No abatement in high interest rates, say key central bankers
Interest rates will remain high and could be further elevated despite a reduction in inflation and the suppression of wage increases because the labour market is still considered too “tight” by the guardians of finance capital.
That was the message delivered by two of the world’s key central bankers, Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, and Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, on the opening day of the banking symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, yesterday.
In his keynote address, Powell said while inflation had come down from its peak “it remains too high” and the Fed would continue to maintain a “restrictive” policy.
“Getting inflation sustainably back down to 2 percent is expected to require a period of below-trend economic growth as well as some softening in labour market conditions,” he said.
Lagarde was even more explicit on the issue of wages. She said central bankers had to be “extremely attentive that greater volatility in relative prices does not creep into medium-term inflation through wages repeatedly ‘chasing’ prices.”
That is, the number one concern is that the struggle of workers just to alleviate the cuts in their living standards due to the highest inflation in four decades is suppressed by means of a tighter monetary policy aimed at slowing the economy and even inducing a recessions if that is deemed necessary.
Powell also drew attention to the level of economic growth saying, “we are attentive to signs that the economy may not be cooling as expected” pointing to recent “robust” readings on consumer spending—a clear indication that the Fed considers it must be suppressed.
“Additional evidence of persistently above-trend growth could put further progress on inflation at risk and could warrant further tightening of monetary policy,” he said.
He said so-called “rebalancing” of the labour market, that is, a reduction of the number of job vacancies in relation to those looking for work, had continued “but remains incomplete.”
The “rebalancing” had “eased wage pressures” and wage growth had continued to slow, albeit gradually, and had to continue to slow ultimately to a rate that is consistent with 2 percent inflation.
“We expect this labour market rebalancing to continue. Evidence that the tightness in the labour market is no longer easing could also call for a monetary policy response,” he said.
Powell indicated that there were uncertainties, old and new, which complicated the task of “balancing the risk of tightening monetary policy too much against the risk of tightening too little.”
Doing too much, he warned, could “do unnecessary harm to the economy.”
The chief issue here is not the level of economic output—the Fed wants the economy to slow. Nor is it worried by an increase in unemployment, that is one of its objectives to ease the “tightness” in the labour market.
Its overriding concern is the impact of rising interest rates, and the effect of past interest rate rises as they flow through the banking and financial system and impact on interest-rate-sensitive sectors such as commercial real estate.
In the year since the last symposium, the US financial system has experienced a major shock when last March three of the four largest bank failures in US history occurred as a direct result of the Fed’s interest rate increases. But Powell did not make any reference to this, perhaps in the belief that some things are better left unsaid.
The Fed and other financial authorities came to the rescue of uninsured wealthy and corporate depositors raising the question of whether there was an implicit guarantee by the agencies of the state across the board.
Since the March crisis, credit rating agencies have downgraded the ratings of a number of banks. This week Standard and Poor’s lowered its ratings on five US regional banks, citing “tough operating conditions,” following the decision earlier this month by Moody’s to cut the rating of 10 mid-sized banks and placing a further six under review.
At the same time yields on 10-year Treasury bonds, a benchmark for interest rates across the economy, are at their highest level since before the financial crisis of 2008.
Mortgage rates for new home buyers have jumped to more than 7 percent, compared to 3 percent just two years ago, and there is a crisis brewing in the commercial real estate sector due to higher interest rates and reduced demand for office space because of the increase in working from home.
Lagarde was somewhat more expansive in her remarks on the “structural shifts” in the economy, the theme of this year’s symposium. Like Powell, she directed attention to changes in the labour market where workers were in a stronger position to recoup real wage losses.
Lagarde also pointed to another major shift in the economic environment. There was a “deepening geopolitical divide and a global economy that is fragmenting into competing blocs. This is being accompanied by rising levels of protectionism as countries reconfigure their supply chains to align with new strategic goals.”
While much of this “realignment” is bound up with the US economic war and military drive against China, it is not confined there,
As Lagarde noted: “Over the past decade, the number of trade restrictions has increased tenfold, while industrial policies aimed at reshoring and friend-shoring strategic industries are now multiplying.”
