CNN's John Avlon said Thursday that President Biden was "very obsessed" with the coverage of his son Hunter and his allies don't want to bring it up because it would "derail a conversation." 

Avlon said that Republicans have had a "difficult time demonizing Joe Biden" and said doing it with Hunter Biden creates "some sense of moral equivalence with the Trump family's challenges."

"There’s deep reluctance, as this reporting shows, to raise this with President Biden because he has stuck by his sole surviving son and he will. And in private also, I've heard reports that he’s very obsessed with the negative coverage of Hunter. He’s concerned about it, it’s an irritant. And that’s understandable. But not one that allies around him want to raise because it will derail a conversation," Avlon continued. 

The CNN panel discussed new reporting that said Biden's aides rarely bring up his son during campaign meetings because it's a sensitive topic.

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"Hunter Biden is not a topic of discussion in campaign meetings," a senior aide told CNN. "It’s just not addressed."

CNN's Jeff Zeleny detailed this reporting on Thursday and said that aides "do wonder if there will be a blind spot about this because it is simply not mentioned or discussed on the campaign."

New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher told the panel that the president was effectively remaining silent on two of the "most talked about issues in the country."

"But between Trump’s indictments, which also Joe Biden doesn’t want his team and the DNC talking about, and his son's investigation, he’s now basically issuing an order for the top person in the Democratic Party not to talk about two of the most talked about issues in the country politically. That’s a tough place to be on both of those counts. It’s hard to never answer questions about his son’s investigation. It's hard to never talk about the former president and the front-runner to-be rival’s criminal charges. And so it makes them not active participants in two of the biggest story lines," he said.

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Hunter Biden was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax before his plea deal fell apart in a Delaware courtroom. 

He pleaded "not guilty" in late July as federal prosecutors confirmed the president's son was still under federal investigation. 

Former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN that the Biden team would have loved to have the Hunter Biden drama behind them.

"So I think that anything that extends the Hunter Biden case into the election year is not welcome news for Joe Biden," he said.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe on Friday. 

"I'm here today to announce the appointment of David Weiss as a special counsel consistent with the Department of Justice regulations governing such matters. In keeping with those regulations, I have today notified the designated members of each House of Congress of the appointment," Garland said at a press conference.

Fox News' Chris Pandolfo, Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report.

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