Esquire publishes screed against Republicans with such an unbelievable error it had to be completely deleted

While Americans on both sides of the political aisle debate whether President Joe Biden should have pardoned his son, one entry into the discourse made an astoundingly embarrassing error.

The Esquire magazine article by Charles P. Pierce lambasted Republicans for criticizing Biden based on the historical precedent of Republican former President George H.W. Bush pardoning his own son Neil Bush. The problem is that this incident never happened. It's completely fabricated.

'Not one of them thought to check if the concept on which the article was based was true or not?'

"Nobody defines Poppy Bush's presidency by his son's struggles or the pardons he issued on his way out of the White House. The moral: Shut the f*** up about Hunter Biden, please," read the subheading on the article published on Tuesday.

Eventually, the humiliating error was discovered, and Esquire issued a correction:

Editor's note: This story has been updated. An earlier version stated incorrectly that George H.W. Bush gave a presidential pardon to his son, Neil Bush. Esquire regrets the error.

Finally, the outlet deleted the story altogether.

Esquire was mercilessly ridiculed for the mistake.

"Esquire Magazine is literally making stuff up to try to defend Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter Biden. The people who scream about misinformation are doing it to cover for Joe," said radio talk show host Erick Erickson.

"Even given the lengths to which some journalists will go to advance the approved narrative, this is unreal," responded Boston Globe op-ed editor Jeff Jacoby.

"How many people does an article have to pass through at @esquire, from idea to completion, before being published? 4? 5? Not one of them thought to check if the concept on which the article was based was true or not?" asked columnist Derek Hunter.

"How in God’s name did you get the George H W Bush/ Neil Bush so completely wrong? Doesn’t Esquire have fact checkers anymore?" read another tweet.

Even some Democrats admitted that the expansive scope of Biden's pardon was suspicious and undermined their arguments to paint President-elect Donald Trump as destructive of the rule of law.

Esquire wasn't the only outlet to make an embarrassing error while trying to criticize Republicans on the pardon issue. Newsweek had to retract one quote from a source in an article after it was discovered that the source was actually a parody account on social media.

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