The Hunter Biden Pardon Fox News Freakout

A condensed overview of 19 hours of Fox News for the week ending 12/8/24

Last week on Fox the outrage machine was on overdrive as the overpaid stuffed shirts expressed their disgust at President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter. Judge Jeanine conveniently forgot to mention that Trump pardoned her ex-husband, Steve Doocy and Emily Compagno both declared that the president-elect was already improving the economy and Jesse Watters joked about annexing Canada and Greenland while promoting conspiracy theories about Iran rigging the 2020 election.

Jessica Tarlov was the only person on the network that mentioned Donald J. Trump also pardoned a family member.

Hunter Biden had fallen off the radar of Fox News but last week it was suddenly the most important topic in the world.

Anyone watching Fox News exclusively last week might not know that the U.S. government is testing raw milk for bird flu, opposition forces have protested against a Kremlin backed government in the country of Georgia, or that the Department of Justice found that the Memphis Police have committed human rights violations and used excessive force especially towards Black residents.

Shows I covered last week:

• Fox & Friends - extra hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

• The Five

• Jesse Watters Primetime

Lawrence Jones - Trump Won’t Go After Hunter Biden!

On Tuesday in one of many segments dedicated to President Biden’s pardon of his son, Lawrence Jones insisted that Donald J. Trump had no plans to further investigate Hunter Biden or the Biden family.

“Honestly think they're superstition that Trump is. It's just they just got it all wrong. There was no, plan to go after the Bidens. He's the type of person, just like a UFC fight. Once he's beaten you, he's done. He's done. The fight is over and he's moves on,” said Jones.

Two days later Fox Business correspondent Elizabeth McDonald interviewed Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) about the pardon.

“Our investigation must continue, I believe, to let the American people know the truth. Even if these pardons are taking place,” said Malliotakis.

“You know, Congressman, everything said it's really important to the American people because the media didn't cover them. Watchdogs have been criticized for not covering what you've been talking about for a long time. And the other thing, too, is the wording of the US Constitution shows it's unconstitutional to do preemptive pardons. So the wording of the Constitution, it doesn't say anything,” said McDonald.

Her producers presented a graphic of an excerpt from the U.S Constitution on the screen.

“It says pardons for offenses, not future offenses or potential offenses down the road. That means Biden's blanket pardon of Hunter Biden can be challenged and thrown out in court,” said McDonald.

“I agree, and I think it should be. And I think that you'll see members from the Oversight committee and other committees that have worked so diligently on this, try to seek, out those those arguments,” said Malliotakis.

Federal authorities have been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018 before Joe Biden started his campaign for the presidency in 2020.

After Republicans gained control of the House representatives in three different committees also began investigations into Hunter Biden’s various business dealings.

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) along with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) spearheaded an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden in September 2023.

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comey (R-KY) accused Hunter Biden and his father of a slew of fantastical crimes such as taking bribes for government favors and selling access to hostile foreign governments.

After eight months of an exhaustive investigation that included dozens of hearings, witness testimonies, subpoenaed bank records, copies of personal checks, whistleblower testimony, and giant images of nude photos of Hunter Biden obtained from his abandoned laptop, Comer, Jordan and Smith couldn’t find much of anything.

Comer’s failed impeachment inquiry ended with a whimper. His key witness, Alexander Smirnov, a former informant, was criminally indicted for making false claims to the FBI.

According to the charging documents filed against him Smirnov knowingly lied when he said that both President Biden and his son accepted $5 million bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

The gun charges Hunter Biden was convicted of were hardly a secret. Investigators figured out he purchased a gun while using drugs after he openly admitted to doing so in his published memoir “Beautiful Things.” He didn’t actually write “I lied on a gun form” but it would have been fairly obvious to anyone reading his book that he was still heavily using crack cocaine when he purchased a firearm.

In terms of the tax charges he faced he paid the IRS back taxes and penalties for two years and plead guilty to nine felony charges related to tax evasion.

Jessica Tarlov Brought up Trump’s Pardon of Charles Kushner

On Monday on “The Five,” while discussing the Hunter Biden pardon, Jessica Tarlov brought up how Donald J. Trump pardoned Jared Kushner’s father Charles Kushner and has since declared he will appoint him as the U.S. ambassador to France.

“He has more backbone than they're used to seeing from Joe Biden. He should have always said maybe, though, about this. It was, you know, and I said, you guys asked me, well, do you believe him? And I said, I've no reason not to believe him, but you would think that any parent would be thinking in the back of their mind, I don't want my kids to go to jail. And if it's true. What? Karine Jean-Pierre said about the timing of this. I'm sure that this week and the news rolled in, that Charles Kushner is going to be the ambassador to France, a very cushy job, someone who was pardoned for what? Chris Christie, who prosecuted him, called one of the most loathsome and disgusting crimes. I mean, the guy videotaped,” said Tarlov.

