Watch: ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ Presents Deep Dive into Hunter Biden’s Ukraine, China Dealings
0:51
Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” ABC’s chief national correspondent Tom Llamas laid out some of the issues concerning some of former Vice President Joe Biden son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which appear to have coincided with certain events during the elder Biden’s term as VP.
Joe Biden, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, refused to answer questions about that topic when confronted on camera.
The report focuses on China and Ukraine, two places where the then-vice president was conducting diplomatic work, and the younger Biden.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
Ticking gets louder on
Biden's corruption time bomb
Watch:
ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ Presents Deep Dive into Hunter Biden’s Ukraine,
China Dealings
Pollak:
Joe Biden’s Fifty Years of Flip-Flops
Alex Wong / Getty
Former vice president Joe Biden faces an opponent possibly even more
formidable than President Donald Trump: himself.
Why Biden won’t get the Dem nomination
This comes days after a New York Times article renewed
interest in the revelations exposed in Peter Schweizer’s 2018 bestseller Secret Empires concerning
the sweetheart deals Hunter Biden’s private equity firm secured while his
father, Joe Biden, was vice president.
Obama
Adviser Downplays Biden’s Ukraine Corruption as ‘Conservative Oppo’ by Peter
Schweizer
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty
Images
One of former
President Barack Obama’s most senior advisers, Dan Pfeiffer, is downplaying
reporting by the New York Times on former Vice President Joe Biden’s Ukraine corruption, as the
scandal widens and severely threatens Biden’s 2020 White House chances.
Biden Faces Conflict
of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies
Biden Faces Conflict
of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies
Joe Biden, His Son
and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch
‘C’mon
Man!’ Joe Biden Scoffs at China Threat
Scott Olson/Getty
Images
Former Vice President Joe Biden dismissed the threat from China during
a 2020 campaign rally in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday.
No scandals? Biden repeats an old Obama whopper
Flashback–Biden
Cozied Up to General Motors CEO Mary Barra: ‘GM is Alive!’
Following former
President Obama’s billion-dollar American taxpayer bailout of multinational
automaker General Motors (GM), then-Vice President Joe Biden (D) cozied up to
CEO Mary Barra, who has since laid off thousands of American workers and
outsourced their jobs to Mexico and China.
Ticking gets louder on
Biden's corruption time bomb
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/06/ticking_gets_louder_on_bidens_corruption_time_bomb.html
People who think Joe Biden is the most
likely contender to win the Democrats' presidential nomination must believe
that the mainstream media will remain silent about the way his son Hunter
scored lucrative business deals with foreign governments after accompanying his
dad on overseas missions during the latter's vice presidency. (They
also must believe that his stupid gaffes will somehow end, but that's a
separate issue.)
Democratic presidential
candidate Joe Biden declined
to answer questions on the campaign trail this week about his son's overseas
business dealings in countries where the then-vice president was conducting
diplomatic work, an issue his political opponents have already begun to wield
against him as he wades into the 2020 presidential campaign.
More than once,
after his father engaged in diplomacy on behalf of the United States in foreign
countries, Hunter Biden conducted
business in
the same country. At two separate campaign stops on Monday, Biden avoided questions
about his son while his staff blocked reporters from approaching the candidate.
Biden's campaign
did provide ABC News with a statement saying the former vice president has
always adhered to "well-established executive branch ethics
standards," adding that if Biden wins the White House he will issue an
executive order to "address conflicts of interest of any kind."
"This
process will be set out in detail in the executive order," the statement
reads, "that President Biden would issue on his first day in office."
The ethics
pledge follows renewed questions about a pair of overseas business
opportunities involving Hunter Biden – one in Ukraine, another in China – that
already have begun to generate political attacks from Joe Biden's conservative
critics. Ethics experts interviewed by ABC News said these are legitimate
questions about possible past and future conflicts of interest.
Imagine that: ABC is taking up issues
that until now have been the exclusive province of "conservative
critics"! It must be sheer coincidence that this follows the
broadcast of interviews of Trump done by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, having
been granted an extraordinary amount of access to Trump.
