Biden Family to be subpoenaed by oversight committee

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(08-10-2023, 12:32 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Please force Biden to step aside so a democrat who isn't 80 with an approval rating 15 points underwater can trounce Trump in 24 and 28.

Lets get through one shitshow election before we start preemptively dooming the one after it with terrible candidates.  

[*Nately120*]

(08-10-2023, 02:23 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote:


Lets get through one shitshow election before we start preemptively dooming the one after it with terrible candidates.  

I can see people not digging Newsom vs Trump in 24 and 28, but I'm still living in the land of the optimist where democrats put presidential stock into Mark Kelly, Josh Shapiro, and othe reasonable swing-state players with (relative) youth and results over politics.  That'll be the day, eh?

I just think the GOP finding a way to remove the unpopular Biden/Harris ticket and forcing democrats to go with younger more popular candidates who can win 2 terms would be an amusing blunder.  Particularly seeing as how insistent they are in running Trump in 2024, I can't see why if he loses in 24 he wouldn't just say "I'll be back in 2028" and so on.

The GOP played their cards right in 2016 by casting shade on Hillary after it was too late for her weak candidate ass to be replaced so they could run against her AND say she's under investigation...good move by them.  It seems like the OP legimately wants to slag on Biden for being a total crap president who will lose to Trump in 2024, but also seems to want to force the democrats to have him removed so someone who isn't sucky ass Biden can beat Trump.

It don't add up.

[BigPapaKain]

(08-10-2023, 02:36 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I can see people not digging Newsom vs Trump in 24 and 28, but I'm still living in the land of the optimist where democrats put presidential stock into Mark Kelly, Josh Shapiro, and othe reasonable swing-state players with (relative) youth and results over politics.  That'll be the day, eh?

I just think the GOP finding a way to remove the unpopular Biden/Harris ticket and forcing democrats to go with younger more popular candidates who can win 2 terms would be an amusing blunder.  Particularly seeing as how insistent they are in running Trump in 2024, I can't see why if he loses in 24 he wouldn't just say "I'll be back in 2028" and so on.

The GOP played their cards right in 2016 by casting shade on Hillary after it was too late for her weak candidate ass to be replaced so they could run against her AND say she's under investigation...good move by them.  It seems like the OP legimately wants to slag on Biden for being a total crap president who will lose to Trump in 2024, but also seems to want to force the democrats to have him removed so someone who isn't sucky ass Biden can beat Trump.

It don't add up.

The enemy is simultaneously strong and weak.

[Stewy]

(08-10-2023, 02:36 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I can see people not digging Newsom vs Trump in 24 and 28, but I'm still living in the land of the optimist where democrats put presidential stock into Mark Kelly, Josh Shapiro, and othe reasonable swing-state players with (relative) youth and results over politics.  That'll be the day, eh?

I just think the GOP finding a way to remove the unpopular Biden/Harris ticket and forcing democrats to go with younger more popular candidates who can win 2 terms would be an amusing blunder.  Particularly seeing as how insistent they are in running Trump in 2024, I can't see why if he loses in 24 he wouldn't just say "I'll be back in 2028" and so on.

The GOP played their cards right in 2016 by casting shade on Hillary after it was too late for her weak candidate ass to be replaced so they could run against her AND say she's under investigation...good move by them.  It seems like the OP legimately wants to slag on Biden for being a total crap president who will lose to Trump in 2024, but also seems to want to force the democrats to have him removed so someone who isn't sucky ass Biden can beat Trump.

It don't add up.

Considering the GOP has been continuously shooting itself in the foot for the last 3 years, this wouldn't even be surprising.  Every victory leads to two failures or embarrassments.

[Dill]

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgzGtwWMPHQcKxNgxlJwSBdjMTBbX

Is it a scandal?
The Hunter Biden case has become the latest example of America’s dueling realities.

If you’re a Republican, there is a good chance you believe that Democrats and the mainstream media are deliberately minimizing a scandal that calls into question President Biden’s honesty and threatens his presidency. I know some conservative readers of The Morning feel this way because they’ve written to me to say so.

If you’re a Democrat, you likely believe that this so-called scandal is a transparent attempt to distract from Donald Trump’s far worse behavior. You may see the Hunter Biden obsession as the latest in a line of conservative conspiracy theories, joining Barack Obama’s birthplace, John Kerry’s Vietnam War record and the suicide of Vince Foster.

Today’s newsletter is for both those readers who believe the case deserves more attention and those whose instinct is to skip any article about Hunter Biden. I hope to avoid committing the journalistic sin of false balance while explaining why the story deserves some attention from everybody.

