President Biden’s Sunday move to pardon his son Hunter weeks before he was set to be sentenced for his federal convictions served as Jon Stewart’s comedy fodder this week.
During Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” the guest host said that while he respects Biden’s decision to protect his son, the sweeping pardon is a knock for Democrats because they framed Biden’s prior insistence on respecting the outcome of his son’s trial as their “Mason-Dixon line of morality.”
“Hypocrisy isn’t illegal. Nor is it particularly unusual in politics,” Stewart said. “It’s not like he’s ever going to run again, so why not take care of your kid, even if you said weren’t gonna. I respect it, I don’t have a problem with it.
“The problem is the rest of the Democrats made Biden’s pledge to not pardon Hunter the foundation of their defense of America, this grand experiment,” he added before playing several clips of Democratic lawmakers using Biden’s promise as a moral threshold.
Stewart then showed news clips that he said depicted “the dance Democrats have to do” in response to Biden’s switch-up.
“Be honest, the only reason why they went after Hunter the way they did — and I’ve talked to many federal prosecutors about this — is because he’s the president’s son,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said in one of the clips.
Biden used a similar defense in a Sunday statement explaining his decision to issue the pardon, which effectively rolled back his son’s convictions in two federal cases relating to gun ownership and taxes.
“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” he said. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Later in his opening monologue, Stewart also joked about the timing of Biden’s announcement, which came over Thanksgiving weekend.
Stewart did not reserve his digs for the Democrats, whom he conceded “have a tougher road of defending our institutions and systems as being flawed, but still valuable.” Whereas, Republicans, he said, “just run on blowing this s— up.”
He also mocked President-elect Donald Trump’s response to Biden’s pardon. Trump asked on his social media platform Truth Social if Biden’s decision also includes Jan. 6 insurrection “hostages.” He also characterized Biden’s decision as “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice.”
“Oh, you pardoned your son?” Stewart said, pantomiming the former president. “Well, what about the people who tried to help me overthrow the government? That’s kind of a leap there. It’s like going, you know, ‘Oh you’re going to let the kids stay up to watch “SNL,” but you’re not even going to try to help me burn the neighbor’s house down?’ ”
Along with Stewart, several other late-night hosts chimed in with their own pardon-related jabs Monday night.
“It was a big shopping weekend, and millions of people got great deals,” Jimmy Fallon said on “The Tonight Show.” “But nobody got a better deal than Hunter Biden.”
Fox News contributor Tyrus kept the holiday theme going on “Gutfield,” quipping, “Christmas came early for this guy.”
