https://townhall.com/columnists/davidharsanyi/2019/06/14/hey-joe-biden-here-are-some-scandals-you-forgot-n2548233
"Know
what I was most proud of?" presidential candidate Joe Biden told a crowd
on Wednesday. "For eight years, there wasn't one single hint of a scandal
or a lie."
In an era where every presidential tweet is an existential
threat to democracy, there are probably plenty of people who believe this myth.
Off the bat, though, it should be mentioned that even liberal fact-checking outfit
PolitiFact once awarded Barack Obama the "Lie of Year" for misleading
the American people about his technocratic health care plan.
Obama's most famous lie, of course, upturned millions of
lives. Without it, it's doubtful Obamacare -- which was perhaps the only wholly
partisan national reform effort in American history -- would ever have passed.
Even with a stream of falsehoods, the bill had to be shoehorned through
Congress. Media did a lot of heavy lifting for the administration in those
heady days.
"If you like your health care plan, you can keep
it" was only one of an array of demonstrably false statements fed to the
public. You might remember one of Obamacare's architects, Jonathan Gruber,
explaining how this "lack of transparency" compounded by "the
stupidity of the American voter" was a huge political advantage for the
administration. Or maybe you don't.
How many Americans knew, for instance, that "Operation
Fast and Furious" put around 2,000 weapons into the hands of
narco-traffickers (and an Islamic terrorist), leading to the murder of hundreds
of Mexican citizens, and at least one American, a border agent named Brian
Terry? Not enough.
There
must have been at least a sniff of scandal, by the way, because even after a
federal judge rejected Obama's assertion of executive privilege in efforts to
deny Congress files relating to the operation, the administration wouldn't
budge. Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, refused to cooperate, becoming
the first sitting attorney general in American history to be held in contempt
of Congress -- a vote that included 17 Democrats.
It's odd, because today asserting executive privilege is
exactly like Watergate. And ignoring courts? Well, Obama did that all the time.
Then again, Obama could secretly send planes filled with cash to pay ransom to
an Islamist terror state responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American
servicemen (using money that had been earmarked for terror victims), and most
reporters still regurgitated echo-chamber talking points. You remember Ben
Rhodes bragging about how the Obama administration could trick 27-years-olds
whose "only reporting experience consists of being around political
campaigns" because they "literally know nothing"?
Politico's Josh Meyer, who did know something, would write a
deeply sourced piece -- featuring numerous real-life, on-the-record
administration officials -- about the Obama administration's efforts to
undermine investigations into a drug-trafficking ring run by Hezbollah
operating in the United States, and most major news organizations never even
mentioned it.
Today, President Trump's Twitter attacks on CNN reporters are
threats to the future of free expression. Back in 2012, the Obama's Department
of Justice spied on the Associated Press, tapping around 20 different phone
lines -- including cell phone and home lines -- that captured at least 100
staffers who worked for the outlet. The government kept records of all outgoing
calls "for both the work and personal phone numbers of individual
reporters" and the main line used by reporters in the House of
Representatives.
The Justice Department had already spied on Fox News' James
Rosen in 2010, collecting his telephone records, looking at his personal emails
and tracking his movements. Holder, by the way, shopped the case to three
separate judges, until he found one who let him name Rosen a co-conspirator in
the crime of reporting the news.
There is,
of course, so much more. Obama's CIA director, John Brennan, oversaw an
operation of illegal spying on a staffer of the legislative branch. At least
five agency officials under his watch broke into Senate computer files. Brennan
would attempt to cover up the agency's actions by doubling down, blaming the
Senate, and pushing to fire at least one staffer charged with investigating his
agency.
Biden might not remember, but the Internal Revenue Service
leadership aggressively targeted conservative groups to undermine their voice
in elections. The IRS admitted as much in an apology letter. Then there was
Obama national security advisor Susan Rice, who went on national television and
claimed that terrorist attacks against Americans at Benghazi were a
"spontaneous reaction" to "hateful and offensive video,"
even when she knew it was a sophisticated and pre-planned terror attack.
