WILMINGTON, Del. — Some days it’s with a text. On others, it’s a call, even just to leave a message.

President Joe Biden reaches out to his son Hunter regularly to check on him. And increasingly, those messages have taken on a fresh sense of urgency.

The younger Biden is facing new criminal charges and could soon be held in contempt of Congress after refusing to testify in a Republican-led hearing meant to impugn the reputations of both him and his father. Those closest to the president have grown more worried about the personal toll it is taking on the older man.

“I know when he hurts. He doesn’t talk about it much, most of us don’t,” said former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who has been friends with the elder Biden for more than four decades. “He has a real human decency, and a lot of it is created by scarring. And he’s worried.”

Joe Biden’s concern about his surviving son has only grown since he took office, according to aides and confidants — five in total — all of whom were granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.

The White House has long stressed that the president does not interfere in matters before the Justice Department. But privately, fears about the upcoming campaign and potential criminal trial have become an ever-present weight on the president, according to those close to him. The elder Biden has told friends he worries that his son could even backslide into addiction.

In recent months, Biden also has asked some of his closest friends — those he has known for decades from Wilmington and Washington — to call or email his son themselves to check on him, so the younger Biden always knows he has a support system in place, according to two of the people asked to check in on the younger Biden.

Hunter Biden has ratcheted up his own defenses, taking an aggressive tact against the criminal and political, at times to the dismay of his father’s political advisors. The new charges against him — and the accompanying spotlight — come at a politically perilous moment for his father, whose poll numbers have slipped and show a dead heat with his likely GOP rival, Donald Trump.

Those close to the president........

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