Yes the pilot is fully to blame. You can't blame United for trying to do damage control after that moron landed himself on the front page of the news.

I'm having trouble understanding why this is mystifying in some way. Take the guy down in Houston who was running a brothel in his spare time. Should United have kept him on the payroll? Let him serve his time in prison and then come on back? What's the difference? That one act was illegal and the other was merely dunce cap worthy? Company policy and the ALPA Code of Ethics does not require activity to rise to the level of criminal behavior to be subject to discipline. If you want to work for United, or almost any company for that matter, you can, will, and should be held accountable for what you say and do in the world even when you aren't in uniform at the airport. If you don't like it, you should probably work towards being self employed.