Below is my column on Fox.com for the hearing this week on the corruption scandal involving the Biden family. For years, the Democrats have opposed any effort to investigate the Bidens, including as part of the current impeachment inquiry. Various members misrepresented my earlier testimony during the hearing on the basis for the impeachment inquiry. Members like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) stated that I joined other witnesses in saying that there was nothing that could remotely be impeachable in these allegations. That is demonstrably untrue. My testimony stated the opposite. I refused to pre-judge the evidence, but stated that there was ample basis for the inquiry and laid out various impeachable offenses that could be brought if ultimately supported by evidence. I also discussed those potential offenses in columns. The purpose of the hearing was not to declare an impeachment on the first day of the inquiry. Unlike the two prior impeachments by many of these same Democratic members, this impeachment inquiry sought to create a record of evidence and testimony to support any action that the House might take.
Here is the column:
In the 1966 movie “A Man for All Seasons,” Sir Thomas More faces Richard Rich, an ambitious office seeker who would ultimately lie and betray him. In this British historical drama, More warns Rich that “when a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.”
This week, Democrats appear to have finally drained away what remained of themselves and their party. For years, Democratic members and the media have demanded any evidence of the direct involvement or knowledge of President Joe Biden of the influence-peddling operation of his son, Hunter, and his brothers, James and Frank.
In the hearing, witnesses testified under oath about specific meetings with Joe Biden discussing these foreign dealings and the family business interests. Bank records were introduced showing the transfers of millions going to Hunter and various Biden family members.
Faced with the evidence that the president lied about his lack of any knowledge or involvement in the influence peddling, the Democrats opened their fingers wider.
Rep. Dan Goldman, D., N.Y., captured the problem for Democrats in even addressing any of the mounting evidence contradicting the president. Yet, Goldman has long shown a willingness to rush in where angels fear to tread.
In previous attacks, Goldman repeatedly hit the Bidens with friendly fire when eliciting damaging answers from witnesses. Goldman has a habit of raising the worst evidence that his colleagues have avoided. In one hearing, he stumbled badly in raising the WhatsApp message where Hunter told a Chinese businessman that his father was sitting next to him and would not be pleased unless he sent him money. On another occasion, he prompted an IRS whistleblower to note that an email Goldman read into the record was actually a direct contradiction of the denials of the president.
In the latest misstep, Goldman pressed former Biden partner Tony Bobulinski on a proposal shared with Hunter and others to reserve 10% for “the Big Guy.” In other emails, Bobulinski was told to use such codes to avoid mentioning Joe Biden’s name. He was expressly identified as “the Big Guy.”
Goldman snapped at Bobulinski, “Did anyone ever respond to that email?”
Bobulinski responded “Yes, they did numerous times. Hunter himself did.”
Goldman blurted out “you’re right” before angrily reclaiming his time to cut him off.
Things did not prove any easier for other members. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D., N.Y., imploded by mocking Bobulinski and challenging him “It is simple, you name the crime. Did you watch him steal something?”
Bobulinski proceeded to rattle off a series of possible criminal acts and Ocasio-Cortez cut him off. She then bizarrely pretended that he did not just list the crimes and barked “What is the crime, sir? Specifically?”
Bobulinski was not the only one confused and noted “you ask and answer the question, I answered the question, RICO, you’re obviously not familiar with…”
That is when Ocasio-Cortez again cut him off with “Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. RICO is not a crime, it is a category. What is the crime?”
With that, it appears that Trump has now been cleared of charges in Atlanta by no one other than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Racketeering is a crime and some of the crimes referenced by Bobulinski are commonly part of such conspiracies.
The exchange captured the lunacy of the hearing as Democrats demanded evidence and then ignored it when it was repeatedly offered by witnesses and members.