Cashing in
When top Democrats are asked about Hunter Biden, they tend to dismiss his problems as a private issue. “Hunter Biden is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said last month when asked about federal tax and gun charges against him. “The president, the first lady, they love their son, and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life.”

This explanation is partially fair. Hunter Biden has struggled with drug addiction. His failure to pay taxes seems connected to the chaos of his life while he was using crack cocaine, and the gun charge stems from his claiming to be sober when he bought a handgun in 2018.

But it’s a stretch for anyone to suggest that Hunter Biden is merely a private citizen. When his father was vice president from 2009 to 2017, Hunter tried to create the impression that he could leverage his family connections to help his clients, as a former business partner has testified to Congress.

Some clients believed it. Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, put Hunter on its board, in an attempt to signal that it was pro-Western. A Chinese tycoon also signed a partnership with him. All told, Hunter made more than $800,000 in 2013 and more than $1.2 million in 2014.

My colleague Luke Broadwater, who covers Congress, told me that he initially found the public discussion of Hunter Biden to be uninteresting — typical partisan noise. But Luke came to believe the story was more important. “Many rich and famous people try to cash in on their family name, including relatives of the politicians,” Luke said. “It’s certainly worth newspaper coverage.”

Luke notes that Joe Biden made a false statement during a 2020 campaign debate when he claimed, “My son has not made money” in China. “The only guy who made money from China is this guy,” Biden continued, referring to Donald Trump. (Amazingly, Biden was correct about the Trump part: The Trumps received money from the same Chinese company.)

These details are not pretty. The current president’s son made substantial sums of money from the perception of his proximity to top government officials, and the president has claimed otherwise. That story is notably different from past Republican lies about Obama’s birthplace or Kerry’s war record.

Unsupported claims
The problem for Biden’s Republican critics is that they are making their own untruthful statements — or at least statements lacking any support. House Republicans have claimed that the elder Biden himself received money as part of Hunter’s business dealings; they have produced no evidence to support the claim, Luke notes. There is also no evidence that Joe Biden altered policy to benefit Hunter’s clients.

Sometimes, the Republican claims have turned farcical. House Republicans portrayed Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, as a truth teller who would expose the Bidens. Luft has not done so. Instead, a grand jury indicted him last month for acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and helping Iran evade sanctions. Luft denies any wrongdoing.

For anybody who wants to dig deeper into the Hunter Biden saga, I recommend this detailed article by my colleagues Adam Entous, Michael Schmidt and Katie Benner. Here’s the key sentence: “The real Hunter Biden story is complex and very different in important ways from the narrative promoted by Republicans — but troubling in its own way.” As Michael said to me: “Should the vice president’s son be selling the perception of access to his father even if that son isn’t delivering anything for that money?”

Jonathan Chait of New York magazine has compared Hunter Biden to the Supreme Court justices who have accepted large gifts from private citizens. “In American politics, the worst abuses by powerful people usually involve clever ways to exploit the law without committing crimes,” Chait wrote.

Yes, Trump and his family have profited much more from their government service than Hunter Biden has. But that isn’t a fully satisfying explanation to many Americans. Perhaps, Chait argues, it’s time for stricter ethics rules for the highest officials and their close relatives:

“It’s unsavory, but it’s not a crime” is a good argument for a defense lawyer. It’s not a great argument for people who are in a position to write new laws and whose survival depends on refuting the cynicism of a pseudo-populist whose appeal is rooted in the corrosive assumption that every politician is on the take.

Related: Wealthy executives have treated Justice Clarence Thomas to at least 38 vacations, including yacht trips and private jet flights, ProPublica reported.

[Dill]

(08-10-2023, 12:05 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: "Joe Biden literally wrote a letter to Devon Archer in 2011 expressing his excitement about Devon's partnership with Hunter," Republican National Committee strategic communications director Tommy Pigott wrote. "Not only that, there's a voicemail from Biden to Hunter saying he wanted to discuss an article on Hunter's ‘business’ dealings in China."

lol Case closed then!

[Dill]

(08-10-2023, 12:32 PM)Mickeypoo Wrote: 1.  This is not a thread about Trump.

Well it is about Trump the moment people start claiming the DOJ is "corrupt" and covering up Biden family business dealings,

while strangely incurious about the Trumps' shell companies and foreign earnings.

[GreenDragon]

Investigate. If there was wrongdoing CHARGE them. Until then, STFU.