President Joe Biden unleashed a political earthquake earlier this year when ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

While most observers attributed the bombshell move to the president's awful debate performance, one veteran journalist says it also had more to do with Hunter Biden. 

President said to suffering from "crushing guilt" over Hunter Biden's struggles

According to Fox News, famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward puts that claim forward in his soon-to-be released book titled "War."

Hunter Biden legal saga is ‘real war’ that 'preoccupied' outgoing president, new Woodward book claims https://t.co/wosb5ciOI8

— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) October 11, 2024

Biden is said to have suffered under the weight of "crushing guilt" over his son's struggle with drug addiction as well as legal problems.

Woodward asserts that the intensity of those feelings has burdened the elder Biden in a way that even the wars in Ukraine and Israel have not.

The journalist states that the president's personal anguish was on full display when Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with him about dropping out of the 2024 race.

Hunter Biden convicted of gun charges, pleaded guilty in federal tax case

Sources told Woodward that Hunter Biden's difficulties had kept his father "off an even keel" and took "a lot out of" the president.

Particularly troubling was Joe Biden's perception that his being in the White House had contributed to his son's dysfunction.

In June, a federal jury convicted Hunter Biden of making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

What's more, the younger Biden also pleaded guilty last month to nine federal tax charges brought by special counsel David Weiss.

White House press secretary: President will not pardon his son

Fox News noted that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that President Biden will not pardon his son before leaving office.

"It's no, it's still no," the network quoted Jean-Pierre as saying after Hunter Biden changed his plea to guilty in the federal tax case.

"I'm not able to comment on it, but I can say that it is still very much a 'no' to the questions I have gotten about if the president is going to pardon [Hunter]," she added.