August 1, 2023

"Until it is proved otherwise, I will find it extremely hard to believe that the president was a party to his son’s nefarious schemes."

"But he enabled them. What on earth was Hunter Biden doing on that 2013 plane to China with his father, then the vice president? Why, after all of Hunter Biden’s dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, did Joe Biden countenance hundreds of thousands of dollars in 'art sales' by his son in recent years, art — to my untrained eye — best displayed on the walls of budget motels? Who bought the stuff and why? Why was Joe Biden... so slow to embrace the grandchild that Hunter Biden had fathered? Why, after the younger Biden tried to cop to a plea deal on tax and gun charges, did the elder Biden invite him to, of all places, a White House state dinner?..."

Writes Joe Klein in "How Joe Biden’s compassion for his son blew up in his face" (WaPo).

"[I]t is not enough for the White House to slough off Hunter Biden’s various depravities by saying, he 'is a private citizen, and this was a personal matter.' The attempt to peddle influence is a very public matter.... Joe Biden’s response to his wayward son conveys a softness, a permissiveness that damages his public reputation — and might cost him votes in an election where everything is at stake.... There is an opportunity here. The issue of drug addiction is alive, electric and very much with us.... It would be a chance to grieve and mourn and to inspire — like Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing or Barack Obama after the Charleston, S.C., church murders."

Well, that doesn't make much sense! First, it's not like Charleston and Oklahoma City, which had nothing to do with the President's family and where the President had no personal involvement and no interest in embracing the wrongdoer. Second, Hunter Biden isn't under attack for using drugs. The attacks have to do with his business dealings, and Joe Biden has some involvement in these deals and needs to find a way to extricate himself.

Klein resists believing that Joe Biden was "a party" to Hunter Biden's schemes, but he states outright that Joe "enabled" Hunter's schemes. He's implicated. You can see that Klein is trying to use drug talk to disconnect Joe from Hunter. That word "enabled" seems like an effort to make business dealings look like drug problems. Then Dad isn't corrupt, he's just too "soft," too full of "compassion." These are sentimental shortcomings. So Joe needs to put on a performance of tough love in the theater of Dads Who Love Too Much. That's the idea Klein seems to think is brilliant. He must think we're idiots. 

110 comments:

Narr said...

"He must think we're idiots." The Ds are counting on the voters to be as disconnected as they are.

And the line has laid out on The View days ago: the eeevil Republicans are weaponizing a father's love for his son.






Don B. said...

The Biden years are turning out to be just as entertaining as the previous four.

Yancey Ward said...

Perhaps these pundits should declare right now what, in their own words, would constitute proof that Joe Biden sold favors through his son? Right now, in my not so humble opinion, it is untenable to believe that he didn't do so. The people paying Hunter Biden certainly believed they were buying favors because there is literally no other sensible reason to give a wastrel like Hunter Biden the kinds of money he was being given, and we know of one favor asked for and received from Joe Biden, the Shokin firing.

So, Joe Klein, what would it take for you to admit that Biden was selling out his office?

Tommy Duncan said...

Cornell Law:

"An accessory is someone who aided or contributed to the commission or concealment of a crime. There are two categories of accessories: accessory before-the-fact and accessory after-the-fact. Unlike an accomplice, an accessory does not need to have been actually or constructively present during the commission or concealment of the crime.'

Mr Wibble said...

So the defense of Biden is, "he's not a corrupt scumbag who used his son to launder tens of millions of dollars into the Biden family coffers, but a confused old man who didn't realize the obvious ways in which his drug-addict, scumbag son was using him to defraud foreign businessmen, and no one ever warned him that this might be a problem?" Really, go with that.

RMc said...

"I will find it extremely hard to believe that the president was a party to his son’s nefarious schemes."

does not go with

"What on earth was Hunter Biden doing on that 2013 plane to China with his father, then the vice president? Why, after all of Hunter Biden’s dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, did Joe Biden countenance hundreds of thousands of dollars in 'art sales' by his son in recent years, art — to my untrained eye — best displayed on the walls of budget motels? Who bought the stuff and why? Why was Joe Biden... so slow to embrace the grandchild that Hunter Biden had fathered? Why, after the younger Biden tried to cop to a plea deal on tax and gun charges, did the elder Biden invite him to, of all places, a White House state dinner?..."

AlbertAnonymous said...

These people are un-fucking believable.

