A pair of former reporters at venerable DC-focused outlet Politico slammed “cowardly editors” at their ex-outlet for burying stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop — as well as other major stories — contributing to a false narrative that “misinformation” was being spread about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden before the 2020 election.
Puck News scribe Tara Palmeri hosted Axios senior politics reporter Marc Caputo on her “Somebody’s Gotta Win” podcast for Inauguration Day to discuss their mutual frustration with what they saw as Politico’s mishandling of Biden family coverage.
“Politico did that terrible, ill-fated headline: 51 intelligence agents, or former intelligence agents, say that the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation, or bore the hallmarks of disinformation,” Caputo carped. “Turns out that story was closer to disinformation because the Hunter Biden laptop appeared to be true.”
“But then Facebook also pulled all stories down about the Hunter Biden laptop, and I think Twitter did at the same time, too,” added Palmeri.
“Correct, they punished The New York Post, that didn’t help,” Caputo went on, referring to The Post being locked out of its Twitter account due to what was later revealed as back-channel pressure from the FBI.
“I was covering Biden at the time,” he added. “And I was told this came from on high at Politico: Don’t write about the laptop, don’t talk about the laptop, don’t tweet about the laptop.”
A Politico rep pushed back on the characterization in a statement to Mediaite, which first reported on the airing of grievances.
“Seems like a case of false memory, given that across the years they referenced, POLITICO journalists lead the way on wide-ranging reporting on the business dealings of Joe Biden’s closest relatives,” the rep noted.
“Ben Schreckinger was probably the top reporter in the country reporting on these matters—he literally wrote the book on it,” added the rep, referring to Schreckinger’s deeply researched tome “The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power,” published in September 2021.
Schreckinger later produced exclusive scoops, including a report naming first brother James Biden as the subject of another federal investigation into a Medicare fraud scheme involving a chain of Pennsylvania hospitals that took tens of millions of dollars from US taxpayers via improper reimbursements.
Caputo, however, noted that he’d also had a story which broached the topic of Hunter Biden’s work for the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings “killed” by an editor as Joe Biden was fighting for support in the lead-up to the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
“In 2019, a rival presidential Democratic campaign of Joe Biden’s gave to me the tax lien — the oppo research — the tax lien on Hunter Biden for the period of time that he worked at Burisma,” he recounted.
“And I wrote what would have been a classic story saying, you know, ‘The former vice president’s son was slapped with a big tax lien for the period of time that he worked for this controversial Ukrainian oil concern, or natural gas concern, which is haunting his father on the campaign trail,’” Caputo said.
It was scrapped without explanation, the veteran reporter vented, saying readers “don’t understand the dumb decisions of cowardly editors that are made above us.”
Palmeri questioned whether other editors were uneasy about an extensive report she co-authored in March 2021 on US Secret Service agents reportedly trying to nab a copy of a federal gun-purchase form the ex-president’s son filled out to buy a firearm from a Delaware shop in October 2018.
“I spent three months on it, I went to the laptop shop, and I did all of the reporting in Delaware,” she recalled. “But I do wonder if it could have, if it would have been published a little quicker if it was a different type of story.”
“It was the beginning of his administration, it was a honeymoon period — you know what I mean?” she suggested.
Hunter Biden attested on the form to not abusing drugs — a falsehood given that he was a crack cocaine addict at the time — and it later led to his conviction on three federal charges in June 2024.
“To Tara’s point,” the Politico rep added to Mediaite, “yes, our editors uphold rigorous standards, ensuring every story is thoroughly vetted and ‘buttoned up’ before publishing. 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 Dec. 1 for the gun case, for 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 on his final days in office — despite maintaining their innocence and his own innocence from any charges, including unregistered foreign lobbying during his vice presidency.
The Post reached out to Politico for comment.