She was abruptly cut off by her co-hosts before she could elaborate.

Charles Kusher’s Crimes

On Aug. 18, 2005 Kushner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the FEC.

Kushner admitted then that, as chairman of Kushner Companies, he assisted in filing false tax returns claiming over $1 million in partnership charitable contributions as office expenses, causing losses to the IRS of between $200,000 and $325,000.

After he discovered that his brother-in-law was assisting in the investigation against him he devised a plan to relate against him. Kushner personally recruited a sex worker to seduce his sister’s husband and have sex with him on camera.

Kushner also admitted that he paid a private investigator $25,000 to help coordinate the seduction. He then showed a copy of the sex act with his sister.

Kushner also admitted to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission which allocated campaign contributions to certain individuals who had no knowledge that contributions were being made in their names and had not consented to him making the contributions.

Charles Kushner was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his pleas of guilty to assisting in the filing of false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission.

His case was prosecuted by then U.S. Attorney Chris Christie in Newark, New Jersey.

U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares called Kushner’s crime "disgraceful and reprehensible," then sentenced him to the top of the eligible range - 18 to 24 months - under the his plea agreement with the government. Kushner was also fined $40,000, the maximum amount as determined under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

Kushner also agreed to pay $508,900 to the FEC for violating contribution regulations.

Judge Jeanine Got REALLY Defensive About Presidential Pardons Regarding Tax Evasion

On Monday on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro used extremely specific language when discussing the Hunter Biden pardon.

“Most of the pardons that we hear about are pardons where someone has served their time, they paid their debt to society, and they're going to end up, you know, getting it removed,” said Pirro.

Later in the same segment she repeated the same phrase.

“And paid a debt to society and that's the end of it,” said Pirro.

On Wednesday Pirro got noticeably testy with her co-host Richard Fowler when he brought up the issue.

“Do we like any presidential pardons?” said Fowler.

“I think I can think of a couple, Jeanine, I'm sure could think of a couple for sure. Judge Jeanine Richard saying a lot of things that I'm not sure are completely accurate. Would you like to jump in?” said Jesse Watters.

“Okay, I want to start here. Donald Trump has pardoned tax evaders. That's what you just said,” said Pirro.

“And firearms charges,” said Fowler.

“Okay. Hold on. Here's the bottom line. There are pardons and there are pardons. Now, there are pardons that occur after someone has served jail time, has paid his debt to society, is remorseful,” said Pirro.

The Reason Why Judge Jeanine Is So Defensive About Presidential Pardons

In the last hours of his presidency Donald J. Trump issued one last presidential pardon to Albert Pirro, Jeanine Pirro’s ex-husband.

In 2000 Albert Pirro, a longtime New York businessman and real estate developer, was convicted by a jury of his peers of conspiracy and tax evasion. Jeanine Pirro was then the District Attorney of Westchester County.

Prosecutors argued that Albert Pirro and his brother Anthony Pirro, who acted as his accountant, deducted $1.2 million of Albert Pirro's personal expenses as business write-offs reducing his taxes by $413,000.

The jury heard how the Pirros paid for personal items out of accounts from more than a dozen of Albert Pirro’s companies.

The jury also learned about the Pirros' veritable fleet of luxury cars -- including a Mercedes-Benz for Mrs. Pirro's mother, who lived in Elmira, N.Y., which was deducted as an expense of a Yonkers real estate company owned by Albert Pirro. Elmira is 235 miles West of Yonkers - a nearly four hour drive.

Like Hunter Biden, Albert Pirro also paid the government over $1 million in back taxes before his trial.

The trial and subsequent conviction damaged both Jeanine and Albert Pirro’s political ambitions. They were both rising stars in the Republican Party at the time.

A Few of Trump’s Controversial Pardons

Donald J. Trump issued pardons to former campaign aids and political advisors along with wealthy Republican donors.

• Paul Manafort

  • Former Trump campaign chairman.

  • Lied repeatedly to special counsel Robert Mueller about connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.

  • Found guilty of tax and bank fraud.

  • Sentenced to 47-month sentence in federal prison, ordered to pay $24.8 million in restitution and a $50,000 fine.

  • Served some of his sentence under home confinement due to COVID-19.

• Roger Stone

  • Political advisor to Donald J. Trump

  • Sentenced to 40 months in prison for obstructing the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

  • Convictions

    • Witness tampering

    • Five counts of making false statements to Congress

  • Never served a day of his sentence

• Michael Flynn

  • Former White House national security adviser

  • Pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador during the 2016-2017 presidential transition.

