President Biden had seemed so adamant. He would leave the Justice Department to make its own decisions.
Hunter Biden would not be granted clemency for gun and tax convictions just because he was the president's son.
But that was before he dropped out of the presidential race. A lot has changed since then. A lifetime in politics has just weeks left to run.
Joe Biden's presidential legacy will be marked more by his failure to keep the country from swinging to the Republicans under Donald Trump than it will be for a last-minute pardon of his son.
A reversal, yes - but hardly surprising he is choosing family first.
The decision was announced after a weekend in Nantucket, which has long been the Biden family's traditional Thanksgiving getaway spot.
Hunter was there with his wife and four-year-old son, Beau - named after his late brother who died of brain cancer. His sister Ashley was there too, as was the first lady. A tight family circle.
Senator Joe Biden first went to Nantucket for Thanksgiving in 1975, with Jill, Beau and Hunter after his first wife and baby girl were killed in a car crash.
He has endured great personal tragedy, as the nation knows, compounded recently by Hunter Biden's struggles with substance abuse.
So his words have special resonance: "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this."
The Bidens have long maintained the cases against Hunter Biden were pursued as vigorously as they were, because Donald Trump saw an opportunity to attack his political rival.
Now they must hope and pray the attacks on them, as a family, will cease - although they cannot count on it.
(c) Sky News 2024: It's hardly surprising President Biden is choosing family first when it comes to his son Hunter
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