You can watch the video segment ABC
broadcast yesterday below:
Hat
tip: Roger Luchs.
Watch:
ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ Presents Deep Dive into Hunter Biden’s Ukraine,
China Dealings
JEFF POOR
20 Jun 20193,561
0:51
Thursday on
ABC’s “Good Morning America,” ABC’s chief national correspondent Tom
Llamas laid out some of the issues
concerning some of former Vice President Joe Biden son Hunter Biden’s foreign
business dealings, which appear to have coincided with certain events during
the elder Biden’s term as VP.
Joe Biden, a
candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, refused to answer
questions about that topic when confronted on camera.
The report
focuses on China and Ukraine, two places where the then-vice president was
conducting diplomatic work, and the younger Biden.
Pollak:
Joe Biden’s Fifty Years of Flip-Flops
JOEL B. POLLAK
28 May 20192,058
5:40
Former vice president Joe Biden faces an opponent possibly even more
formidable than President Donald Trump: himself.
In a
half-century in Washington — spanning 36 years in the Senate and eight in the
Obama administration — Biden has flip-flopped on most major issues. On other issues,
his former positions are no longer viable within the Democratic Party.
Here is a
list of Biden’s reversals:
1. Abortion: Biden used to pride himself on a “middle of
the road” approach, supporting the pro-choice movement but maintaining
that Roe v. Wade went
too far. He also supported the
Hyde amendment, which prevents federal funding for abortion, and voted to ban
partial-birth abortions. He even voted to
allow states to overturn Roe. Recently,
however, Biden reversed his
position on the Hyde amendment, and condemned efforts
by states like Alabama to overturn Roe.
2. Iraq War: Biden voted against the Gulf War in 1991,
but voted in favor of the Iraq War in 2002. Like Hillary Clinton and John
Kerry, Biden regretted that vote later. Rather than backing a U.S. troop
“surge” — which ultimately worked — Biden’s proposed alternative for Iraq was
to partition the country into separate religious enclaves.
3. Immigration: As recently as 2006,
Biden told Chris
Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardballthat
the U.S. should not grant “amnesty” to illegal aliens in the country, and that
aspiring immigrants ought to be required to learn English. He also voted for a
border fence — and told voters that he was proud of
it. All of these positions are now broadly described as “racist”
by Democrats, and Biden has revised his positions on amnesty (it is unclear where
he stands on a border wall).
4. Women: Biden has taken criticism from Anita Hill
and other women about how he treated her during the 1991 confirmation hearings
for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Though he said privately
at the time that he believed she was lying, he has now tried to
make amends. Biden is also trying to change a pattern of behavior in which
he touched, kissed, or sniffed women at public events — unacceptable conduct in
the post-#MeToo era.
5. Desegregation: Early in his Senate career,
Biden opposed “busing”
to integrate schools. Biden also worked
closely with Senators who opposed civil rights and delivered
a eulogy for
former segregationist Strom Thurmond. His initial comments on Barack Obama’s
campaign were tinged
with racial condescension. Later, as vice president, he warned black
voters Republicans would “put y’all
back in chains.” Now he is running as a uniter, casting Trump as a racist.
6. Guns. In 1986, Biden voted with the National
Rifle Association (NRA) on a bill called the “Firearms Owners’ Protection Act
(FOPA),” which the Second Amendment lobby calls“the law that saved gun rights” because it
rolled back onerous regulations. As NBC News notes, Biden was
key to the law’s passage. In the 1990s, however, Biden began backing aggressive
gun control laws. (He still offers bizarre
advice on the use of shotguns for self-defense).
7. Drugs: As Politico noted recently, Biden was one of the leaders of the war on drugs — which he now says went too far. His policies on crack led to racial disparities in sentencing; other legislation he pushed has made it harder to treat opioid addiction, or to report overdoses. The Free Beacon notes that Biden used to call marijuana a “gateway drug,” but shifted suddenly toward backing “decriminalization” — just days before a fundraiser with a pro-legalization donor.
