NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd offered a profoundly personal critique of President Biden following the commander-in-chief’s controversial yet unsurprising decision to pardon his son, Hunter.
During his weekly sit-down with commentator Chris Cillizza on Cillizza’s Substack page, Todd admitted he “knew 100%” that Biden would pardon his son—who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases.
“Joe Biden’s got—needs therapy and I say this with respect. He has not processed Beau’s death. He has an issue—he cannot, he has this issue with Hunter. He second-guesses everything he’s done with raising Hunter versus raising Beau. He, I think blames himself for Hunter’s inability to conduct himself as an adult for a period of time,” Todd said.
Beau passed away in 2015 following a battle with brain cancer.
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Chuck Todd suggested that President Biden is ’emotionally incapable’ of being president after pardoning his son, Hunter. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg/William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images)
Todd, who noted he has had somewhat of a personal relationship with Biden’s sons in the past, claimed that Hunter has “sort of failed at being a human being” in the last decade.
“There was no doubt that Joe Biden was not going to leave office without doing everything he could to protect his son. Pure and simple,” Todd added, calling it a “dad reaction.”
He then went on to suggest that the possibility of President-elect Donald Trump pardoning Hunter was a “humiliation” that Biden was never going to put himself through.
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President Joe Biden, wearing a Team USA jacket and walking with his son Hunter Biden, heads toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Todd concluded his response by claiming President Biden was “emotionally incapable” of being president and “probably never should have run.”
In a statement on Sunday night, Hunter Biden said that he would “never take the clemency” his father gave him for granted and that he plans to devote his life to helping those with addiction.
The younger Biden, 54, has had a busy year in court, kicking off his first trial in Delaware in June, when he faced three felony firearm offenses, before he pleaded guilty in a separate felony tax case in September.
Biden pardoning his son is a departure from his previous remarks to the media over the summer, declaring he would not do so.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden White House for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Fox News’ Emma Colton and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
