Late Night Hosts React to Hunter Biden Pardon: 'Hypocrisy Isn't Illegal'

The sweeping pardon, which Colbert quipped was "less of a blanket pardon and more of a tarp," from the president came after Joe Biden had repeatedly said he would not use the executive power to protect his son from the legal process.

And as Stewart pointed out with various news media clips, it also became a clarion cry of the Democratic party touting how they value and uphold the "rule of law," even to the potential detriment of family members.

"You know what, ladies and gentlemen? Hypocrisy isn't illegal," said Stewart. "Nor is it particularly unusual in politics. It's not like he's ever gonna run again, so why not take care of your kid, even if you said you weren't gonna?

So what did the hosts of late-night have to say about Hunter Biden's early Christmas present, and the outrage from conservative media and President-Elect Donald Trump?

"One family opened their gifts a little early this year," Colbert joked before talking about the surprise pardon. "I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but you certainly earned that World's Greatest Dad mug."

As Biden enters the final full month of his presidency, Colbert noted that this move "proves that with less than two months to go, Joe is officially out of malarkeys. And by malarkeys I mean f--ks."

He then wondered why Biden stopped there. "Just load up those pardons into a Nerf machine gun ... hit 'em all," he said, mimicking shooting potential targets. "Pardon all the January 6th people before Trump can do it; that would really burn him up."

"Or you know what?" he continued, putting on a note of fake sincerity. "You know what would be really funny -- this would be really funny -- if Joe pardoned, like, every late-night host and just because I think it would be a funny bit, I would accept that pardon."

As this flies in the face of Biden's repeated statements and interview responses that he would not use the presidential pardon on his son, Colbert had to ask, "Does Biden's word mean nothing? Can we trust anything he says when he goes, 'I'm serious folks, I'm not kidding around, no joke.' Was he in fact kidding around yes joke?"

Colbert also took a moment to look at the wording of the pardon, which is written to cover any "offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in" from January 2014 to December 2024, joking, "coincidentally that's also the window of time for the Comcast guy to arrive."

Jon Stewart couldn't help but point out the timeframe of the pardon covering the last 11 years, "a very specific and not rounded amount of time."

He also noted that it was worded to cover crimes Hunter "may have committed" in that timespan, marveling, "I didn't know pardons could cover crimes you may have committed. I'm sorry. I'm surprised Biden didn't include the phrase, on Earth One or any of the Earths in the multiverse."

As for the pardon itself, Stewart said he gets it. "Hypocrisy isn't illegal. Nor is it particularly unusual in politics. It's not like he's ever gonna run again, so why not take care of your kid, even if you said you weren't gonna?" he said.

"I respect it, I don't have a problem with it," he added, before going on to emphasize that what he does have a problem with is the fact the Democratic party "made Biden's pledge to not pardon Hunter the foundation of their defense of America, this grand experiment."

Because of that, right-leaning media has had a field day calling out the move, including Megyn Kelly choosing a very choice phrase -- that Stewart also found very familiar.

After playing a clip of her pointedly saying, "F--k you, Joe Biden!' Stewart lashed out, "Megyn Kelly, who do you think you are? Me? What am I supposed to say, now? F--k you is my line! You've stolen my f--king line. At long last, have you no decency. F--k me!"

But even conservative media couldn't match Trump's response, with Stewart showing his Truth Social post where he wrote, "'Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?"

"Oh, you pardoned your son. But what about the people who tried to help me overthrow the government?" Stewart crowed. "That's kind of a leap there. That's like going, 'Oh, you're gonna let the kids stay up to watch SNL, but you're not even going to try help me burn the neighbor's house down?"

Jimmy Kimmel also marveled at Trump's response, replying to it, "No, it doesn't, but it would be pretty funny if it did, right? 'I hereby pardon my son Hunter and what the hell, the QAnon shaman, too.'"

Referring to the president-elect, Kimmel responded to the right-wing outrage, noting, "Everyone who voted to let a 34x convicted felon off the hook is very mad about Joe Biden letting his son off the hook."

"You'd almost think they got a tape of Biden calling Georgia asking for 11,000 votes," he quipped, recalling the recording of Trump doing just that amid the 2020 election results.

As for the pardon itself, Kimmel had to concede the right-wing pundits and newscasters aren't necessarily in the wrong to be outraged. "I don't necessarily disagree, the guy committed crimes," he said.

"But let's take a stroll through reality here, not only did Trump pardon his son-in-law Jared's dad --  who went to prison for hiring a hooker to frame his own brother-in-law -- this weekend, he named that same man US ambassador to France."

He joked that this may well be "the first time a US president has pardoned both his son and a turkey in the same week," which serves as proof that "the Biden presidency has now entered the grandpa doesn't give a damn about what you think phase."

Or the answer could be even simpler than that. "Yes, Joe Biden did say he wasn't going to pardon Hunter," Kimmel said. "But to be fair, there's a very good chance he doesn't remember saying that."

Fallon dropped a similar joke, quipping, "Biden went back on his long-standing pledge to not use his presidential powers to protect his son. In Biden's defense, there's a 99 percent chance that he forgot he said that."

But his biggest takeaway from the whole shocking development is actually a pretty positive one.

"Democrats are divided: some of them are upset while others are Hunter Biden," he joked. "Yep, both Republicans and Democrats are upset ... It's like for his last act as president, Biden united the country. Isn't that nice?"