This had not yet led to de-globalisation, she said, but these changes, especially in the field of energy, “have contributed to the steep rise in inflation over the last two years.”
There was an underlying unity in both presentations. On the issue of the working class, Powell and Lagarde were guided by a sure class instinct: the rising demands for wage increases and the maintenance of living standards must be suppressed by all means necessary.
But on the question of how to “manage” the global capitalist economy and its innumerable and deepening contradictions – the effects of the pandemic, the devastation produced by climate change, financial instability and rising debt levels, effect of increased military spending, to name but a few – there was an air of bewilderment.
As Lagarde put it, “in this age of shifts and breaks, where we do not yet know whether we are returning to the old world, or entering a new one, how can we be sure policymaking remains robust?”
Or, as Powell noted at the conclusion of his remarks “we are navigating by the stars under cloudy skies.”
Corruption is nothing new in D.C., but what the laptop reveals about Hunter Biden and his father is that, like the Clintons, they have no self-control. And the only thing more dangerous than cunning crooks at the head of a nation are inept kleptocrats who would leave evidence of their financial and sexual corruption on a laptop abandoned in a Delaware repair shop.
DANIEL GREENFIELD
Where there’s smoke, look for fire. Biden came from humble means, never worked in the private sector, but somehow became wildly wealthy. Several of Biden’s family members essentially work in the family business of apparent influence peddling. Does Biden’s frequent refrain, “I never spoke with my son about his overseas business deals” come to mind? It makes one wonder if “never” really means “never!”. Biden has nine relatives receiving millions in foreign cash. What were they talking about when Vice President Biden and his cronies met 80 times at the White House? Veracity is everything when you solicit the public’s trust, and Biden’s persona is wrapped around his supposed trustworthiness. However, the facts here point to a person who uses hyperbole, manipulation, and outright lying to sway public opinion.
ALLAN J FEIFER
Instead, the Biden family name has really stood for only two things: buffoonery and corruption. For fifty years, Joe Biden has managed to hold onto some slice of power in D.C. as a senator, vice president, and Oval Office stooge not because he is renowned for his erudition or virtue but rather because his doltish behavior and venal character make him ideal for others to control. Perhaps no other Washington relic has accomplished so little for the American people over such a prolonged government career or managed to harness those defects for lucrative advancement more successfully than China Joe.
Biden, long known as Delaware’s “senator from DuPont,” Biden served on committees that were most sensitive to the interests of the ruling class, including the Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. He supported the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, a milestone in the deregulation of the banks, and other right-wing measures. After nearly four decades in the Senate, Biden became Obama’s vice president, helping to oversee the massive bailout of Wall Street following the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent restructuring of class relations to benefit the rich. That included the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, based on a 50 percent cut in the pay of all newly hired autoworkers. JERRY WHITE, JOESEPH KISHORE
Getting Biden Wrong
Okay, I get it! From listening to Republican TV and reading Republican publications, I have learned that Joe Biden is a sleazy, mendacious, and demented chief executive. He has weaponized the entire Justice Department and the IRS against his real and suspected political opponents, thrown open our southern border to drug cartels, and reduced our armed forces and international posture to shambles. Moreover, Joe has a gangster son with whom he has engaged in illegal business ventures; and it’s entirely possible that the cocaine recently found in the West Wing of the White House came from son Hunter, who is a drug addict as well as many other bad things.
Has there ever been a President as cold-hearted as Joe Biden?
No. There never has. No previous president in US history has been as willing to sacrifice America, American lives, and American power and standing in the world solely for political purposes. Are his traitorous actions purely political? Perhaps his motives are personal as well.
Biden has been selling his soul for money for decades; to China, to Ukraine, to Pakistan. How else can he explain his massive wealth and multiple mansions on a salary of $174k? He cannot. See Peter Schweitzer’s book Profiles in Corruption. Chapter 3 is about Joe Biden:
“The Biden family partners are often foreign governments, where the deals occur in the dark corners of international finance like Kazakhstan, China, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Ukraine and Russia. Some have even involved taxpayer money.”
