President-elect Joe Biden's granddaughters—Naomi, 27, Finnegan, 22, Maisy, 20, and Natalie, 16—sat down for an interview with Today's Jenna Bush Hager recently, and shared that, at one point, they had to assure their grandfather that they were prepared for him to run for president.
In the lengthy interview, which was shared on Wednesday, Naomi explained that she and the other grandchildren gave their stamp of approval before Biden announced his candidacy. "My pop is so protective, and he would never ever do anything if he thought that it would hurt us, and I think it was very difficult for him, because we'd been through a million campaigns, but this was a campaign that wasn't like any other campaign," she said.
Naomi added that in a family meeting, the youngest grandchild, Hunter, showed the president-elect a tabloid story about the family, and the grandchildren said that together they could get through any scrutiny that a presidential campaign would bring about. "[Hunter] basically said to, 'We know about these sort of things. We know it's gonna be bad, but we have each other, and we know the truth, and we will be okay.' I think he came out of that meeting feeling a little bit more comforted, and look we're still standing," she explained.
Natalie said that the younger Bidens felt their grandfather was integral to defeating President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
"I think we shared that urgency that the rest of the country was feeling that he needed to get into the race, because he was the only person that could beat Donald Trump, and I think we knew that, and we knew that we could sacrifice a little for the greater good of the country," she said.
Elsewhere in the interview segment, the four young women also detailed just how they dealt with the stress of election week, while holding out hope that they'd see their grandfather would become the nation's next president.
The group poked fun at their own methods of keeping calm. After Natalie, the youngest granddaughter, said that she had a "manifestation rock," her cousin Finnegan chimed in to lightly joke about her method of dealing with election week worries. "I slept for like a week straight. Natalie's walking around with a random rock she found, saying 'Touch this! It's good luck,'" Finnegan said.
.@jennabushhager sat down with four of President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren in a candid interview to talk about growing up with their "pop" and the moment when the election was called. pic.twitter.com/oPZLcNlRyR
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 20, 2021
Natalie maintained that she believed her rock was a key to helping Biden win. "I put it up to the full moon, and I had everyone in the house touch it, and it worked," she said.
Maisy Biden said that she and her youngest cousin, Hunter, embraced the great outdoors while waiting on the results to come in.
"I was trying to distract myself as much as I could. Me and little Hunter ended up going out on the canoe a lot and trying to fish in a pond that has no more fish in it, which we knew, but in the back of our mind, we were like, 'Maybe one will bite, let's stay out for another 30 minutes. Should we go to the left side of the pond?' We were just trying to distract ourselves as best we could," she said.
Finnegan, meanwhile, said that while they were waiting on the election results, the cousins also pushed for Natalie to hop into a lake for good luck, right before the race was called for Biden. "They were like, 'If you don't jump in, we're gonna lose.' So then I jumped in, and my uncle Hunter came out and said we won Wisconsin," Natalie explained.
Biden's daughter Ashley, who was interviewed alongside her nieces, said that the night before the election was called, the whole family had a dance party, because the results looked like they were going in their favor, and when the election was finally called, the group had an emotional and joyous moment.
"We had no idea it was coming," Finnegan said. "When the results came out, it's like your whole body—I mean, everyone was crying. It was just like, we embraced each other. I think we'll always remember that moment," Finnegan said.
The grandkids also spoke about other fond memories of their grandfather, like him coming to basketball games, family traditions for Thanksgiving and joining their pop on the campaign trail.
