Video Montage Goes Viral of Biden, Media Claiming He’d Never Pardon His Son
Liberal and traditional media outlets expressed shock when President Joe Biden reversed his longstanding pledge not to pardon his son, Hunter Biden—yet another instance highlighting the media’s mishandling of the ongoing Biden family controversies.
Before the 2020 election, Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was dismissed as Russian disinformation by the media, sparking a years-long debate involving major tech companies, intelligence agencies, and many of those same outlets. When President Biden stated he would not pardon his son, the media treated it as an unshakable truth, only to find themselves grappling with the fallout of their continued misreporting more than four years later.
The media defended Biden’s mental acuity until a widely criticized debate blunder caused a dramatic shift in narratives about his fitness for another term. A senior media insider who has held prominent roles in major newsrooms commented, “The media has disgraced itself over the last five years.”
“First, they willfully ignored clear evidence of criminal misconduct by Hunter… acquiesced to by Joe, which they called ‘disinformation.’ Then they willfully ignored clear evidence of the president’s senility, and the conspiracy by Hunter, Jill and Valerie to keep him and, by extension, them in power. This is media corruption pure and simple, and there needs to be a reckoning,” the media veteran told Fox News.
Just weeks before Joe Biden was set to debate then-President Trump, the New York Post broke the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. The device contained graphic content, including videos of drug use, explicit sexual material, and private business communications. However, this explosive revelation was effectively silenced by unprecedented censorship.
Twitter prevented users from sharing the story and locked the New York Post’s account for weeks, citing its policy against distributing hacked materials.
Mainstream media and tech platforms, including MSNBC, CNN, CBS, NPR, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, either amplified the debunked “Russian disinformation” narrative or avoided the topic entirely. After President Biden took office, the Russian disinformation claim—partly based on an open letter from 51 former intelligence officials and echoed by legacy media—was proven false.
Despite this, Hunter Biden, now 54, continued to generate scandals during his father’s presidency. Earlier this year, he was convicted on three felony charges for federal weapons crimes and pleaded guilty in September in a separate criminal tax case.
Throughout the year, President Biden repeatedly stated he would not pardon his son. Much like the earlier disinformation claims about the laptop, the media parroted this assertion without skepticism.
A video montage below shows Biden, White House officials, and liberal commentators confidently asserting that no pardon would be granted:
When President Biden ultimately issued a pardon, both he and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced tough questions. During Monday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre fielded a reporter’s query about whether earlier denials of a pardon could be perceived as misleading the public.
“You have said repeatedly, yourself, since the election, and the president has said for months, no pardon was coming. I just — you know, I wanted to ask you, could those statements not be seen as lies from the American people? Is there really a credibility issue you’re giving now this announcement?” the reporter asked.
“No, no. First of all, one of the things that the president always believes is to be truthful to the American people,” Jean-Pierre began, immediately getting defensive.
“That is something that he always truly believes. And if you see the end of his — I — I assume that you’ve read his statement and you look at the end of that statement, and he actually says that in the first line in the last paragraph, and — and respects the thinking and how the American people will actually see this and his decision-making, and I would encourage everyone to read it full, the president’s statement. I think he lays out his thought process,” Jean-Pierre added.
She continued, “He lays out how he came to this decision. He came to this decision this weekend. So let’s be very clear about that. He says it himself. It’s in his voice. He said he came to this decision this weekend. And he said he wrestled with this and — because he believes in the justice system, but he also believes that the war politics infected the process and led to a — a — a miscarriage of justice.”
Hunter Biden is now shielded from prosecution for federal gun and tax cases that were pending sentencing. He had previously pleaded guilty to nine counts related to evading $1.4 million in taxes and was convicted on charges of possessing a firearm while addicted to crack cocaine.
On Sunday, President Biden described his son as “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” and granted a sweeping pardon covering offenses committed from January 1, 2014, to December 1, 2024—despite his earlier commitment not to do so.