‘The View’ Host Ana Navarro Seems to Invent Historical Figure Named ‘DeButts’ to Defend Biden

Ana Navarro appeared to reference a fictitious historical figure named “Hunter deButts” as she defended President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter.

The co-host for The View penned a series of X posts Monday night supporting Biden’s controversial move to grant clemency to his embattled second son, who was awaiting sentencing on two criminal convictions related to his purchase of a gun and tax evasion.

She argued against the idea that Biden’s decision sets any kind of precedent, citing other instances where a presidential pardon was given to a relative—but one of the examples she gave raised eyebrows.

“Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother-in-law, Hunter deButts,” she wrote. “Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, Roger. Donald Trump pardoned his daughter’s father-in-law, Charlie Kushner. And just appointed him Ambassador to France. But tell me again how Joe Biden ‘is setting precedent’?”

Almost none of the thousands of users who responded to the post raised any concerns about the factual accuracy of Navarro’s historical references, although some did express amusement at the ridiculous-sounding name of 28th president’s purported relative.

“I feel like we’re not talking enough about the fact that Woodrow Wilson had a BiL named Hunter deButts,” read one comment on Monday night from user @Captain_Strongo, amid countless responses either skewering or vindicating Biden.

It was almost 17 hours later when someone finally pointed out that, in fact, there was no record of any such person.

“45,000 likes on this post, but no one seems to have noticed that the first example is fake,” wrote Zach Parkinson, a GOP operative, in response to Navarro’s post. “There’s (unsurprisingly) no record of Woodrow Wilson having a brother-in-law named ‘Hunter de Butts.’”

Parkinson’s thread cited several different secondary historical sources on Wilson’s family, none of which offer any support to the claim that the president, across his two marriages and two sisters, ever had a brother-in-law named “deButts.”

The Daily Beast’s independent research also supports this conclusion.

While there is a page on a genealogy website for a “William Hunter DeButts” who lived during Wilson’s presidency, there is no indication online that an individual with that name was related to Wilson or received a pardon.

Navarro’s post remains up as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, and she has yet to address the matter publicly—either by sharing her source or admitting a mistake.

Representatives for The View did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment from Navarro.