Why exactly does he find it so hard to believe Joe was involved? Joe had been a grifter for 50 years (literally). Why would Klein expect anything different during his vice presidency?

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that there’s anybody out there that honestly thinks Joe would never do such a thing.

Mikey NTH said...

It's always fascinating to watch someone try to admit what they always knew, but could never before acknowledge. With sufficient baby steps they will get there with never retracting the previous position.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I don't find it hard to believe at all. Like HRC, JRB just oozes corrupt Establishment slime.

Ice Nine said...

This clown, Klein, has a serious eye scaling problem.

Gahrie said...

So Joe needs to put on a performance of tough love in the theater of Dads Who Love Too Much. That's the idea Klein seems to think is brilliant. He must think we're idiots.

I'm willing to bet it works on at least 50% of women.

iowan2 said...

Bullshit.

Yesterday they tried the dead Beu excuse.

My dad always said ignorance is no excuse. I person as smart as I should have figured it out.
(gee Dad, I didn't know there was beef there)

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

There is plenty of proof Biden and his brother and son were all in on it.
The media ignore Tony Bobolinksi. The media ignore all the proof.

Aggie said...

It's getting a little comical now, all that's missing from the talking heads (fingers in ears) is the 'La, La, La, I can't hear yooooo....'

Ye$, all Joe-Klien a$ide, it'$ all ju$t a great, big My$tery, but I'm $ure there'$ no $serious nefariou$ne$$ involved!

Jake said...

I wonder if he gives the same benefit to Trump. Or to people that questioned mandatory vaccines?

Original Mike said...

"He must think we're idiots."

Or, he himself is one. But I think it's the former.

We may be in a new stage, where the lefties are admitting it to themselves, but hoping against hope that Joe isn't dirty. If Joe is clean, he needs to open up his finances to public scrutiny. But he won't, because he can't.

tastid212 said...

Joe Klein is smart enough to understand what's really going on in the Biden business and in Joe's changing public responses. So this late attempt to excuse all the family's behavior is unworthy of him, unless he's trying to pretend he's part of the "Gosh, I had no idea" crowd.

Unknown said...


It's always like this. When caught in a lie, retreat and dig in to a new position.

To paraphrase Churchill: We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender Joe Biden.

RNB said...

"Yes, he did all those things -- but he has a really good explanation!"

Leland said...

Why do they pretend there isn't video of Biden extorting Ukrainian officials to fire the prosecutor that was investigating his son's firm? It was extortion as shown, and that was plenty sufficient to impeach Trump. But now we have the connection to Joe communicating with Hunter's colleagues and the money coming into Hunter's account. Maybe that is not proven in an trial, but that didn't stop these clowns for believing the Steele Dossier.

Mason G said...

"Until it is proved otherwise..."

Brandon could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue with a megaphone, admit he took bribes and some people would still claim there was no proof.

mezzrow said...

After awhile, your intelligence is insulted so often and so casually that you can fail to even notice. You start to expect it, and then you take it for granted.

They really do think that we proles are stupid enough to let them get away with all of it. We won't know whether or not they are right for some months. Many of my closest friends are very stupid this way, especially the ones with advanced degrees.

gspencer said...

"I find it extremely hard to believe that the president was a party of his son's nefarious schemes"

Good one. Vegas is always looking for new comedians.

And to boot Klein has it wrong: it was Hunter who was a party to his father's nefarious schemes. Hunter was simply the doofus bag man (several of the emails show that Biden's targets considered Hunter as stupid). Joe showed Hunter the ropes. Biden started the grifting just after he became a senator - at age 30!!! - when he saw how much he could rake in for NO work. His first targets were the Delaware-based credit card companies who were themselves so willing to pay off pols for the advantages.

rhhardin said...

He must think we're idiots

They're after women, as the text shows for that matter. They think women are women and go for feelings over structure. Structure is taking payoffs and delivering stuff. If you're a guy you care more about that than women, who are after only whether Joe meant well.

If Joe can pull that off he'll even get Althouse, who at the moment suspects that Joe didn't mean well, and that's decisive unless Joe can change it.

Guys already voted against Biden last time and will do it again, so they're lost to the dems.

Jupiter said...

"He must think we're idiots."

Oh, I don't know about that. I think Joe Klein has a pretty good idea what fraction of the populace finds his absurd babbling persuasive. He's paid to do this. He would stop getting paid immediately if he refused to do this. This is Joe Klein, living his best life.