  • The judge in his trial said that Flynn “sold your country out,” and asked prosecutors if they considered treason charges.

  • Flynn managed to delay his sentencing for years and was ultimately pardoned by Donald J. Trump.

  • One of his lawyers was Sidney Powell who later destroyed her career after she promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

• Steve Bannon

  • Former Trump campaign CEO and White House advisor.

  • Not convicted of a crime during the Trump admin. (His conviction for contempt of Congress happened during the Biden admin.)

  • Allegedly defrauded donors over a phony scheme to privately fund a wall at the U.S. southern border.

• The Blackwater Four

  • U.S. military veterans convicted in connection with the massacre of at least 14 civilians, including two children in an unprovoked attack in Iraq in 2007. (*Iraqi officials ruled 17 civilians were killed.)

    • At the time of the massacre the men were working for Blackwater, a private security contractor

    • None of the victims were armed, many were attempting to flee the area when they were shot or killed by a grenade thrown by the contractors.

    • One contractor, Nicholas Slatten, received a life sentence.

  • Pete Hegseth, Trump’s current pick for the next Secretary of Defense, advocated for the pardon.

    • He also promoted a wildly different narrative about the contractors’ actions on the day of the massacre than what was presented in court.

  • Trump’s decision to pardon the men was criticized by

    • The Iraqi Foreign Ministry

    • U.N. Human Rights Office

    • Human Rights Watch

Fox News is Already Giving Trump Credit for Biden’s Economy

On Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Steve Doocy claimed Trump’s recent win in the presidential election caused a spike in hiring.

“Got a Fox business alert. You're going to want to hear this. The November jobs report just released showing the United States added, look at that 227,000 job. That's about 27,000 higher than economists expected. The encouraging jobs data coming after, of course, Donald Trump's victory. The unemployment rate is now slightly higher, however, at 4.2% in line with expectations,” said Doocy.

On the PBS News Hour the data were presented quite differently

“U.S. job market bounced back in November from a major slowdown the month before. The economy added 227,000 jobs. That's far more than October's revised total of only 36,000. And that's when two hurricanes and worker strikes held job creation down just three job categories. That's healthcare, hospitality and government accounted for 70% of November's growth, and the unemployment rate rose, but only slightly from 4.1 to 4.2%.” said Geoff Bennett, co-anchor of the PBS News Hour.

The U.S. economy, especially in terms of employment, does not react that quickly to any election. It would also be incredibly difficult to prove that Trump’s win would cause a boost in hiring in the healthcare, hospitality and especially the government sector.

Joe Biden is the still the president of the United States until Donald J. Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.

Judge Jeanine Thinks Donald J. Trump is Already Making Deals

On Tuesday on “The Five,” Judge Jeanine Pirro boasted that Trump was already making trade deals with Canada.

“Are we talking about the art of the deal at this level? I mean, the world leaders are all falling into place, and this is a president who doesn't believe in compromise. I mean, he's acting on this America First, basically saying to Trudeau in Canada, you know, your economy can't survive unless you rip us off to $100 billion. Too bad,” said Pirro.

Guest co-host Charlie Hurt mentioned that Trump threatened to annex Canada as the 51st state.

“And the funniest part of it is the Trudeau thought that his best argument against Trump was that. But that will crater our economy. Yeah. And from looking at him, he's going to. Yeah, exactly. That's my point. And then offers a I think who was kind of a fig leaf, you know, a peace offering by saying, look, we'll just make you a state and everything will be great,” said Hurt.

Of course, the President-elect cannot broker any trade deals until he’s sworn in. He had a meeting with Trudeau but nothing was finalized or agreed upon.

According to sources at the meeting Trump was also joking about annexing Canada as the 51st state. Canada is a sovereign nation and there is no major push by leaders or citizens in either nation to unite as one larger country.

The U.S. also has a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico called The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) which was agreed upon during Trump’s last term on July 1, 2020.

Trump boasted that it was an improvement on NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). By negating it, Trump is trashing his own trade deal.

Emily Compagno Also Gave Trump Credit for Biden’s Economy

On Wednesday Emily Compagno, hosting on “Fox & Friends,” gave Trump credit for strong Cyber Monday sales.

“Yes. And the irony, by the way, is that that reflected consumer optimism in the future. It was the fact that President Donald Trump is the president elect. It's the fact that they have now a refreshing administration wipe to look forward to. That's in part what fosters consumers excitement and spending on Cyber Monday. It wasn't the dread everyone has been feeling for the last four years,” said Compagno.