7. Drugs: As Politico noted recently, Biden was one of the leaders of the war on drugs — which he now says went too far. His policies on crack led to racial disparities in sentencing; other legislation he pushed has made it harder to treat opioid addiction, or to report overdoses. The Free Beacon notes that Biden used to call marijuana a “gateway drug,” but shifted suddenly toward backing “decriminalization” — just days before a fundraiser with a pro-legalization donor.
8. Gay marriage: In 1996, Biden voted for the Defense
of Marriage Act, which prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
Later in 2012, he shifted
positions, in effect forcing President Obama to do the same (though many
suspected Obama already backed same-sex marriage despite his public opposition
and support for a traditional Christian view.) Biden now says that
the movement for transgender rights is the “civil rights issue of our time.”
And
here are issues on which Biden’s views are too moderate for his party:
1. Coal: Biden told voters
in West Virginia in 2008 that he and then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) were in
favor of “clean coal.” That was before the
election, and before President Obama began taking regulatory steps designed to
put the coal industry out of business. Most of the Democratic presidential
candidates embrace the “Green New Deal,” which calls for removing coal —
“clean” or otherwise” — and other fossil fuels from the American economy within
12 years.
2. Entitlement reform: Biden once proposed freezing or
cutting entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. As recently as 2018,
he supported means
testing for Social Security. Democrats routinely run “Mediscare” campaigns
against Republicans who propose even mild reforms to the nation’s entitlements,
and the party’s young “progressives” — who now drive its policy agenda —
question whether the federal government needs to balance its budget at all.
3. Trade: Biden was a staunch supporter of
free trade agreements throughout his career. As Politico noted recently:
“In the Senate, Biden voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]
and permanent normal trade relations with China. As then-President Barack
Obama’s No. 2, he supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP].” The article
also pointed out that Biden rarely mentions trade, and that his Democratic
rivals are “itching” to attack his record on it.
Joel B.
Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018
Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside
Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter
at @joelpollak.
Why Biden won’t get the Dem nomination
Yes, he’s really, really
old, thus removing the opportunity to attack President Trump on the basis of
his age.
And yes, he says really
stupid stuff -- and they are usually incorrectly called “gaffes,” which Michael
Kinsley correctly defined as a politician accidentally telling the truth.
Biden’s mouth just runs faster than his brain (not much of a feat) and he
utters nonsense. Often, mean-spirited nonsense like “They’ll put y’all
back in chains.”
But the real reason why
Biden won’t get the nomination is that he and his family are corrupt, enriching
themselves courtesy of foreign governments. Normally, that would not be a
problem for a Democrat because the dominant mainstream media is not interested
in scandals affecting powerful Democrats. But with 22 Democrats running for
president, some of them with MSM allies, and with grave doubts about Biden’s
ability to defeat Trump (their overriding goal), these scandals will not be
suppressed. Especially because they involve collusion with a foreign power.
Vanity Fair and the New York
Times, which are nobody’s idea of right wing publications, are onto the story
of Biden helping his son make a huge fortune via deals with China. Breitbart summarizes:
A
$1.5 billion sweetheart deal Hunter Biden’s private equity firm secured from
the state-owned Bank of China is “looming on the horizon” as a potential line
of attack against his father’s 2020 presidential campaign, according to Vanity
Fair’s Tina Nguyen.
But
the Times’ article “may be just the first volley in what is likely to
become a broader war over Joe Biden’s conduct and record,” Vanity
Fair’s Nguyen writes:
Past
speculation about Biden family drama has centered on Hunter’s documented
struggle with drug use and his recently ended relationship with his late
brother’s widow. But the bigger threat might actually be Hunter’s past business
enterprises. Already, there’s another attack line looming on the horizon: in
his latest book, Secret Empires: How the American Political Class
Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,
Breitbart editor-at-large Peter Schweizer describes how
a private-equity firm managed by Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC,
negotiated a $1.5 billion investment deal with the state-owned Bank of China at
the same time that his father, then the vice president, was conducting
high-level diplomacy with Beijing. (On one of his trips, Hunter allegedly made
use of Air Force Two.) Whether or not the Chinese hoped to curry favor with
Hunter’s father, Trump allies are sure to make note of the issue, especially
given Joe Biden’s controversial remark
this week downplaying China as an economic competitor. (A spokesman
for Hunter Biden disputed Schweizer’s claims to the Journal.)
