In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, one of the stories that was uncovered by new media was what was said to be the pay-for-play aspect of the Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit established by the 42nd president and his family to “strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.”
In other words, countries and individuals reportedly donated money to the Clinton Foundation for access to former President Bill Clinton, and his wife, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state for the Obama administration.
The traditional national media wouldn’t investigate the story and did everything they could to look away because of its likely implications for the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.
The scenario is repeating itself this year with the ties of Democratic nominee Joe Biden to his son Hunter’s association with a corrupt Ukrainian energy company.
Until last week, the links were suspicious but given little credence by the national media. The younger Biden, with no experience in such matters, was made a member of the board of directors of Burisma, the energy company. The elder Biden, then vice president of the United States, was in charge of relations with Ukraine. Months after the younger Biden joined the board, a Ukrainian prosecutor preparing to look into suspicious activities with Burisma was fired. The elder Biden, according to his own words, told the Ukrainian government if the prosecutor wasn’t fired the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in aid to the country.
No one disputes any of the above, though many acknowledge a Republican would never be given a pass for such behavior. Recall also that President Donald Trump was impeached for — it was alleged — threatening in a phone call to withhold aid from Ukraine if it didn’t look into the Burisma/Hunter Biden affair. Of course, Trump and the Ukrainian president said no threat was even implied.
But last week, new details in a New York Post report emerged that the elder Biden, who always claimed he had no influence on his son getting a seat on the Burisma board and never discussed his business dealings with him, met with a top Burisma executive around the same time his son was given a place on the energy company’s board.
Of course, Biden campaign officials have denied such a meeting took place, and the supportive national media never questions him about it because it might influence what is said to be a close election with Trump.
But emails stored on the hard drive of a laptop computer that appeared to belong to Hunter Biden detail the meeting. Emails also appear to portray Hunter Biden — who has acknowledged a drug problem — smoking crack and engaging in a sex act with an unidentified woman. The laptop has been in the hands of the FBI and the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office since December.
Facebook and Twitter have suppressed the New York Post report, cementing their lack of fairness and objectivity after allowing thousands of false and defamatory reports about Trump to be posted during his presidency. Further, reporters who have tried to get the bottom of the story have been denounced by other members of the national media.
Other news organizations have hoped to steer readers and potential voters away from the story with sideshow reports. Two of those — both carried by this newspaper — suggested some at the Post believed not enough had been done to verify the contents of the hard drive, and that the FBI was looking into whether any Russian influence may have had a part in the acquisition of the materials.
This tells us Democrats and their media supporters are concerned that the election is closer than some polls have indicated and that they are worried learning that Biden hasn’t had the clean hands on the issue that he’s said he has and that it could sway some voters.
As we have noted before, no matter how much influence the elder Biden had or did not have regarding his son’s position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, it strains the credibility that the two never discussed the situation. The son of the vice president of the United States taking a position on the board of a corrupt energy company in a volatile nation once part of the Soviet Union, and they don’t talk about such a placement?
When you have been a part of the Washington, D.C., swamp for 47 years, as Biden has, we believe this type of look-the-other-way activity unfortunately tends to become second nature. Not for everyone but for many.
Many voters elected Trump — with all his faults — four years ago because he wasn’t a part of the swamp. It would be doubly unfortunate — no matter what the exact truth turns out to be on the Hunter Biden mess, if it’s ever officially uncovered — if voters put the swamp back in charge of the country.
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(c)2020 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
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