On Monday, Hunter Biden was in an Arkansas courtroom, trying to convince a judge overseeing his paternity case that his child support payments need to be reduced.

After all, the son of the president of the United States of America is a mere starving artist -- a globe-trotting, world-famous starving artist who was, rather recently, making deals with huge international concerns.

Mind you, Hunter Biden mostly refuses to acknowledge the existence of his daughter, 4-year-old Navy Joan Roberts. In his memoir, he claims to not even remember the encounter with then-stripper Lunden Roberts that led to the girl's conception. I'm sure she'll love reading that when she's older.

Nor does Hunter's father or stepmother want to recognize his love child, as much as they like to talk about "family." Despite DNA tests proving that Hunter is the father, Navy Joan's name has continuously been omitted from any mention of Joe or Jill Biden's grandchildren. Her name is excluded when the stockings are hung at the White House at Christmastime.

Hunter and his well-heeled defense team didn't have a great day in court on Monday as they tried to have Hunter's $20,000-a-month child support payments reduced. Among other things, according to Fox News, the judge said that the legal ability to redact certain information is "being abused" by Hunter's side, and said "I can’t gag the whole world" regarding tax information on the infamous Hunter Biden laptop.

But isn't Joe Biden supposed to be a family man? That's why the Daily Mail's Emily Goodin had a question for White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday: Is the president, say, monitoring the high-profile court hearing that might determine the future of his granddaughter?

Jean-Pierre's response was both infuriating and predictable:

Daily Mail's @EmilyLGoodin: "I wanted to ask about the trial...in Arkansas w/Hunter Biden & the child support. Are [Joe & Jill Biden] monitoring that & how come they haven't acknowledged the 7th grandchild?"

KJP: "I'm not gonna speak to that from here"

James Rosen: "Why not?" pic.twitter.com/TARVeT7K6L

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 2, 2023

As per a White House transcript, Goodin said she "wanted to ask about the trial going on in Arkansas with Hunter Biden and the child support. Are the president and first lady monitoring that? And how come they haven’t acknowledged the seventh grandchild?"

"I’m not going to speak to that from here," she said.

"Why not?" Newsmax's James Rosen asked in a follow-up question.

But KJP was undeterred. If the answer to the first question was infuriating, her response to the follow-up was worse -- she arrogantly ignored it.

She moved on to another reporter asking about "what is happening with the COVID-19 Task Force" after the COVID-19 emergency officially ends on May 11. Terra firma for the White House, which likes talking about anything but Navy Joan Roberts.

For instance, the Biden White House apparently has no official opinion on the fact the Bidens' granddaughter may share their last name soon; as Roberts' attorneys wrote in a December name-change motion, "The Biden name is now synonymous with being well-educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful."

Except for Hunter, Hunter's attorneys claim. He claims he's flat broke and can't pay the amount of child support specified in a 2020 agreement with Roberts after a DNA test determined "with near scientific certainty" he was the father.

Yes, like an angry, irresponsible yobbo on a "Maury" episode, Hunter had originally challenged paternity in court until he was faced with the card that says "You ARE the father!" And to think, this is the man who was doing business with Ukrainian energy giant Burisma, Chinese government-linked energy company CEFC and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim -- all, we are supposed to believe, because of his business acumen and reliability. Right.

Not that he's embraced this foray into fatherhood outside wedlock. (He has three grown daughters with former wife, Kathleen, and one young son with his current wife, Melissa Cohen Biden).

Here's what he wrote in his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things" regarding the events that led to Navy Joan's conception: “It’s why I would later challenge in court the woman in Arkansas who had a baby in 2018 and claimed the child was mine. I had no recollection of our encounter. That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”

I might believe everything in that description until "... but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for." Not only is he in court trying to reduce or eliminate his responsibility toward his daughter, Hunter, according to Fox News, "appeared to blankly stare ahead and had no interaction with Roberts." Nice job, dad.

In addition, Fox News noted, Roberts' lawyers want evidence "on the value of Biden’s art, his salary/employment for the past five years, estates/funds from foreign persons/domestic persons/family members, flight/hotel payments, the reason for a promissory note from top Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, and documents on business done with a Chinese firm."

As former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy noted in a column at National Review, describing Biden's attorneys' interactions with Independence County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer, "Biden has been ordered to disclose the financial records that have been requested by May 12" and this "could be interesting" for a number of reasons.

"At the last hearing, one of Hunter’s lawyers, Brent Langdon, asked Judge Meyer to preclude an expert witness whom Roberts plans to call about financial evidence gleaned from Hunter’s infamous laptop. As we’ve previously noted, Team Biden has been incoherently sly about the laptop, simultaneously claiming that (a) it might not be his but (b) his privacy has been unlawfully invaded by the publication of its contents," McCarthy wrote.

When Hunter's lawyer said his client had never issued "an acknowledgement" the laptop was indeed his, the judge said “let’s clear that issue up right now. Is it your client’s laptop or not?”

“I am not in a position to even begin to answer that question.” Hunter's lawyer said, before adding, “It’s not my client’s laptop as far as I know. He’s never accepted that that’s his laptop.”

So, I'd say it's a mess that remains uncleaned for a number of reasons, primary among them that Hunter Biden's gonna Hunter Biden. But what about Joe Biden and the White House?

Joe, we're told, is a family man. A "devout Catholic." Surely, he could put out a pro forma statement saying that he wishes nothing but the best for his grandchild and that these things are complicated but that he hopes some kind of appropriate arrangement takes place in which Hunter's child is given appropriate acknowledgement, no?

I mean, she's not a waterlogged laptop full of obscene material and incriminating documents dropped off at a Delaware repair shop during a drug-induced stupor in 2019. She's a 4-year-old kid.

Not only will the first family not acknowledge her existence, Karine Jean-Pierre isn't going to answer questions about it, either -- or answer questions about why she won't answer questions.

As McCarthy noted in his National Review piece, "it boggles the mind that the Bidens have not settled this case given the goo-gobs of money they have reaped from cashing in on Joe Biden’s political influence with operatives of foreign governments -- for the most part regimes that are deeply corrupt and hostile to the United States. From Communist China alone Hunter and his family took in ten-digit 'compensation' though their only apparent 'labor' was being related to the guy who was steering Obama administration China policy while planning a run for the White House."

Not only will they not settle this, the Bidens and those in their orbit refuse to acknowledge that this is anything more than a DNA test that came back with an unwelcome result.

They won't talk about it and they won't even talk about why they won't talk about it. This is a mess that no one -- not Hunter, not Joe, and not the official media mouthpiece of the White House -- is willing to take any responsibility for.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.