First son Hunter Biden appeared in public smiling and in good spirits after he agreed on Thursday to give a deposition before several House committees on February 28, more than two months after he defied a similar subpoena.

Biden had dinner at Tony Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, California on Thursday with his stepmother, Jill Biden, wife Melissa Cohn, and toddler son Beau as well as ex-Disney head Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major Democrat donor.

Katzenberg appeared on MSNBC earlier in the day to brag that despite President Joe Biden's lousy poll numbers, “on the fundraising side, Joe Biden is kicking butt.”

Jill Biden attended a fundraiser Thursday afternoon in Healdsburg, which is in northern California wine country.

Where is Joe?

The president was speaking in North Carolina on Thursday at a campaign event.

It wasn't clear who would direct him off the stage without his wife present.

His wife seemed very chummy with Katzenberg, though. After all, he gave $1.7 million to Joe Biden's victory fund and seems inclined to continue that support.

The divide and conquer strategy may be one way the Biden campaign is looking to improve his standing as a candidate since he is dragging below former President Donald Trump now in most polls.

Strategy unclear

Hunter Biden's strategy in avoiding the December 13 subpoena remains unclear. Was he just trying to delay things to let his father coast through a few more Democrat primary votes?

Maybe he didn't think Republicans would have the guts to actually hold him in contempt for refusing to appear.

Since a contempt vote had become a very real possibility, he may have changed course and decided to agree to appear after all rather than face more legal charges.

While his father has always touted family loyalty, he has expressed resentment about paying the family's bills and dad taking "half his money" in the past. It's even possible that he left his laptop at a Delaware computer store on purpose to bring some of the family's nefarious schemes to light because he was tired of being their bagman.

Stranger things have happened, and we are well aware that in the Biden family, like most families, things are often not as they appear.

Was the Giorgio Baldi dinner a happy time for Hunter Biden, an escape from his current predicament, or just another great big act?