{"id":1428530,"date":"2023-09-20T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1428530"},"modified":"2023-09-20T20:20:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T00:20:00","slug":"bidens-defenders-are-blowing-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/bidens-defenders-are-blowing-smoke\/1428530\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden’s Defenders Are Blowing Smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biden’s Defenders Are Blowing Smoke<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

I was expecting a lively exchange when Mike Gallagher invited me to debate the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen on his \u201cNo Interruptions\u201d podcast last week. Instead, I was gobsmacked as the former New York Times reporter abruptly hung up the phone after some 15 minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like the recent viral video showing\u00a0Washington Post columnist Philip Bump<\/a>\u00a0suddenly terminating an interview,<\/strong> Risen\u2019s breaking point came when I questioned his reporting on Hunter Biden\u2019s foreign business dealings.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Before we get to that, Risen, who now reports for The Intercept, does deserve some backhanded praise: In the few minutes he spoke on Mike Gallagher\u2019s podcast, Risen delivered a master class in concision<\/em><\/strong>, echoing most every major talking point fashioned by Biden\u2019s handlers and the mainstream media to defend the president.<\/p>\n

The Loving Father:<\/strong>\u00a0Risen framed his defense of Joe Biden by asserting that the president\u2019s major fault may be that he loves his son too much. Young Hunter and his brother Beau were in the car that December morning in 1972 when his mother and his baby sister died. This trauma, armchair psychologists suggest, set the stage for Hunter\u2019s later drug abuse and his father\u2019s boundless efforts to support his troubled son \u2013 whose problems were deepened by Beau\u2019s death from cancer in 2015. Risen said Joe\u2019s compassion probably led him to be too \u201cpermissive\u201d toward his prodigal son, implying that he did what any good parent would.<\/p>\n

Perhaps. But who knows? Each of us is driven by a confluence of personal forces that are often a mystery to ourselves \u2013 and nearly impossible for anybody else to precisely untangle. Everybody has a reason, but discerning those motives is often beyond our powers. This is especially true of Joe Biden, a congenital fabulist whose public career has been an exercise in grandiose self-mythologizing. Claiming to know what makes him tick is an act of hubris.<\/p>\n

Slotting the president, or anybody else, into some archetypal narrative \u2013 the man who loved too much \u2013 is just blowing smoke. That is why, especially in public life, we assess people by their verifiable actions. You don\u2019t have to be religious to see the apostle Matthew nailed it when he wrote, \u201cBy their fruit you will recognize them.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Evidence:<\/strong>\u00a0As to Joe Biden\u2019s actions, Risen\u00a0repeated<\/a>\u00a0the scandalously common claim that there is\u00a0no evidence<\/a>\u00a0the president has done anything \u201cillicit or illegal.\u201d That one is a real head-scratcher.\u00a0As Miranda Devine of the New York Post<\/a>\u00a0recently wrote, such a belief requires one to:<\/p>\n

Forget the bank records, shell companies, SEC complaints, sworn testimony, IRS whistleblower statements, FBI informant files, emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, photos, speakerphone calls, voicemails, White House visitor logs, Air Force Two travel logs, Joe\u2019s pseudonymous email addresses and a parade of Hunter\u2019s shady foreign benefactors lining up for handshakes with Joe in Beijing, breakfasts at the VP\u2019s residence and dinners at Caf\u00e9 Milano, not to mention millions of dollars in filthy foreign lucre for no discernible product or service other than access to Joe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Risen and Biden\u2019s other defenders are playing word games. By evidence they really mean proof. Indeed, we don\u2019t have a signed memo by Joe Biden stating he changed a specific policy in exchange for payments to his son. While we have multiple examples of Hunter\u2019s business associates identifying Joe as the \u201cbig guy\u201d who would get a cut of the action, we do not, as yet, have a check made out to the president. The evidence clearly shows that Joe personally facilitated Hunter\u2019s efforts to earn money from China, Ukraine, and Romania based on the promise of access to his father. These hard facts cannot be wished away.<\/p>\n

The Jared Defense:<\/strong>\u00a0Risen also worked to normalize Hunter\u2019s shady dealings by suggesting that familial influence-peddling is common in the nation\u2019s capital. Suddenly changing his definition of evidence from proof to conjecture, Risen pointed to the $2 billion the Saudi government \u201cgave\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner a few months after Trump left office. In fact, the Saudis did not give Kushner $2 billion; they placed that sum with him to be invested \u2013 hoping for a fat return on the generous fees they are paying him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a good look for the Trump family. But when have two wrongs ever made a right? More importantly, there truly is no evidence that the Saudi investment was payback for action taken during the previous administration. Risen\u2019s comparison is a canard. Foreigners gave money to Hunter in the hopes of currying favor with the government while Joe was serving as Obama\u2019s vice president. Investing money with Kushner in 2021 \u2013 as Trump was being reviled for his claims of a stolen election and the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol \u2013 seems like the last thing one would do to gain influence in Washington.<\/p>\n

The Trump Card:<\/strong>\u00a0In defending Biden, Risen repeatedly brought up Trump, whom he branded a \u201ccriminal.\u201d From his Manichean perspective, any effort to hold President Biden to account is aiding and abetting Trump\u2019s return to the White House. He called me a Trump \u201ctoady\u201d for supporting the Biden impeachment inquiry. This may be his more dangerous assertion, as it suggests that we should give a free pass to wrongdoing on our side because it might help the other side.<\/p>\n

Asked and Answered:<\/strong>\u00a0The interview ended after Risen cast himself as a fearless journalist whose exoneration of Biden should have special weight because he had written one of the first articles, back in\u00a02015 for the New York Times<\/a>, addressing Hunter\u2019s dealings in the Ukraine. I\u2019m familiar with his piece and told him it reflected the problem with so much mainstream reporting on Hunter\u2019s position on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma: It noted the company\u2019s shady history but dug no deeper as it regurgitated spin concocted by the company, Hunter, and his team.<\/p>\n

While we now know that Hunter was paid the princely sum of $83,000 per month for his service, I reminded Risen that he simply quoted a Burisma spokesperson who said Hunter\u2019s pay was \u201cnot out of the ordinary\u201d for similar corporate board positions. I also pointed out that he merely quoted a Burisma spokesperson who suggested Hunter was brought on to help with \u201cstrong corporate governance and transparency.\u201d This seems fanciful on its face. As\u00a0Lee Fang reported this week for RealClearInvestigations<\/a>, emails from Hunter\u2019s laptop show his employment was connected to lobbying efforts in Washington and access to his father.<\/p>\n

In response, Risen said he refused to be \u201cinsulted,\u201d and hung up the phone.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t fault Risen for failing to get the whole story from the get-go. Reporters depend on sources, and sometimes they mislead us. What was stunning was that this experience of being used and misled did not seem to stoke much skepticism in him about the false narratives advanced by the Bidens to dismiss the evidence of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the mainstream press, it seems you can fool all of the people all of the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 09\/20\/2023 – 16:20<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/bidens-defenders-are-blowing-smoke<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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