Yet, Ocasio-Cortez was illuminating on one point. Neither she nor her colleagues were willing to admit the obvious. Few people now disagree that Hunter was openly engaging in influence peddling, which is a form of corruption that the government has long fought around the world. It is also clear that Joe Biden knew of that influence peddling not just from his son but newspaper accounts. He had knowledge of the corruption and facilitated it.However, Ocasio-Cortez wanted to ignore the millions of dollars acquired in influence peddling to press a witness on whether he saw the president steal something like a purse or a hubcap.
The Democrats have allowed their very identity to drip through their open fingers. They have become a party that calls for censorship, ballot cleansing, and court packing. Now they are dismissing allegations of raw influence peddling after opposing every effort to investigate it.
Those who raise free speech or free press concerns now face a McCarthy-like mantra from Democratic members that they are nothing more than fellow travelers of Russia as we head into yet another election. Some Democratic members have called for criminal charges against reporters or demanded the names of sources. MSNBC contributor and former Sen. Claire McCaskill even attacked former and current members testifying in favor of free speech as “Putin apologists” and Putin lovers.
As a lifelong Democrat from a politically active Chicago family, I can no longer recognize the party from my youth. We once stood for something other than the next election or hating others.
By the end of the hearing, virtually every Democratic member had attacked the witnesses and denied the obvious corruption surrounding the Biden family. They had become a party of Richard Riches. Of course, this unified effort to deny the obvious left little time to look down at what remained in their hands. They had owned the moment when the party fought to shield one of the most extensive and lucrative influence peddling operations in history.
After that ignoble effort, there was little reason to look down since they “needn’t hope to find [themselves] again.”
I’m old enough to remember Watergate, I remember Watergate vividly. I recall the NY times and the WP going after Richard Nixon viciously because of this corruption Nixon had engaged in, deservedly so. I also have a memory of the Congressional hearings, which were conducted fairly by the Democrats (complete opposite of the Kangaroo Court Trump impeachments and the Jan 6th committee). Fast forward to 2024, the NY times, the WP, CNN and MSNBC make excuses for the Biden family influence peddling operation, even though the money making schemes the Bidens have been involved in -as professor points out – has really been unprecedented in US History. The corruption has been on a scale of what you find in backward third world countries – family members of Govt bigwigs got rich. I recall from reading my history the liberal press blasting Nixon’s brother, Donald Nixon, for getting a loan from Howard Hughes, yet here the Bidens are collecting 50 million from foreign entities, including businesses entities linked to the Communist government of China! No loans going on here, just payoffs. I mean there is almost no precedent for this level of corruption by a family members of a USA President or a VP’s. Corruption in the past has been small potatoes compared to this Biden family operation. Given this I find it almost unbelievable that Rep. Raskin and Rep. Goldman would be making these claims that the Biden family corruption operation is no big thing. It isn’t? What has happened to the Democratic party? What is it now that the Democratic party members in Congress believe in? It could not be “good government” – the party has become the sleaze party. Personally I find Raskin and Goldman to be among the most ludicrous figures I have ever seen serve in Congress, they are flat out liars – they don’t hesitate to look into the TV cameras and lie to the American people! They distort and twist the truth, they make up false narratives, they finger point at the Republicans, but they have no answer at all to the Biden family corruption, other than to pretend there is no corruption there. Nothing to to see here.That’s Goldman and Raskin’s answer, even though House GOP members have piled up all this evidence! So great to see the conservative press pushing back on this, the press needs to hold the Biden family – and Joe Biden – accountable for this corruption. Our top political offices are not a “brand”!
The parties of Lincoln, Goldwater and Reagan, on one side, and Jefferson, Jackson and FDR, on the other, are dead and gone. RIP. And we are left with unrepentant bastardized versions that are racing to destroy the body politic.
As a retired lawyer, my deepest concern is the deterioration of personal responsibility and innate honesty. We were never perfect as a nation, but we generally acted honestly and expected others to do the same. Nowadays we cannot even expect our news sources to be honest.
Democratic party word of the day: “doublethink.”
