On Monday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart shared his thoughts on President Joe Biden pardoning his son Hunter Biden, even though he had repeatedly said in the past that he wouldn’t.
“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 you weren’t gonna? I respect it. I don’t have a problem with it.”
Stewart went on to explain that, to him, the true issue is that “the rest of the Democrats made Biden’s pledge to not pardon Hunter the foundation of their defense of America, ‘this grand experiment.’” He then pointed out the “dance” Democrats had to do to justify Biden’s controversial pardon.
“The Democrats made this case an example of why Americans should believe in our system. And it’s hard. Democrats have the tougher road of defending our institutions and systems as being flawed, but still valuable. Republicans just run on blowing this shit up,” Stewart said. “But at every turn, Democrats keep getting caught creating a purity test for a system that they can’t seem to pass themselves.”
Elsewhere in his opening monologue, the “Daily Show” host expressed his understanding of some Republicans’ reactions to the pardon, noting that “Biden did make this line of attack particularly available, seeing as how he spent so long saying he wouldn’t do it because of how much he respects the system.”
Stewart also poked fun at several details of President Biden’s pardon for his son, including covering offenses Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in” over the past 11 years.
“11 years is a very specific and not rounded amount of time,” Stewart said. He later added, “I’m surprised Biden didn’t include the phrase ‘on Earth One or any of the Earths in the multiverse.’”
President Biden announced Sunday night that he had pardoned his son Hunter, who earlier this year was convicted of gun-related felony charges in Delaware and pleaded guilty to tax evasion in California.
“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 — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” the president said in a statement. “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision.”
