It's Monday, December 2nd. He wasn't going to pardon him until he did. We start here.

In a dramatic about face, President Biden issues a full pardon for his son. He believes this was a political prosecution.

This was just days before Hunter Biden was set to be sentenced. So what sparked the president's change of heart?

Well, that's the other big story of the day. It's all going to come down to how far Patel is actually

willing to go. Donald Trump wants to replace the FBI director again. We'll introduce you to

Cash Patel. And in the midst of an uneasy ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israel gets word from Hamas.

We got a new Hamas propaganda video showing American Israeli hostage Don Alexander.

How a string of events in the Middle East could be altering the bigger picture.

From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky.

Happy Monday. I hope you all had a restful Thanksgiving weekend, or if you were with your family, it probably wasn't restful. I know how these things are. But I hope you ate well, at least.

Now, let's get to the news that is dominating headlines this morning.

Over the weekend, President-elect Donald Trump made the decision to install a new FBI director

when he takes office. We'll talk about that later. But I bring this up because last night,

the current president, President Joe Biden, decided to put his own thumb on the scales of justice.

He decided to issue a pardon. Now, that in itself is not unusual, right? Every president in the last

hundred plus years has issued pardons. It's especially common as they're about to leave office.

What was notable here, though, was that Biden pardoned his own son. As of this morning, Hunter Biden, the first

child of a sitting president to ever be found guilty of a federal crime who is set to be sentenced

just days from now is a free man. He will not serve time despite criminal convictions. Those have now

been tossed out, not by a court, but by his father.

Let's hit the ground running with ABC's Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Carl.

John, can you just walk me through the decision from the president?

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