John henry said...

Mussolini invented Fascism and imposed it on Italy.

He brought a fair amount of economic progress to Italy. Most famously he made the trains run on time and, by draining the Pontine Marshes, took a huge bite out of malaria in Italy.

Mussolini and his family, for all their faults, was not particularly corrupt.

With Brandon & Co we get the bad parts of fascism plus corruption and don't even get the economic progress.

Time to go, Joe. It was time 30 years ago. Now you are really past due.

Donald Trump was the least authoritarian president of the the last 100. He was and is anti-fascist. The "Ultimate Antifa" if you like.

John Henry

rhhardin said...

Nefarious schemes seems like it should involve a nephew.

Jupiter said...

Then again, maybe Joe Klein had a run-in with one of those two-headed toxic worms that recently showed up in DC. Poor man is delusional. In the final stages, the eyes recede into the skull, revealing the hollow cavity behind them. Poor Joe.

Gospace said...

I'm not going to look up the exact quote or who said it:

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

John henry said...


It is time for Kamal to resign, our president emeritus to be named and confirmed as VP then succeed Brandon in the oval.

This is an idea so simple and elegant that even lifelong republicans like chuck will be in favor.

Though to maintain his self-created image, I forecast that he will claim to oppose it. (do not let me down, Chuck)


John Henry

Michael K said...

The bullshit from Democrats is getting very deep. What do they think Hunter was providing in the way of skills ? Selfies with hookers ?

JZ said...

Joe Klein is stupid. He hasn’t tried to find the truth. He hasn’t heard about The Big Guy who gets10 percent? He hasn’t noticed that Joe Biden has been a big liar for 40 years. Joe Klein should be embarrassed. Joe Biden should be embarrassed. It’s all so depressing.

J Melcher said...

"Nefarious Schemes?" Hunter? Surely not. What slanted, biased, hateful language!

I'm so old I remember when boyish errors of this sort were kindly referred to as "foibles". Ah, the good old days, when civility reigned.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Pure Horseshit.

gspencer said...

"He [Klein] must think we're idiots."

Rumors have swirled for years of Biden as a huckster, willing to take money for doing some favors, favors that didn't cost Biden a cent. He'd get the grift and give you a smile, and tell the suckers he was Lunch Bucket Joe from Scanton.

And he's let everyone know he was a good Catholic, a very good Catholic. After all, he carried around his rosary beads.

Have you ever seen the house Biden lives in? All on a government salary. Seems legit, right,

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/a33809100/joe-biden-real-estate-homes/

cassandra lite said...

It's wonderful to be able to so effortlessly believe the best of the people you support and the worst of those you oppose--and get paid to do it.

Biff said...

Good Old Uncle Joe Klein asked some Good Old Questions about Good Old Uncle Joe Biden.

It is a good example of Mr. Klein saying exactly what he thinks without saying exactly what he thinks.

Hey Skipper said...

“Until it is proved otherwise, I will find it extremely hard to believe that the president was a party to his son’s nefarious schemes."

Dafuq?

Joe Klein has just comprehensively answered the challenge: “How to I say I am third assistant village idiot without saying I am third assistant village idiot”.

Gusty Winds said...

Libs are all in on the "loving father" talking point. I think Ana Navarro was the first instructed to let it loose on The View. That was like a week or two ago. Same defense on Morning Joe today.

The money, favors, and consequences are TOO BIG. The stakes are too high for this to be explained by "loving father" bullshit. They want you to think Hunter was leading Joe "The Big Guy" around by his loving, corrupt, senile nose.

Joe was the hunter, and Hunter was the bird dog.

I don't think the Bidens are the only political family that were in on the Ukraine gravy train. It's why they impeached Trump. All this money flowing through Ukraine to American politicians, and now we are paying for a war in Ukraine. They're not connected???

On the world stage, do you see what these assholes are willing to fuck with??

These sick fuckers are willing to let people die in the Ukraine war...to cover their uncovered asses. "Loving father" my ass.

Big Mike said...

That's the idea Klein seems to think is brilliant. He must think we're idiots.

Yup. Once in a while they’re a bit too obvious, aren’t they? It comes with viewing themselves as Masters of the Universe, or at least several steps above folks like us. Joe Biden wouldn’t be in the White House if a lot of people weren’t seriously gullible, but pushing the idea that perjury under oath was “just a little lie about sex” worked for Bill Clinton and they probably figure if they can just find the right messaging they can get Joe off the hook, too.