Of course, there are Republican forms of it as well, but those are stories for another time and place. 🙂
I think that what we are seeing happening in the country is the culmination of the decades old indoctrination of future generations of Americans by using our public education system, as predicted and explained in 1984 by Yuri Bezmenov, ex-KGB agent. Many people called him a lunatic, but if he was alive today he would be saying: “I TOLD YOU SO.”
Look him up on YouTube.
Religion of Peace members just murdered 75 concert goers and wounded hundreds more in Moscow. But forget that, hey it’s a peaceful religion and the biggest threat to anyone’s safety is white supremacists.
@EmeraldRobinson
You’re upset today because you think the GOP exists.
Stop it. There’s only one party.
And that one party is run by the CIA & FBI.
Your government does not represent you.
You’re living in a banana republic.
They can’t touch Joe Biden or any of the Biden Crime Family because why?
CIA.
Hunter is working with the CIA.
Recall the letter signed by 51 current and former CIA chiefs where they flat-out lied to the public? Yeah.
Fox News hired former Speaker Kevin McCarthy as a contributer.
NBC and MSNBC just hired ousted RNC chair Ronna ROMNEY McDaniel as an analyst.
Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher just resigned his seat with the timing being to specifically damage the Republican Party majority control.
Colorado Rep. Ken Buck resigned before the end of the term he was elected to by his constituents, harming the Republican Party and its slim majority.
But wait! There’s more!
And the beat goes on….
On the other hanmd, what good would Hunter Buden be to the CIA?
The best evidence of what you say is the fact that, as soon as the GOP won a slim majority in the House of Representatives, individuals GOP members started resigning one after another so as to ensure the majority would flip back to the Dems. GOP = Dem = Unparty = America destroyers.
These Intel folks, deep state operatives, MIC, establishment, Democrats, and RINOs will do anything they can to stop Trump for taking the Oval Office again….including assassination. And make no mistake, they will jail and kill US citizens as collateral damage if need be….these people do not care about human life.
Get that thru your heads and you will begin to understand what time it is in America.
If the Covid ‘plandemic’ did not wake you up to this fact, then may God help you wake up out of your trance.
My maternal grandparents were Democrats. My grandfather left home at the age of 16, during get Great Depression, because there were too many mouths to feed. He believed that the Democrat Party cared about the working class.
I do not believe my grandparents would recognize the Democrat Party of today, which stands for defunding police, nationwide riots, decriminalizing many crimes, sides with criminals over the law abiding, sides with squatters over homeowners, promotes biological males competing in women’s sports and accessing women’s locker rooms, promotes the surgical and chemical sterilization of minors and promotes the idea to kindergarteners that they can change their gender, unfettered illegal immigration, calls anyone who wants a secure border a xenophobe, out of control spending, racism against Asians and whites, biased against cis gendered males, policies that make the cost of all goods and services increase such as high gas prices and labor costs, and would force people to buy electric vehicles that don’t work in cold weather, or during power outages, are far more expensive than gas cars, and are junked when the battery dies.
Honestly, I am at a complete loss as to why people vote for the Democrat Party, when their policies led to an increased murder rate, shoplifting on a scale that has led to massive store closures, and jacked up the price of groceries. Why does this appeal to people? Do they really think their lives are better under Democrat rule? People generally move to conservative-run states for the better wealth of life and cost of living.
“Why does this appeal to people? Do they really think their lives are better under Democrat rule? ”
It doesn’t appeal to them. They don’t think about. Like with Dennis McIntyre here, they vote for Democrats because it is a tradition for them, because great grandma voted for FDR, because maybe perhaps at some time in the past, the Democrats did care more about the common people. But like you noted, the Democrat Party changed, to where now they are in favor of castrating little boys, and cutting the breasts off little girls.
But none of that matters to brain-dead cult members. For others, like Prof. LeFriecq from a few days ago, it would mean their whole life and professional career, has been based in bullsh!t. That is too great a mental burden for many of them to bear.