And later in chapter 3:
“The Biden family’s apparent self-enrichment depends on Joe Biden’s political influence and involves no less than five family members: Joe’s son Hunter, daughter Ashley, brothers James and Frank and sister Valerie.”
LIAR AND BRIBES SUCKER
CUT AND PASTE YOUTUBE LINKS
"The Worst President in the Last 100 Years" - Victor Davis Hanson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6WjzdPBCo
Report: Hunter Biden Downsizes to $15,800 a Month Ocean View Malibu Home
Hunter Biden, who is embroiled in a tenuous legal position, reportedly downsized to a $15,800 a month ocean view Malibu home, a substantial cut back from his previous $20,000 a month California residence.
While the national average rental price is just north of $2,000 a month, Hunter Biden, the first family’s business rainmaker, pays $15,800 a month for a beautiful residence on the Pacific Ocean, the Daily Mail reported.
Hunter Biden’s new home is a three-bed, three-bath compound with panoramic sea views, built on a cliff in a gated community. The rental’s listing calculates the home’s square footage to be 2,500, with an estimated value of over $4 million.
The property’s listing describes it as having “mesmerizing ocean views that are the ultimate backdrop for dining alfresco or stargazing over the shimmering Pacific” and a “vastly open floor plan, beautiful wood-beamed ceilings and large windows that give the illusion of being fully immersed and in total harmony with nature.”
The house also boasts a luxurious kitchen and a “guest studio with private balcony overlooking the ocean that creates the perfect artistic space.”
For Hunter Biden’s protection, the Secret Service reportedly rents a home nearby for $16,000 a month, which reportedly enjoys an ocean view and a hot tub.
Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen moved into the Malibu rental from their $4.2 million canal-side Venice Beach house. Hunter Biden reportedly rented that property for $20,000 a month.
“Hunter and Melissa were horrible tenants. Not only did they stiff the owner for months of rent, they left the house in terrible condition,” a source told the Daily Mail.
“Melissa was rude and entitled. They destroyed the stereo equipment in the home and when someone came to fix it, they were uncooperative. They also left the place dirty,” the source added.
Hunter Biden’s move to Malibu comes as he is under investigation for tax, gun, and Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations.
In July, Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal with the Justice Department fell apart under scrutiny from a Delaware judge.
The agreement would have afforded Hunter Biden the ability to plead guilty for not paying taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018, receiving probation rather than jail time.
In addition, U.S. Prosecutor David Weiss devised a separate diversion agreement that gave Hunter Biden immunity from potential future charges, including a provision to essentially wipe a felony gun violation from his record.
Upon request from President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, the judge dismissed the plea deal on August 17. Moving forward, prosecutors expect the case to go to trial, where it will likely be tried in Delaware or California.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
45 Questions the Media Should Ask Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) will appear in their first joint media interview on Sunday after accepting their party’s nominations this week.
However, unlike President Trump, Biden and Harris have thus far declined to take questions from the media in an open joint press conference where no questions or topics are off-limits.
In the event that such a press availability arises, here are 45 questions the media should ask them. This list is by no means exhaustive.
QUESTIONS FOR JOE BIDEN:
1. Why did members of your family keep getting lucrative business opportunities overseas while you were vice president?
2. How did your brother, Frank, secure $45,000,000 in taxpayer loans from the Obama administration for his Caribbean projects?
3. How did a newly-minted firm employing your other brother, James, receive a $1.5 billion contract to build homes in Iraq despite having no experience in construction or international development?
4. Why did your son Hunter accompany you on your official trip to Beijing in December 2013? What did he do on that trip? Who did he meet with? What should the American public make of the fact that just 10 days after this trip, your son’s boutique private equity firm secured a $1 billion investment deal from the state-owned bank of China (later expanded to $1.5 billion) despite having no prior experience in China, and with this deal, the Chinese government granted your son’s firm a first-of-its-kind arrangement to operate in the the recently formed Shanghai Free-Trade Zone—a perk not granted to any of the large established financial institutions?
