Only 22% of Americans approve of President Biden’s decision to issue a blanket pardon of his son Hunter, according to a new poll, after repeatedly denying over the last two years that he would grant clemency

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Wednesday found 51% disapproved of the pardon for crimes which the 54-year-old first son had been convicted of, plead guilty to or may have committed between 2014 and 2024.

Another 18% had no opinion either way and 9% didn’t know.

Just about half of respondents to the AP-NORC poll said they “strongly” or “somewhat” disapprove, and about two in 10 neither approve nor disapprove.

Both Biden and the White House affirmed nearly a dozen times that the president would not pardon his son — both before and after Hunter was convicted of gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax felonies earlier this year.

“I know it’s not right to believe politicians as far as what they say compared to what they do, but he did explicitly say, ‘I will not pardon my son,’” Peter Prestia, a 59-year-old Republican from Woodland Park, New Jersey, just west of New York City, told the AP. “So, it’s just the fact that he went back on his word.”

Biden, 82, claimed in his announcement that his own Justice Department engaged in a “miscarriage of justice” by prosecuting his son — earning comparisons to President-elect Donald Trump’s claims of politically motivated prosecutions against him during the 2024 election cycle.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was a decision that Biden “wrestled” and only came to after being convinced privately by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC).

The AP-NORC poll found that about 4 in 10 Democrats approve of the pardon, while about 3 in 10 disapprove and about one-quarter did not have an opinion or did not know enough to say.

The vast majority of Republicans and about half of independents had a negative opinion.

A Marist College survey also released on Wednesday showed 59% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s pardon, compared with 40% who approve.

Still, about 4 in 10 Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of the way Biden is handling his job as a lame-duck president, which is roughly where his approval rating has stood in AP-NORC polls since January 2022.

A Delaware jury convicted Hunter Biden in June of three felony charges after he lied on a federal gun purchase form in 2018 about his addiction to crack cocaine.

In September, the first son also pleaded guilty to nine tax charges — including three felonies — for dodging $1.4 million in payments to the IRS while spending extravagantly on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing,” and other personal items.

The “full and unconditional” pardon also effectively ends inquiries into Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s lucrative overseas business ventures during and after his vice presidency.

That would include the president’s son’s tenure on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma, where he earned up to $1 million per year starting in 2014 — despite having no relevant energy experience and his father overseeing Kyiv as part of his official duties.

Republicans and Democrats alike excoriated the commander-in-chief following the sweeping clemency announcement.

“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities. Not only has he falsely claimed that he never met with his son’s foreign business associates and that his son did nothing wrong, but he also lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden,” Comer said in a statement.

“The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people. It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”

Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared tweeted shortly after the Dec. 2 pardon that he was “disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country.”

“This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” added Polis, who is rumored to be a 2028 presidential contender himself. “When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has since called for wholesale pardon reform, while Democratic party donors have threatened to withhold funding from Biden’s future presidential library, which will likely be located in his home state of Delaware.