Esquire magazine tried to defend President Joe Biden’s pardoning of Hunter and got torched. Despite what this writer for the publication may think, it’s bad optics for the outgoing White House, who pledged they would never do this, even though the rest of us who weren’t born yesterday knew otherwise. I’d thought Biden would pull this at 11:59 AM on January 20th or, at some point, literally in the final hours of his presidency. Instead, it’s happening now, another ignominious chapter of the failed Biden presidency.
Liberal commentators debased themselves for weeks in June when Hunter Biden was found guilty of federal gun charges. Joe said no pardon, even though we know he was already setting things into motion to issue this order, which absolves his crack-addicted disgrace of a son for any crimes committed between 2014 and 2024. Esquire said it wasn’t a big deal because George H.W. Bush pardoned Neil Bush. The magazine lost this game of whataboutism because Bush 41 never did this, leading to a retraction and an embarrassing editor’s note:
Esquire published a report that said people should "Shut the fck up about Hunter Biden" because it claimed George H.W. Bush pardoned his son, Neil Bush.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 4, 2024
The report has now been deleted and an editor's note posted on the page that admits the entire story was wrong pic.twitter.com/LsxqJcLEqI
But it’s not over. The View’s Ana Navarro went on a tirade on social media, where she alleged Woodrow Wilson pardoned some guy named Hunter deButts, his alleged brother-in-law. Again, there’s a problem: no evidence that Hunter deButts ever existed.
Shut up.pic.twitter.com/WsQQM64zwk
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 2, 2024
Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother-in-law, Hunter deButts.
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) December 2, 2024
Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, Roger.
Donald Trump pardoned his daughter’s father-in-law, Charlie Kushner. And just appointed him Ambassador to France.
But tell me again how Joe Biden “is setting precedent”? 🤣🤣
This Hunter deButts thing is really one of the all-time funniest things to happen in media and on this platform in awhile. That she works for ABC News makes it even better. https://t.co/JT3QxA8lrL
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 4, 2024
The pardon power is absolute, and presidents can and do use it at their discretion, even with familial ties. It’s nepotism, but this is also politics. It shouldn’t be shocking. Biden ran afoul by not admitting he would do this when we all knew he would and then lied about it for months. Also, ‘Trump made me do it’ as the reason is laughably false and transparent, but you knew that already. As with everything with this administration, it’s a tire fire.
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