, and joy of the holidays,” Joe and Jill Biden wrote.
You know who might want a chance to be completely present in the “beauty and bounty” of a White House Christmas?
Navy.
Look, I suppose there’s a chance that Navy’s mother, Lunden Roberts, requested the Bidens not do anything public with her daughter. (Although as recently as earlier this year, she told The New York Times she had brought Navy to Washington to visit and that her daughter is “very proud of who her grandfather is and who her dad is,” so I’m skeptical.)
But unless Roberts requested privacy, the Bidens owe Navy an apology—and a publicly displayed stocking with her name on it. She deserves to be treated the same as their other grandchildren, not shabbily dismissed and ignored.
In fact, there’s nothing more Christmassy than seeing every child as a gift from God. After all, Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and an unwed virgin, is hardly the poster child for births that fit sneering society nabobs’ preferred “norms.”
Yet, again this Christmas, the Bidens are effectively bullying a small child, sending a clear public message that they’d rather ignore all their grandchildren than be forced to treat Navy the same. Sadly, Santa can’t give Navy new paternal grandparents—but hopefully, the little girl can be shielded a few years longer from recognizing the immense and petty cruelty of the ones she’s stuck with.
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