A pair of former reporters at the venerable DC-focused newspaper Politico blasted “cowardly editors” at their former outlet for burying stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop — as well as other top stories — contributing to a false narrative. that “misinformation” was being spread about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
Puck News writer Tara Palmeri hosted Axios senior political reporter Marc Caputo on her Inauguration Day podcast “Someone’s Gotta Win” to discuss their mutual frustration with what they saw as the misuse of coverage of the Biden family from Politico.
“Politico ran that terrible, unfortunate headline: 51 intelligence agents, or former intelligence agents, say Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation, or bore the hallmarks of disinformation,” Caputo said. “It turns out that story was closer to disinformation because the Hunter Biden laptop looked real.”
“But then Facebook also took down all the stories about the Hunter Biden laptop, and I think Twitter did at the same time,” Palmeri added.
“Right, they punished the New York Post, that didn’t help,” Caputo continued, referring to The Post being banned from its Twitter account due to what was later revealed to be pressure from the FBI.
“I was covering Biden at the time,” he added. “And I was told this came from the top at Politico: Don’t write about the laptop, don’t talk about the laptop, don’t tweet about the laptop.”
A representative for Politico disputed the characterization in a statement to Mediaite, which first reported on the airing of the complaints.
“It seems like a case of false memory, given that during the years in question, POLITICO reporters led the way in extensive reporting on the business dealings of Joe Biden’s closest relatives,” the representative noted.
“Ben Schreckinger was probably the best journalist in the country reporting on these issues — he literally wrote the book on it,” the rep added, referring to Schreckinger’s deeply researched op-ed “The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power”. ” published in September 2021.
Schreckinger later produced exclusive scoop, including a report naming First Brother James Biden as the subject of another federal investigation into a Medicare fraud scheme involving a Pennsylvania hospital chain that took tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers through improper reimbursements .
Caputo, however, noted that he would also have a story introducing the topic of Hunter Biden’s work for Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings being “killed” by an editor as Joe Biden battles for support in early 2020 .Democratic presidential primary.
“In 2019, a rival Democratic presidential campaign of Joe Biden gave me the tax lien – the oppo research – the tax lien on Hunter Biden for the period of time he worked at Burisma,” he shared.
And I wrote what would have been a classic story saying, you know, ‘The son of the former vice president was hit with a huge tax burden for the period of time that he worked for this controversial Ukrainian oil or natural gas concern, who is following his father on the campaign trail,’” Caputo said.
It was removed without explanation, the veteran journalist said, saying readers “don’t understand the dumb decisions cowardly editors make on us”.
Palmer questioned whether other editors were concerned about a wide-ranging report she co-authored in March 2021 about US Secret Service agents allegedly trying to seize a copy of a federal gun purchase form that the son of former -the president completed to purchase a firearm from a Delaware. store in October 2018.
“I spent three months on it, went to the laptop store and did all the reporting in Delaware,” she recalls. “But I wonder if it could have happened, if it would have been published a little sooner if it was a different kind of story.”
“It was the beginning of his administration, it was a honeymoon period — you know what I mean?” she suggested.
Hunter Biden testified on the form not to abuse drugs – a lie given that he was a cocaine addict at the time – and later led to his conviction on three federal charges in June 2024.
“To Tara’s point,” Politico’s representative added to Mediaite, “yes, our editors adhere to rigorous standards, making sure every story is thoroughly vetted and ‘pinned’ before publication. This approach reflects our unwavering commitment to accuracy and accountability – principles that have guided us and will continue to do so.”
The 54-year-old first son was pardoned by his father on Dec. 1 in the gun case, evading at least $1.4 million in federal taxes and any crimes Hunter may have committed between Jan. 1, 2014, and Dec. 1, 2024.
Biden, 82, went on to pardon his brother James and other family members in a similar fashion in his final days in office — despite maintaining their innocence and his innocence of any charges, including foreign lobbying. unregistered during his vice presidency.
The Post reached out to Politico for comment.
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