In a
March interview with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham, Peter Schweizer explained the
troubling circumstances surrounding Hunter Biden’s lucrative deal with the
Chinese government at a time when his father was negotiating U.S. policy with
the regime.
“In
December of 2013, Hunter Biden flies on Air Force 2 to Beijing, China, with his
father,” Schweizer said. “His father meets with Chinese officials, he’s very
soft on Beijing. The most important thing that happens [is] 10 days after they
return. And that’s when Hunter Biden’s small, private equity firm called
Rosemont Seneca Partners gets a $1 billion private equity deal with the Chinese
government, not with the Chinese corporation, with the government. And what
people need to realize is Hunter Biden has no background in China. He has no
background in private equity. The deal he got in the Shanghai free-trade zone,
nobody else had — Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Blackstone, nobody had this
deal.”
“There’s
no question when you chart what Joe Biden is doing with China — the meetings
he’s having and the deals that his son is procuring at the same time — that
they are buying off Biden through his son. I think it’s crystal clear,”
Schweizer added.
Then
there is the matter of the Biden clan’s dealing with Ukraine, as Jeff Carlson
explains in The Epoch Times:
As Ukraine underwent dramatic changes in 2014, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden played a critical role in the Obama administration’s involvement in the revolution that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
As Ukraine underwent dramatic changes in 2014, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden played a critical role in the Obama administration’s involvement in the revolution that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Following
the revolution, Biden would use his influence to help force the creation of the
troubled National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). Notably, during the 2016
election campaign, information leaked from NABU about Trump campaign manager
Paul Manafort that helped to create the false narrative that Trump colluded
with Russia to win the election.
Biden
also would use the threat of withholding $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to
pressure Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire the prosecutor general.
At the time, the prosecutor had been investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian natural
gas giant that had appointed Biden’s son, Hunter, as a board member.
President Donald Trump’s
personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, recently said, “Keep your eye on Ukraine.” In
his comments to the Washington Examiner,
Giuliani highlighted the “plot to create an investigation of President Trump,
based on a false charge of conspiracy with the Russians to affect the 2016
elections.”
Both scandals are grave and
complicated. But there is a year and a half ahead in which they can be
excavated and explained. Media-connected rival Democrats are going to make sure
that both scandals are explored.
Biden is the 2016 Jeb! of
the Democrats’ 2020 field. He looks like a shoe-in to many, but he will fade.
Of course as my favorite
Yogi, Yogi Berra, warned us, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about
the future.” But I will be very surprised if Biden is the Dems’ nominee.
Obama
Adviser Downplays Biden’s Ukraine Corruption as ‘Conservative Oppo’ by Peter
Schweizer
MATTHEW BOYLE
2 May 2019Washington, D.C.68
3:35
One of former
President Barack Obama’s most senior advisers, Dan Pfeiffer, is downplaying
reporting by the New York Times on former Vice President Joe Biden’s Ukraine corruption, as the
scandal widens and severely threatens Biden’s 2020 White House chances.
On Wednesday,
the Times published
a piece that details how Biden faces “conflict of interest questions” with
regard to the Ukraine that President Donald Trump and his allies are promoting
as political attacks on Biden.
The Times’ Ken Vogel
and Iuliia Mendel wrote on Wednesday:
It was a
foreign policy role Joseph R. Biden Jr. enthusiastically embraced during his
vice presidency: browbeating Ukraine’s notoriously corrupt government to clean
up its act. And one of his most memorable performances came on a trip to Kiev
in March 2016, when he threatened to withhold $1 billion in United States loan
guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss the country’s top prosecutor,
who had been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in his own office and
among the political elite.