Defenders of free expression were nowhere to be found when the maker of the
video was conveniently thrown into jail.
There were cronyistic green projects that enriched political
allies, the Secret Service's many embarrassing breaches and general debauchery,
Hillary Clinton's infamous attempts to circumvent transparency -- more than
likely to cover up favor-trading, and more seriously, Veterans Affairs
negligence.
Then again, perhaps Biden feels "most proud" of his
mythical eight years of non-scandals because it's about the only thing in his
political past he isn't going to be forced to abandon.
Is Joe Biden losing It?
He's tanned. He's rested. He's ready. But cripes, is he all there?
Joe Biden is making big end-of-the-campaign-style stumbles and gaffes as if the whole thing has already gotten him exhausted.
"Know what I was most proud of? For eight years, there wasn't one single hint of a scandal or a lie," he told a campaign rally, prompting catcalls on Twitter about how his memory is failing him.
Sound like a dotard telling himself how good the times past were?
That's not the half of it. Here's Biden the muddlehead at another campaign speech:
Biden says he doesn’t like labels, which is clearly him trying to stay away from the socialist label.But then he admits that he, Bernie, and his counterparts are all on the “same page.” Meaning, as he puts it, they all support universal health care, etc.
Socialism without the label, is that it? Apparently, he knows enough to know there is no human face that can be put on it, but not enough to know it's bad for a reason. Having his cake ...
Meanwhile, here's another kind of muddleheadedness, signaling outright ignorance, borne of someone who doesn't know his topic very well:
Former Vice President Joe Biden warned Tuesday the United States was in danger of losing to China in the race to fully embrace 5G wireless technology.
But Biden mistakenly called the technology “G5” instead of “5G.”“When the president is tweeting, they’re not sitting still, they’re going out and getting G5 and going to dominate,” Biden said. “What are we doing? What are we doing?”
Any more than the ease with which he taught inner city single moms in Detroit to code.
Or that he'll get cancer cured, you can bet on that.
How impressive he wanted to sound, knowing all about 5G or G5 or whatevs.
There were also his flip-flops on his support for the Hyde Amendment before he was against it, and his China stance. What does he stand for? Depends on the day you ask.
Politico says that even Democrats are starting to murmur about it:
In overt and indirect ways, questions about the former vice president’s age and vigor are increasingly surfacing within his own party, fueled by the former vice president’s relatively light campaign schedule and attempts to limit his public exposure. If elected, Biden would be 78 upon entering the White House — making him the oldest president ever to take the office.“It’s the 78-year-old elephant in the room,” said Miami-based consultant and pollster Fernand Amandi, who consulted for the Obama-Biden campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and is unaffiliated with any 2020 campaign.
“There is no question that what has propelled Vice President Biden to clear front-runner status is his unparalleled experience in contrast to his primary counterparts, but am I hearing gargantuan concerns among Democratic insiders about Biden’s advanced age, which is the very byproduct of that experience derived from a lifetime of public service? Absolutely, yes.”
Even the Democrats' grand old political lizard, David Axelrod is concerned:
Former Obama strategist David Alexrod wonders in a CNN op-ed published Tuesday whether former Vice President Joe Biden’s recent gaffes and flip-flops — a “shambling week” — represent a “bad omen” for the 2020 frontrunner’s campaign.The article comes after Axelrod warned Biden changing his position on the Hyde Amendment “raises questions about his own performance and his own steadiness and his campaign’s performance.”“I think that this was a parable about Biden that goes to question marks about his candidacy,” he advised last week on CNN’s New Day. “His rollout was flawless in my view and he’s had a very solid spring, but this underscores questions that people have had about whether he can go the distance.”
Any wonder President Trump is having a field day with Biden?
