Biden scandal: ‘As serious as four heart attacks and a stroke’
First word
THAT’s how lethal the NewYork Post bombshell on Hunter Biden’s emails could be vis-à-vis the US presidential election on November 3.
One media organization described the Post report as the “October surprise” of the 2020 election. (For several elections US voters have been treated to October surprises exploding right before the voting.)
The Post itself described its exposé as a “smoking gun” that will prove what Trump has been saying about Joe Biden. ( The term “smoking gun” refers to conclusive evidence of a crime or similar act just short of being caught in flagrante delicto.)
These are catchy descriptions of the exposé, but it was Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana ( no relation to JFK) who characterized it best of all. He said the Biden report is as serious as “four heart attacks and a stroke.’’
“Every single solitary responsible news organization needs to be investigating the veracity of these allegations and these emails,” he said.
Post’s original report
The original Post report on October 14 was headlined: “Smoking- gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad” and was by- lined by EmmaJo Morris and Gabrielle Fonrouge. The report said:
Hunter Biden introduced his father, then Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm, Burisma, less than a year before the elder Biden allegedly pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post.
The never- before- revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.
“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [ sic] some time together. It’s realty [ sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.
An earlier email from May 2014 also shows Pozharskyi, reportedly Burisma’s No. 3 executive, asking Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf.
The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer.
Facebook, Twitter censor New York Post report
As the story gained traction Wednesday, Facebook and Twitter limited its distribution, citing concerns surrounding the legitimacy of the report.
This drew Senator Kennedy’s ire: “The New York Post is a responsible, reputable news organization. It is subject to the libel laws and the defamation laws of our country. If social media is playing favorites and trying to pick winners and losers and discriminating against the NewYorkPost because it doesn’t like the article — that is wrong, if that’s what’s going on.”
“Here’s what we do know and it’s important,” Kennedy said. “President Obama put Vice President Biden in charge of America’s foreign affairs with two countries, Ukraine and China — and in both cases, his son, Mr. Hunter Biden walked away with millions of dollars of contracts.
“I’m not accusing anybody of anything,” Kennedy added, “but I’m telling you this: This is the message that is sent to the rest of the world. The foreign policy of the United States of America can be bought like a sack of potatoes, and that’s a disservice to America and to the world.”
The mainstream media went into overdrive to dismiss the New York Post bombshell revealing damning emails allegedly found on Hunter Biden’s computer, with some outlets simply ignoring the development and others doing their best to cast the report as dubious.
The Post report touched on suggestions that the former vice president’s son had unscrupulous financial and business ties to a natural gas firm in Ukraine — Burisma Holdings — and that his father later stepped in to have a probing prosecutor fired for looking into the matter.
The article also claimed that Fox had been given emails showing Hunter had introduced his father to a top executive at the energy firm, less than a year before the prosecutor was forced out.
If true, the developments could be extremely damning to the Democrat less than three weeks before the election, but many media organizations were shockingly incurious about the October surprise.
The controversy escalated throughout the day after both Facebook and Twitter began suppressing the Post’s report on their platforms, claiming it violated their policies against hacking and publishing certain private information, sparking major backlash from conservative journalists and lawmakers. Twitter’s own CEO Jack Dorsey even admitted they botched the situation.
“Being the loyal Democratic foot soldiers that they were, ABC, CBS and NBC all censored the bombshell from their evening newscasts,” NewsBusters analyst Nicholas Fondacaro wrote.
“It’s really no wonder the liberal networks were hiding this extremely damaging information from their viewers,” Fondacaro added. “And since they refused to cover the Post’s bombshell, by extension they couldn’t talk about Orwellian censorship from Facebook and Twitter as they tried to frantically stop the story from spreading.”
Hunter’s deals with China
The Post was not done, however. The following day, on October 15, it published a second story with the disclosure that new Hunter Biden emails detail his alleged dealings with a Chinese energy firm.
The newly obtained emails provide more details about Hunter Biden’s purported overseas business dealings dating back to 2015, including alleged efforts to secure a lucrative relationship with a Chinese energy company.
One email, dated May 13, 2017 and obtained by Fox News, includes a discussion of “remuneration packages” for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Biden as “chair/ vice chair depending on agreement with CEFC,” in an apparent reference to now- bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.
The email includes a note that “Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.” A proposed equity split references “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” with no further details.
The second email, dated Aug. 2, 2017 and sent by “Robert Biden,” involves a deal where it appears Hunter Biden is seeking at least $ 10 million per year.
“Consulting fees is one piece of our income stream but the reason this proposal by the chairman was so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners inn [ sic] the equity and profits of the JV’s investments,” it said.
Can Biden survive?
Will Joe Biden survive this explosive scandal long enough to seriously contest the presidency with Donald Trump on November 3? Can he hold his lead in the polls? Could US voters be so careless as to vote into office a man whose int e g r i t y is riddled with so much doubt, and receive his family into the White House with its record of sleaze?
I have my doubts whether America will wake up on November 4 with Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.
First, he must survive the “four heart attacks and a stroke.”