Jersey Fled said...

Yep. Joe did it all because he was such a great guy.

tim in vermont said...

How much proof exactly will it take? Hunter got an email from Burisma, which had paid him substantial amounts of money, asking him to make the investigation go away.

Days later, this gets underway, and Joe Biden uses the exact same threat that Trump allegedly used against Ukraine, to get Ukraine to fire the prosecutor.

Hunter commiserated with his sister on the laptop about how his father took half of their income. Why would he lie to his sister about something that they would both be intimately familiar with? Why didn't she call him out on it if it weren't true?

Hunter and Joe have been shown to commingle their accounts.

What will it take?

Arashi said...

The entire family is part of the grift. At this point, only delusional folks refuse to believe this - or they are part of the corruption in DC. While I am certain that there is more than enough evidence to take the whole family to trial, I doubt that our corrupt institutions will follow the law and do what they are supposed to do.

Buckwheathikes said...

Joe Klein in the bargaining phase, two small steps away from acceptance.

That's progress.

Right?

But not for Joe Biden.

Duke Dan said...

Hard to believe ?

When this guy looks in the mirror in the morning does he even see the nose on his face?

Roger Sweeny said...

He doesn't think we're idiots. He just thinks lots of us want a "reason to believe". A way to wave away any responsibility by the man who is president of the United States and the symbolic head of the Democratic Party.

joe said...

Joe Klein is the idiot if he thinks anyone is going to buy this claptrap.

Earnest Prole said...

Looking at it from the other side, when you tell your adult son his highest value as a human being is working as a bag man for your corrupt grifting schemes, is it any wonder he ended up a crack-and-whore addict?

Dave Begley said...

The vast majority of the readers of the Washington Post are idiots.

Chuck said...

In one of this evening's preceding posts, Althouse poses, not unreasonably, a sort of a question about how average people will view yet another Trump indictment:

ADDED: I have a feeling most people aren't going to understand that this is something new! Just in the last few minutes, I've heard: "I’ve officially lost track of all his indictments" and "I don’t know how that’s different from the old news."

So if that is a question related to the orange man who takes up all the oxygen in any room where his face appears, and there are actual criminal charges that will lead to society-stopping jury trials... are "most people" going to keep up with Hunter Biden's laptop? Are people going to keep up with things like the list of suspicious Burisma characters or the banking forms that the Conservative Treehouse is obsessed with?

YoungHegelian said...

He must think we're idiots.

Well, Joe Klein must know lots of people like the Democrats in my FB feed, because they are idiots.

But, remember, this is at one level a story of epic corruption at the highest levels of government. But, the failure of the Biden administration at pretty much everything combined with its corruption implicates almost the entirety of the Democratic Party extended machine --- the Democratic politicians up & down the line, federal agency upon federal agency, almost all media outlets, academia, etc.

These are people who all their lives have seen themselves as not only the "Good Guys", they've seen themselves as the height of competency. To now be discovering that they are neither is simply too much self-awareness for human beings to bear. Especially since the concomitant story is that the people they consider their social and moral inferiors were right!

This will not end well. It may be time to start thinking about stocking up on food and supplies.

tim in vermont said...

LOL, Joe Biden met with Russian billionaire oligarch, the former wife of the mayor of Moscow, after an investment of $40MM in Hunter's real estate firm, and a $3.5 MM payment to Hunter's company, and was subsequently, and oddly, left off of the list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Joe Klien is the Simi Vally jury in the Rodney King trial. Every piece of evidence goes into a silo, and it's not allowed to connect it with any other piece of evidence.

PM said...

Whatta guy that Joe.

Dagwood said...

Whatever he thinks of us, Klein is a brainwashed delusional fool.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

A grownup has spoken.

If you substitute Hunter’s name with Trump’s son, doing the things Hunter is alleged to have done using his father Trump while Trump was president. Nothing short of resignation would do. A senate vote convicting Trump would have been near unanimous.

Paul said...

Oh come one... he sat in on the meetings to extort money. And they KNEW 'Big Daddy' was sitting in on the meetings!! The TALKED TO THEM!!!

So he was a party to them. Set up shell companies to get the money. Hid it from the IRS.

