Joe Biden had repeatedly denied that he was going to pardon his son Hunter for his gun and tax evasion convictions or commute what was shaping up to be a substantive prison sentence. On the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving – at a moment when the American public’s attention was decidedly elsewhere – he announced he had changed his mind.

Republicans called President Joe Biden a “liar” for pardoning his son, who was convicted on gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax fraud this summer. The decision comes after the president said that he would "abide by the jury's decision" in an interview ahead of his son's conviction in June,