The pressure
campaign worked. The prosecutor general, long a target of criticism from other
Western nations and international lenders, was soon voted out by the
Ukrainian Parliament. Among those who had a stake in the outcome was Hunter
Biden, Mr. Biden’s younger son, who at the time was on the board of an energy
company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch who had been in the sights of the fired
prosecutor general.”
In response
to the report, former New York City Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani
tweeted it out, calling for an investigation into Biden’s activities in
Ukraine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share … via @nytimes. Biden conflicts
are too apparent to be ignored and should be investigated quickly and
expeditiously. But the more important question is how deep and how high did the
alleged Ukraine conspiracy go?
Biden Faces Conflict
of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies
In response
to someone else highlighting that tweet, Pfeiffer tweeted out a dismissive
message of the contents of the report from the Times.
It's happening all over again
Peter Schweizer does oppo research funded
by conservative interests --> NYT credulously writes it up --> Trump and
his allies bully the DOJ into investigating --> Trump claims his opponent is
corrupt
He
specifically suggested that the entire report is based on “oppo research funded
by conservative interests” put together by Breitbart News senior
editor-at-large Peter Schweizer–the president of the Government Accountability
Institute (GAI)–and then published by the New York Times and pushed by Trump’s team.
“It’s happening
all over again,” Pfeiffer said, a reference to how a lot of the information
in Clinton Cash came
out in the 2016 presidential election demonstrating corruption by former
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, former President
Bill Clinton.
Notably,
however, Pfeiffer did not address the actual facts in the Times story or the facts
about Biden’s push as vice president to engage in activities in Ukraine that
benefited his son’s business interests.
Vogel and
Mendel wrote in the Times:
The broad
outlines of how the Bidens’ roles intersected in Ukraine have been known
for some time. The former vice president’s campaign said that he had always
acted to carry out United States policy without regard to any activities of his
son, that he had never discussed the matter with Hunter Biden and that he
learned of his son’s role with the Ukrainian energy company from news
reports. But new details about Hunter Biden’s involvement, and a decision
this year by the current Ukrainian prosecutor general to reverse himself and
reopen an investigation into Burisma, have pushed the issue back into the
spotlight just as the senior Mr. Biden is beginning his 2020 presidential
campaign. They show how Hunter Biden and his American business partners were part
of a broad effort by Burisma to bring in well-connected Democrats during a
period when the company was facing investigations backed not just by domestic
Ukrainian forces but by officials in the Obama administration. Hunter Biden’s
work for Burisma prompted concerns among State Department officials at the time
that the connection could complicate Vice President Biden’s diplomacy in
Ukraine, former officials said.
Vogel made
clear in his own tweets on the matter that the Times has been investigating Biden’s corruption
in Ukraine for many years, and has published stories on it dating back to 2015.
JUST POSTED: @RudyGiuliani solicited information from Ukrainian officials that he
intended to use to undermine the MUELLER report, & to try to damage @JoeBiden.
Rudy briefed TRUMP on the effort.
Now both are suggesting @TheJusticeDept should investigate. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html …
Biden Faces Conflict
of Interest Questions That Are Being Promoted by Trump and Allies
TO BE CLEAR: Independent of @RudyGiuliani's efforts, the intersection of @JoeBiden & HUNTER BIDEN in Ukraine warrants scrutiny.
The @NYTimes 1st noted the intersection in '15 (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html …), & today's story reveals OBAMA admin officials were
concerned about a conflict.
Joe Biden, His Son
and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch
Schweizer,
too, told Breitbart News that while he is glad the New York Times is
following up on this and investigating the Bidens, he had no contact with
the Times reporters
on it ahead of publication–and they did this investigation on their own.
“This is a
story—corruption that must not be ignored–not oppo research,” Schweizer said.
“Very glad to see the New
York Times is reporting on this, but I had no contact with
Vogel while he was working on this story and we never discussed it.”
1. it's called investigative journalism not
oppo research. What facts to do dispute?