Only question is.. did Biden pass secrets to them!

gilbar said...

resident Biden has been adamant from the start, he's not in business with Hunter..\
that is to say..
resident Biden has been adamant from the start, he doesn't want YOU to think he's in business with Hunter
i mean, SURE he's received Tens of MILLIONS of dollars through Hunter, but it's ALL been laundered..
There's no smell on the money (any more); so, it's ALL fine!!

William said...

I understand why Biden doesn't choose to just finish out his term. It's the same reason why RBG hung around for a season too long. Power is a far more addictive drug than anything Hunter fooled aroudn with. What I don't understand is why there isn't any pressure from voices within the Democratic Party for him to just wrap it up. He's clearly addled and halting in speech and gait. Now there's all this stink around his family's business dealings. Why are the Dems so committed to enabling this man. Biden never inspired much love or attention when he was a Senator or Vice-President. His Presidency has not been fraught with accomplishments or bright beginnings. I don't get it. What's the appeal?

Masscon said...

Why yes, yes he does.

Joe Bar said...

Do not worry. Xio Bai Den will be nominated again. And, he will probably "win." All is well, Citizens.

Mary Beth said...

Rep. Daniel Goldman said (on MSNBC) that at the time Hunter was calling his father and putting him on speakerphone was at the time Beau Biden had died. He said they were talking daily because of their grief.

During dinner parties, Hunter would call Joe and ask him to say hello to the people he was with. Rep. Goldman said, "This may have been Hunter's effort to say, hey, this is, you know, the vice president, this is my dad, but the critical part here for Congress, and that's what we have to make sure we understand is that Joe Biden was doing nothing to benefit his son."

It sounds like Goldman is saying that Hunter Biden is a sociopath who is so lacking in empathy, he took advantage of his dad's grief to make it look like Hunter could provide access to him for people he was associating with. Goldman may be trying to protect Joe, but (at least to me) it sounds like he is making Hunter out to be a monster.

Sebastian said...

"Klein resists believing that Joe Biden was "a party" to Hunter Biden's schemes, but he states outright that Joe "enabled" Hunter's schemes. He's implicated."

Right. But he was just saying hello, and who wouldn't?

"You can see that Klein is trying to use drug talk to disconnect Joe from Hunter. That word "enabled" seems like an effort to make business dealings look like drug problems."

It's the medicalization of political corruption.

"Then Dad isn't corrupt, he's just too "soft," too full of "compassion." These are sentimental shortcomings."

Right. But then, following the Althouse theorem, we have to ask: do progs believe what they profess to believe? Do they actually think Joe is too soft, as opposed to a nasty, lying, calculating grifter?

"He must think we're idiots."

No. Just that enough women will buy the theater, abortion being more important than corruption.

Original Mike said...

"He must think we're idiots."

It's not about convincing anyone. It's to telegraph to the faithful their next line of defense.

Rhonda said...

He does….think we’re idiots. Hey it’s worked so far right?

FullMoon said...

Make us all believers, simply explain Hunter's qualifications for a position paying tens of thousands of dollars a month.

donald said...

Joe Klein is still alive. Who knew?

walter said...

We're supposed to forget the emails of Hunter complaining to family about being put in the position of brokering the deals. Screw the idea that Pedo Pete and brother Jim "cared too much".

LilyBart said...

No, Biden is corrupt. It strongly appears that he, through Hunter, sold access of the US power and influence. He was personally enriched by it.

donald said...

Joe Klein’s job has always been to blow democrats Party powerbrokers.

GrapeApe said...

Of course Joe knew. Hell, I am 58 and my Ma knows where I get my money. Joe knew. And got his cut. Criminal.

Goldenpause said...

Joe Klein is in denial. He has bought Joe Biden’s “Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?” argument hook, line and sinker. Pathetic.

jnseward said...

Hunter Biden was not some kind of drug-addled embarrassment to Joe Biden. He was Joe Biden's bag man. This was the family business going back decades.

hawkeyedjb said...

When your job is to cover for The Big Guy, this is probably the best you can do.

jnseward said...

Hunter Biden was not some kind of drug addled embarrassment to Joe Biden. He was his father's bag man, part of the family business going back decades.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Joe Klein...joe klein...where have I heard that name before? Is this the ink-stained wretch who puked up a Bill Clinton hagiography published anonymously and then oozed out of the shadows after the book became an accessory for Democrat Party members?

Friend of the Fish Folk said...

