‘The View’ Co-Host Blames ChatGPT After Getting Caught Making Up a Historical Figure to Defend Joe Biden

Ana Navarro just found herself as ‘deButt’ of the joke.

The View co-host had egg on her face after she attempted to brush off Joe Biden’s controversial pardon of his son Hunter Biden by listing off the other presidents who have pardoned family members. Her list included a pardon President Woodrow Wilson apparently granted his brother-in-law… “Hunter deButts.” 

The only problem? No such family member exists and Navarro went on to blame the who snafu on a chat bot. On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Michael Knowles, host of The Michael Knowles Show, to discuss the mishap and what it shows about the state of the media.

Navarro’s Erroneous Post

In the wake of President Biden going back on his pledge to the American people and granting his son a sweeping pardon, Navarro headed to X on Monday to defend his decision by comparing it to the actions of other presidents. 

The tweet mentioned Bill Clinton pardoning his brother, Roger Clinton, and Donald Trump doing the same for his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner. But that wasn’t all. Navarro started the list with Wilson, the nation’s twenty-eighth president. “Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother-in-law, Hunter deButts,” she wrote.

All of that led Navarro to wonder: “But tell me again how Joe Biden ‘is setting precedent?'”

X users wasted no time doing exactly that. Many discovered “Hunter deButts” is not the historical figure Navarro painted him as, and a Community Note was then added to her post, stating: “There is no evidence that Woodrow Wilson had a brother-in-law named ‘Hunter DeButts’. While at least one person by that name was living during Wilson’s presidency, there is nothing to suggest any relation, or that they were pardoned—the only result is this tweet.”

The fact-check began making the rounds in the media almost immediately as outlets corrected their stories, but Navarro waited until Tuesday to weigh in. At that point, she blamed none other than ChatGPT for the error. “Hey Twitter sleuths, thanks for taking the time to provide context. Take it up with ChatGPT,” Navarro wrote alongside laughing emojis.  

She also shared a screenshot from the AI chatbot that appeared to give her the bad information. It read: “Woodrow Wilson: Pardoned Hunter deButts, his brother-in-law, after he was court-martialed during World War I for military misconduct. The pardon was believed to protect the family’s reputation.”

What Went Wrong

Megyn noted that her team did a quick Google search and found a few people named ‘Hunter deButts’ in the last 100 years. But much like the sleuths on X, they did not find any with a familial relationship to Wilson.

In trying to excuse her error, Knowles said Navarro gave herself up. “Her rejoinder is, ‘Hey, internet sleuths, I don’t do my job. Ever.’ ‘Hey, Internet sleuths, I plagiarized a robot,'” he joked. “But I love that ChatGPT’s historical archive is just like old Simpsons jokes. That actually gives me much more respect for ChatGPT. I’ll have to use it.”

To that point, Megyn said Navarro has no one to blame but herself. “It’s so funny,” she said. “Debbie Murphy, my producer, had the right idea. She said, ‘When somebody gives you back ‘Hunter deButts,’ who doesn’t know not to do an extra search just to be, like, triply sure?'”

You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Knowles by tuning in to episode 958 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.