2. This is from https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Empires-American-Political-Corruption/dp/0062569376 …, which also hits Repubs
4. Next time @ me ;)
Schweizer
has been working on exposing the Bidens’ corruption in Ukraine and in China and
elsewhere for years. He has uncovered many details, and provided many reports
on it–including his latest book Secret Empires.
‘C’mon
Man!’ Joe Biden Scoffs at China Threat
CHARLIE SPIERING
1 May 20194,267
2:01
Former Vice President Joe Biden dismissed the threat from China during
a 2020 campaign rally in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday.
China
is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can’t even figure out how to deal
with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the
mountains in the east, I mean in the west, They can’t figure out how they are
going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you
know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for
us.
Biden’s
remarks echo similar speeches he has delivered in his career about the strength
of the American ideal and the economic and educational power of the United
States that ultimately would beat foreign countries in Asia.
“We
have the wealthiest and most prosperous economy in the world in the history of
the world including China, we have the most powerful military in the history of
the world,” he told Delaware
Democrats in March before launching his campaign.
In
the same speech, he boasted about the productivity of the American worker
versus workers in Asia.
“I
hear these stories about how China is going to eat our lunch. Give me a break!”
he said.
During
his campaign speech on Wednesday, Biden boasted that he had met with
“virtually” every leader of the world throughout his political career, suggesting
they were envious of the status of the United States.
“I
don’t know a single solitary one who would not change places with the problems
the president of the United States versus the problems they have,” he said.
The
economic and military competition with China remains a focal point for
President Donald Trump, as he continues negotiating a
better trade deal for the American worker.
Former
Vice President Biden has not detailed specific policies to handle the
ballooning trade deficit with China, the rise of their military or talked about
reforming trade deals with China since launching his 2020 campaign.
No scandals? Biden repeats an old Obama whopper
Democratic presidential
frontrunner Joe Biden's out and about, repeating the old, tired saws of the
Obama administration.
Former
vice president and newly-minted 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Bidenappeared
on "The View"
on Friday morning and told hosts that his proudest moment of serving with
President Barack Obama was that there was "not one whisper" of
scandal during the time they served together in the White House.
Biden
said that, coincidentally, he and Obama both told press on the same day while
in different parts of the country that the thing they were most proud of while
in the White House was that there was "not one whisper of a scandal."
"Not
one," Biden said. "And that's because of Barack."
His
comments came the day after Biden made his long-awaited
announcement that he would be campaigning for the 2020 presidency.
So let's get this straight
here: The Benghazi coverup never happened. The IRS targeting of dissidents
never happened, either. The Gold River pollution on traditional Native American
lands by the EPA never happened. Solyndra never happened. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton never had an illegal private server in some guy's bathroom. She
never sold 20% of the U.S. uranium supply to Russia, and her bleachbitting of
her subpoenaed emails was perfectly scandal-free, as well as her smashing of Blackberries
with hammers. The fact that top-secret emails turned up in Anthony Weiner's
perverted computer, for the New York cops to read, was a nothingburger. And if
you like your doctor...
Actually, the Obama
administration was probably the most scandal-plagued of all administrations,
and for one important reason: There was never any housecleaning. Do a bad act
and let your Democratic Party affiliation be your protection. I have always
suspected that former FBI director James Comey's exoneration of Hillary Clinton
for her private email legal violations was the big thing that made voters break
for Donald Trump in 2016. The one set of laws for one elite, and the second set
for everyone else, was what got Obama's team thrown out.
Now we are coming off more
Obama scandals from the Mueller report - with President Obama in
possession of Clinton's deleted emails, and questions raised about unmaskings
and bad uses of FISA warrants, and Joe Biden brings up the years-old baloney
about Obama being scandal free?
Something tells me this is
about trying to reset a 'narrative' now that the walls are closing in on Obama.
Sound like old Joe may be singing for his supper, still trying to get that
coveted Obama endorsement.
Flashback–Biden
Cozied Up to General Motors CEO Mary Barra: ‘GM is Alive!’