Until they have a signed check with “For Bribes” in the memo line, these dunces will pretend that they can’t see the obvious grift for what it was.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Joe Biden has been a grifter for over 50 years. He started selling influence right after his 1972 election. Joe Klein is part of the Mushroom Media Complex, always spinning lies to protect his Democrat politician buddies. Reality has now bitten Klein in the butt and he can't deal with it.

Ampersand said...

The problem for the Joe Kleins is that there isn't a middle ground. Either Joe Biden was addicted to love, or he's a small time grifter thrown into the big leagues, pretending he knew how to hit big league pitching.

traditionalguy said...

Pure spin. Not an authentic word in that crafty piece. I guess he has not noticed that all things spoken by Biden have been lies for the last 50 years.

Shoeless Joe said...

10% for the Big Guy.

Mutaman said...

"and Joe Biden has some involvement in these deals "

And someday the Know Nothings might actually come up with some evidence supporting this claim.

Skeptical Voter said...

Technically speaking, Joe Klein is trying to sell a load of codswallop--or worse.

But Team Biden and its supporters will keep trying different things to gaslight the public. KJP is going to have to up her Baghdad Bob shtick to get Joe out of this one.

Wa St Blogger said...

That's the idea Klein seems to think is brilliant. He must think we're idiots.

He didn't write that for you. or for most of us either. He did create a plausible deniability that some of your commentariat will glom onto feverishly.

No, he wrote this for the 10's of millions of white urban females who will now see Biden not only as a compassionate father who loves his son too much, but as a sympathetic victim of the right wing smear machine. They are now more motivated to vote for him.

I believe Klein believes Biden is guilty, but he will not give quarter to the opposition. He could see Biden take a suitcase full of money and an Executive Order from the Chinese consulate removing US support for Taiwan, and literally sign it on national television, and Klein will find some reason to need "Proof" that Biden took a bribe.

And one more point. Klein does not think to suburban women are idiots, either. He KNOWS they are.

Skeptical Voter said...

I thought some more about Joe Klein saying that he found it hard to believe that Biden was really involved in all of this. Well you never know what someone actually believes--that's an internal process and if Klein says he believes "X" you can't prove otherwise.

But Klein's use of the word believe reminded me of the lyrics of the late Tim Hardin's song 'Reason to Believe". It certainly fits the Dim's adulation of good old Slow Joe. the first verse of the song certainly describes Slow Joe and his acolytes>

"If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied sraight faced while I cried
Still, I'd look to find a reason to believe".

Hardin's version of his own song is wonderful--but it was covered by Rod Stewart and had much greater airplay.

Narayanan said...

Technically speaking, Joe Klein is trying to sell a load of codswallop--or worse.
=======
which translates to >>> if only FJB could have been advanced sums of money for writing a book [I mean a gem of a peice of literature] and Hunter could have illustrated it!

Narayanan said...

Is it grooming? or enabling? where to draw the line?

FJB was grooming his progeny and they have no escape.

tim in vermont said...

"And someday the Know Nothings might actually come up with some evidence supporting this claim."

Well, if it isn't broadcast on NPR or MSNBC, it didn't happen, I guess, but the real "know nothings" are the people who limit their news intake to Joe Biden's pretorian guard media outlets, which include Fox News, BTW.

tim in vermont said...

You know, Chuck, the Democrats could run somebody else to beat Trump. It should be dirt simple.

Crazy World said...

It’s all just so surreal, like a huge psych op

Narayanan said...

Plausible Deniability >> ask Joe Klein can he define and give examples

tommyesq said...

What on earth was Hunter Biden doing on that 2013 plane to China with his father, then the vice president?

Putting aside Joe Biden, I find it incredibly hard to believe that Obama didn't know all about this and at least tacitly approve.

iowan2 said...

Business is selling a service, or product.

Joe Klien, etal, need to be forced to define this amorphous "business".

tim in vermont said...

"What on earth was Hunter Biden doing on that 2013 plane to China..."

"Chaperoning" his young niece who later showed up on video on the laptop. Not making this up either.

JAORE said...

I hear a LOT of people on the left saying, "There is no evidence of money going directly to Joe".

No shit. Isn't that the purpose of shell corporations? Burner phones? Names like "the big guy"?

If that's the standard required (like video of a bag-o-cash being handed over with audio saying, "Thanks, I'll get that favor put into legislation for you now" we-B-doomed.

Also:
"Well, that doesn't make much sense!" Evergreen comment on Klein's work.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

"Putting aside Joe Biden, I find it incredibly hard to believe that Obama didn't know all about this and at least tacitly approve."