He's been quoted in the Associated Press making statements such as this:
“People don’t respect him,” Trump said after touring a renewable energy facility in Council Bluffs. “Even the people that he’s running against, they’re saying: ‘Where is he? What happened?’”
Here are two recent headlines from RealClearPolitics:
It sounds like Trump is going to bat Biden around like a chew toy on the Democratic campaign trail. And this doesn't even get into the live matter of Biden's handsiness on the little girls at assorted campaign rallies in the past, something Joe says he's a reformed man on.
Yet amazingly, Biden is the best the Democrats have to offer, the front runner, the guy who seems pegged for the number one spot. Roger Simon thinks it's so bad maybe Elizabeth Warren will eventually be the nominee, given this kind of performance. A fake Indian who gamed her way into ivy league teaching positions and now wants you to drink a beer with her.
Bottom line, it's starting to get noticed all over that Joe Biden is an old old race horse whose better days are behind him. Maybe it's time for him to go.
AMERICA: THE RICH GET MUCH RICHER
In 2014 the Russell Sage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2013, the median household net worth of those in the United States fell from $87,992 to $56,335—a drop of 36 percent. While the rich also saw their wealth drop during the recession, they are more than making that money back.
Between 2009 and 2012, 95 percent of all the income gains in the US went to the top 1 percent. This is the most distorted post-recession income gain on record.
Biden Calls for ‘Reordering Capitalism’ at $2,800-a-Head Fundraiser
3:08
Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke at a $2,800-a-head fundraiser on Wednesday and called for “reordering capitalism” to “save it.”
Biden, the Democrat frontrunner, made the remarks to a group of wealthy campaign donors in Chicago, Illinois, while discussing how to rebuild the middle class.
“Things have changed in a way that needs to be turned around,” Biden said. “It doesn’t require socialism and it doesn’t require some fundamental shift. It requires sort of reordering capitalism to make capitalism work and save it.”
He said that is the only way to give the middle class “a little bit of breathing room” in the face of rising economic inequality.
Biden did not elaborate on what “reordering capitalism” would entail. His vagueness is not necessarily surprising. Since announcing his presidential campaign, Biden has repeatedly touted his desire to “rebuild the middle class” but has provided few policy details for accomplishing the goal. In comparison, other 2020 Democrats, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), have released entire policy platforms about their plans to help the American worker.
Few of the outlets covering the remarks, however, noted the irony that Biden chose to critique capitalism at a high-profile fundraiser flanked by wealthy donors and elected officials.
The event was held at the luxury high rise residence of Robert Wislow, a real estate magnate and Democrat mega-donor, in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood. Once labeled as the seventh richest urban neighborhood in the country, Gold Coast is an elite enclave, home to some of the city’s most influential citizens.
Wislow, who co-hosted the fundraiser with longtime Biden confidant William Singer, is the chairman of the Chicago office of CBRE Group. The company, which is the largestcommercial real estate and investment firm in the world, had a revenue of $21.3 billion in 2018.
Tickets for the event, which was announced this month, were $2,800 per person—the maximum contribution allowed by the Federal Election Commission per election cycle. The guest list included former Obama-era Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL), along with a host of local elected officials and business leaders. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, those attending the exclusive 56th-floor fundraiser were treated to “sweeping views” of the Chicago skyline, including Trump Tower in the distance.
It is unclear how many individuals attended the event or how much money was raised. In recent weeks, Biden’s campaign has been pushing members of its national finance committee to raise $100,000 by the end of the year.
Biden’s remarks regarding “reordering capitalism” came on the same day Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a fellow White House contender, offered a public defense of democratic socialism. In a speech delivered to students at George Washington University, Sanders lambasted what he saw as “an economy that is fundamentally broken, and grotesquely unfair.”
“Millions of people get involved in the political process to reclaim our democracy by having the courage to take on the powerful corporate interests whose greed is destroying the social and economic fabric of our country,” Sanders said.
AMERICA: THE RICH GET MUCH RICHER
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