JOHN BINDER
26 Apr 2019387
4:42
Following former
President Obama’s billion-dollar American taxpayer bailout of multinational
automaker General Motors (GM), then-Vice President Joe Biden (D) cozied up to
CEO Mary Barra, who has since laid off thousands of American workers and
outsourced their jobs to Mexico and China.
Throughout the 2012 presidential
election cycle, Biden routinely claimed that “General Motors is alive”
following the Obama administration’s $11 billion taxpayer bailout of the
company in 2009.
Years
after the bailout, Biden and officials with the Obama administration not only
touted Barra’s leadership at GM but invited her to the State of the Union Address in
2014 and took photo-ops with the executive.
Today, Barra is overseeing the
layoff of thousands of American workers as GM shifts and increases production
in Mexico and China. Barra’s mass layoff effort is stopping production at four
of its U.S. plants, including Detroit-Hamtramck and Warren Transmission in
Michigan, Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, and Baltimore Operations
in Maryland.
While GM was bailed out by U.S.
taxpayers, the Obama-Biden scheme came with no commitments for the corporation
to stop outsourcing Americans’ jobs overseas.
In
2011, Hoover Institution at Stanford University research fellow Paul
Gregory noted that despite the Obama-Biden bailout for GM, the company
continued outsourcing American jobs abroad. A 2011 report detailed GM had less
than 75,000 jobs left in the U.S. while employing more than 122,000 foreign
workers overseas. At the time, nearly two-thirds of GM’s workforce was located
abroad.
Rather
than stopping GM’s outsourcing, the Obama-Biden scheme focused much of
their attention on subsidizing and promoting electric, plug-in cars like the
Chevy Volt. Last year, Barra announced that production for the Volt, as well as
the Chevy Cruze, would end.
Last
month, Barra closed the Lordstown plant, a decision expected to result in the
layoff of more than
8,000 American workers in the area, and allegedly blamed the
United Auto Workers (UAW) for the plant’s closure. Closing the Lordstown plant
resulted in the immediate layoff of about 1,600 American workers and since
2017, GM has laid off about 4,500 American workers in Ohio. Another 900
American workers in supporting industries have been put of out work as well.
After all four plant closures, GM’s
Barra is expected to have laid off 14,700 of its workers in the U.S. and
Canada.
As
Breitbart News has
chronicled, American workers and UAW officials have debunked Barra’s claim
that the union is at fault for the Lordstown plant closure. Details emerged
this month revealing that the UAW accepted nearly $120 million a year in
concessions to keep the Lordstown plant open. When workers and UAW officials
heard of Barra’s announcement last year, they say they were stunned.
“We
did everything they want,” longtime GM worker Sonja Smith told Bloomberg News. “This is their
payback.”
Simultaneously,
UAW officials have voiced
support for Trump in his effort to reopen the Lordstown plant and
keep open GM’s other three plants slated for closure by Barra.
Experts have
called on Trump to implement a 25 percent auto tariff to protect
American auto worker jobs and the U.S. auto industry from Chinese domination.
Likewise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), vying for the Democrat nomination for
president, has told Trump to immediately
ban GM from receiving federal contracts for their outsourcing,
offshoring, and mass layoff scheme.
While
GM lays off thousands of American workers this year, its production in Mexico
and China is ramping up.
Specifically, GM is looking to manufacture an electric Cadillac in China and continue manufacturing
its Envision compact vehicle
in China.
The
made-in-Mexico Chevrolet Blazer will soon arrive in U.S. markets. Last year, GM became the largest
automaker in Mexico as it has cut jobs in America and increased
production in Mexico.
Offshoring production to Mexico has
proven cheaper for GM executives because American workers earn about $30 an
hour while Mexican workers earn about $3 an hour, a 90 percent cut to wages
that widens the corporation’s profit margins. Meanwhile, Barra continues to
earn a salary of about $22 million.
Biden’s
first fundraiser for his 2020 presidential primary campaign was hosted by a
slew of wealthy donors, including attorney Steve Cozen whose law firm
specializes in helping corporations bust up labor unions, as Breitbart News’
Matt Boyle reported.
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