How much did Obama get for protecting and enabling Joe "I love cluster bombs and China owns me" Biden?

pacwest said...

Putting aside Joe Biden, I find it incredibly hard to believe that Obama didn't know all about this and at least tacitly approve.

Whatever the the final tally of the booty the Biden family got out of his eight years in the VP slot I can guarantee it was chump change. If anyone thinks Biden, not the Clinton machine or the people who were running the Obama show, was making the big bucks they're idiots. Everyone around him knew he was a moron before he was picked as the VP. Throw him a couple of bones and keep him happy. It's not like he sold our uranium to the Russians or anything.

Realizing that 30 to 50 million is leftovers does bring the scope of the Dem corruption into context though.

Chuck said...

tim in vermont said...
You know, Chuck, the Democrats could run somebody else to beat Trump. It should be dirt simple.


I do know that. I understand it, and mostly agree with it. In greater particularity, I understand that the ticket does not need to be "Joe Biden/Kamala Harris." I wish it weren't.

There is a long list of people I'd like to see beat Trump. Like, almost anybody. But more to your point, there is a long list of people I'd rather see become President, than Biden. About 3/4 of the members of the U.S. Senate would be preferable, to me. And of course at the very top of the list of who would be great as president would be Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger.

But Job One is to beat Trump. It shouldn't be too hard; but it's easy to see how dug in the two-time Trump voters are. As it was on Cemetery Ridge 160 years ago, there's no talking this out with the other side. They just need to be beaten. Then we can talk.

Robert Cook said...

To Joe Klein: If, as seems very possible, Joe Biden "enabled" his son's "nefarious schemes," (a euphemism for "unlawful acts," or "crimes," more succinctly), he is a "party" to those "nefarious schemes."

Rusty said...

"If Joe can pull that off he'll even get Althouse, who at the moment suspects that Joe didn't mean well, and that's decisive unless Joe can change it."
Not even Althouse is that over educated.

Rusty said...

Mutaman.
It's all there on the laptop.

Robert Cook said...

I wonder why those condemning Prezzie Joe and/or his son for their grifting aren't also agitated at the activities of the Trump Family Grifters? (No answers needed; it's rhetorical question.)

pacwest said...

Trump Family Grifters?

And the "grift" was???? You might have an easier time using nepotism.

s'opihjerdt said...

Will: auxiliary verb ... used to express desire, choice, willingness, consent, or in negative constructions refusal.

Miriam Webster Dictionary

mikee said...

Robert Cook condemns the Trump Family Grifters. Show me the Abraham Accords created by Hunter Biden while he grifted his way around the world. If a political family is gonna grift, the least they can do is successfully promote world peace and prosperity. C'mon, man!

MadisonMan said...

Joe Klein asks a lot of Questions about Biden's actions. I'll answer them: Because Biden knows that the Press will never investigate him.
Biden wasn't even mentioned in the local paper today. That's today's press for you.

Josephbleau said...

"Until it is proved otherwise, I will find it extremely hard to believe that the president was a party to his son’s nefarious schemes."
"But he enabled them. "

In the modern vernacular, what does this even mean? I was not a party to the crime, but I enabled it? Is that what we mean by a conspiracy to commit a crime?

Original Mike said...

Blogger Mutaman said...
"and Joe Biden has some involvement in these deals "

And someday the Know Nothings might actually come up with some evidence supporting this claim.


HERE is who Klein is writing for.

Narr said...

Cook must have missed the investigations of the Trump Family that took place in the last several years. To summarize, the Imperial Blob's Organs of State Security, with the full-throated approval of the MSM, employed all their tools and skills to bring down a president that they knew better than anyone was legitimately elected.

All I would like is to see a fraction of the attention paid to the Trumps be given to the Bidens.

FTR I've always considered Biden to be a corrupt asshole, a late representative of the tribe of old-line Southern (Border State) Democrat favor-sellers like Byrd.

walter said...

"And of course at the very top of the list of who would be great as president would be Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and Adam Kinzinger."
Are we sure Chuck! isn't a Parody account?

Jim at said...

Until they have a signed check with “For Bribes” in the memo line, these dunces will pretend that they can’t see the obvious grift for what it was.

Followed - predictably - by this gem from Mutaman: And someday the Know Nothings might actually come up with some evidence supporting this claim.

Dunce is too kind of a word for people like this.