Two former Politico reporters, Marc Caputo and Tara Palmeri, have revealed instances where their efforts to report on the former US President Joe Biden’s family were either slowed down or completely blocked during their time at the publication. The journalists shared their experiences on Palmeri’s “Somebody’s Gotta Win” podcast, shedding light on internal editorial decisions they believe hindered critical reporting.
According to a report from Fox News, Caputo, now with Axios, criticised Politico for its handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election. Speaking about the issue, Caputo said, “I was covering Biden at the time, and I remember coming to my editor and saying, ‘Hey, we need to write about the Hunter Biden laptop.’ 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.”
Instead, Politico ran a story titled “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say,” which was based on an open letter signed by 51 intelligence officials. The letter claimed the laptop bore “all the earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation,” a claim now heavily scrutinised. Caputo described the decision to publish that headline while avoiding broader coverage as “misinformation, at the least.”
Caputo also recalled a 2019 story he wrote about a tax lien related to Hunter Biden’s work at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Despite completing the piece, he said it was killed by editors without explanation. “The public doesn’t know about those things,” he noted, referring to the unseen editorial decisions that shape coverage.
Palmeri, who now writes for Puck, echoed Caputo’s frustrations. She recounted her extensive reporting on a 2018 incident involving Hunter Biden’s gun purchase, which eventually led to felony charges for lying about his drug use on a federal form. Palmeri spent three months gathering evidence, including police reports and visits to the Delaware shop where Biden’s laptop was left. Despite her thoroughness, she said the process of getting her story published was unusually protracted.
“I had to push very hard to get that reporting published.” Palmeri told Fox News Digital. “It was a constant, ‘Hey, when are we going to do this? Hey, when are we going to get this out there?'” She attributed the delays to a perceived cultural reluctance at Politico to pursue stories that could reflect negatively on the Biden administration. Her report was eventually published in March 2021, two months after Biden’s inauguration.
Palmeri also suggested that coverage of a similar story involving the Trump family might have been expedited. “I just think if it was a Trump kid, it would have been published much sooner,” she said.