If Americans were struggling financially before the election then they are most likely still struggling.

More Jokes About Annexing Canada

On Wednesday Ainsley Earhardt repeated Trump’s absurd statement about Canada on “Fox & Friends.”

“All right, president elect Trump reportedly told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that if Canada's economy can't survive without ripping off the United States, then maybe Canada should become the 51st state. In response to Trudeau saying he can't levy the tariff because it would kill the Canadian economy. Trump replied asking, quote, so your country can't survive unless it's ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion. Trump then suggested that Canada could maybe become the 51st state, which reportedly caused the prime minister to laugh nervously,” said Earhardt.

Later that night Jesse Watters also thought annexing Canada was a great idea.

“Canada a 51st and 52nd state will be double the size of the United States. Gobble up their oil, timber and tech and bring home every medal at the Winter Olympics. They do have the best skaters and skiers in the world. And while Trump said they should buy Greenland too, don't make it a state though. We don't need more stars. Make it like Northern Puerto Rico,” said Watters.

Donald J. Trump was said to have discussed the idea of purchasing Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, during dinners and meetings with advisers in 2019.

Greenland’s government completely dismissed the idea saying that the world’s largest island was open for business but not for sale. Greenland is a territory of Denmark.

According to reporting by BBC, the foreign affairs spokesman for the populist Danish People's Party, Soren Espersen, told national broadcaster DR."If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad."

Jesse Watters Has Some Stupid Theories

On Wednesday, on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” during an extraordinarily long monologue about the Hunter Biden pardon Jesse Watters included this passage.

“The last time they said Russia rigged the election, but it was really the FBI. How do we really know it was Iran? How do we know it wasn't China? How do we know it wasn't our own government? Blaming it on Iran. Obama's CIA hacked the Senate and his Justice Department, hacked reporters,” said Watters.

If you’re wondering why your Fox News loving uncle is rambling on about the 2020 election that was rigged by a partnership of the FBI, Iran and Barack Obama he was probably watching “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

Stories Fox News Ignored

Every week I compare the stories I’ve watched on Fox News to five hours of the PBS News Hour. The following list are stories that PBS covered that Fox News did not.

• Updates in the Israel-Hamas War

  • A nighttime Israeli airstrike killed at least 21 people in a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, according to the head of a hospital in the area. The area was designated a humanitarian safe zone but has been targeted multiple times. The Israeli military said it struck senior Hamas militants “involved in terrorist activities” in the area but did not provide more specifics.

• Updates to the war in Ukraine

  • U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken attended his last NATO foreign ministers meeting. Blinken discussed, what the U.S. State Department said were "concrete steps" the West could take to help Ukraine defend itself. The head of NATO also encouraged member countries to increase their defense funding to hit the target goal of 2% of GDP.

• Protests continued in Georgia as more than 200 were arrested and dozens injured after the countries ruling party said it would suspend talks to join the European Union. Tens of thousands of protesters filled the streets of the capital as police used tear gas and water cannons to try to quell the crowds.

• Also in Georgia, Nika Gvaramia, 48, a leader from one of four opposition groups, was carried by his arms and legs by police from his party headquarters in a side street next to parliament in the capital. Other opposition members were also ambushed by police as they met in a hotel to plan a general strike.

• Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, stepped down on Sunday. The company announced it was searching for a new CEO and plans to complete its search by mid-year 2025.

• Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel announced his retirement last week. His departure is another sign of turmoil at the struggling company. Intel was once a dominant force in the semiconductor industry but has been eclipsed by rival Nvidia.

• Cuba experienced another blackout after the electrical grid collapsed last week. Millions were left without power. The latest outage comes after a series of blackouts caused by failing infrastructure, natural disasters and economic turmoil.

• In France, the parliament ousted Michel Barnier, the French prime minister, after a no confidence vote. The no confidence vote was promoted by lawmakers on both the far left and far right.

• Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department announced that the MPD (Memphis Police Department) uses excessive force, conducts unlawful stops, searches and arrests, unlawfully discriminates against Black people when enforcing the law and unlawfully discriminates in their response to people with behavioral health disabilities.

• The US Department of Agriculture will begin testing raw milk from across the nation to better track the H5N1 bird flu that has been spreading in cattle since March. Only a tiny fraction of milk sold in the U.S. is raw and unpasteurized.

• The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that Iran is poised to significantly increase the production rate of highly enriched uranium.

• Romania’s constitutional court threw out the results of the election’s first round and delayed the second round. The sitting government says there was a vast influence effort by a foreign actor on the social media app TikTok to boost the candidacy of a candidate dubbed as pro-Russian, anti-NATO and antisemitic.

By the Numbers