5. Should the American public be concerned that your son’s private equity firm partnered with a Chinese government-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate to facilitate the purchase of an American company that produced strategically sensitive dual-use military technology that the Chinese government wanted?
6. Does your “Build Back Better” proposal contain any provisions to ensure that American taxpayer-funded technology is not bought off by Chinese state-backed enterprises working with private equity firms like your son’s?
7. Back in 2000, you voted in favor of giving permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) to China. At the time, you said that this would not lead to “the collapse of the American manufacturing economy” because China is “about the size of the Netherlands” and could not possibly become “our major economic competitor.” Furthermore, you predicted that free trade with China would establish “a path toward ever greater political and economic freedom” for the people of China. Do you still stand by these statements today after 3.4 million American jobs have been lost to China and millions of China’s citizens have been imprisoned, surveilled, disappeared, and used as slave labor by an increasingly authoritarian regime enriched by 20 years of record trade imbalances from flagrant trade violations?
8. The People’s Republic of China has a bold plan called “Made in China 2025” to dominate the key technologies of the future in order to overtake the United States militarily and economically. Do you still contend that China is “not competition for us”?
9. Why did you promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to financial special interest groups when research was clear that the deal would make it easier for corporations to move U.S. jobs overseas?
10. Do you believe Xi Jinping kept his promise to Barack Obama to end cyber-espionage against the United States? If not, what are you prepared to do about it?
11. Do you accept that the coronavirus originated in China? Do you think China was honest with the world in its handling of the coronavirus? Are you satisfied with China’s explanations for how it spread? Do you believe their claims about the number of cases and fatalities in China?
12. Do you think China should be held responsible in any way for its handling of the coronavirus? If not, why not? What, if any, repercussions should there be for China in its handling of the coronavirus?
13. Did you suggest investigating Michael Flynn under the Logan Act, as Peter Strzok’s notes suggest?
14. You said in your DNC acceptance speech that America is ready to “do the hard work of rooting out our systemic racism.” What did you do in your 36 years as a U.S. senator and 8 years as vice president to root out systemic racism? Why didn’t it work?
15. You have called for “revolutionary institutional changes.” What does that mean in practice?
16. You have vowed to rescind the Trump tax cuts. Can you think of a single example of a country that recovered from a recession by raising taxes?
QUESTIONS FOR KAMALA HARRIS:
17. Why did you refuse to prosecute even one sexual abuse case involving the Catholic Church in San Francisco when you were attorney general, despite the pleas of victims’ groups?
18. Also, why did your attorney general’s office refuse to release the documents obtained from the San Francisco archdiocese with all the information about priests accused of sexual abuse? Victims’ rights groups have criticized your office for deliberately burying these documents and thereby covering up the crimes and leaving the public unprotected. Why did you do this? The San Francisco district attorney’s office claimed in 2019 that they no longer have these documents in their possession. What happened to them? How can you claim to be a defender of children when you declined to prosecute the abusers of children?
19. Why did your office decline to investigate the health supplement fraud cases involving companies your husband’s law firm represented? Did you, as California’s attorney general, ever purposefully decline investigating or prosecuting clients of your husband’s law firm?
20. You said you believed the women accusing Joe Biden of inappropriate touching. Do you believe Tara Reade? If not, why not? If so, how do you justify supporting him now?
21. You once attacked a judicial nominee on the basis of his membership in the Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus, which is the largest fraternal organization in the world and includes among its past and present members many prominent Americans like President John F. Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-LA), and Vince Lombardi. Do you believe that being a member of the Knights of Columbus disqualifies a person from holding public office? Would you refuse to hire someone on the basis of their membership in the Knights of Columbus or any other Catholic organization? In your questioning of this Catholic judicial nominee, you singled out the issue of the Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life. Would you disqualify a job applicant on the basis of their Catholic beliefs, including their beliefs about abortion? Do you believe that being pro-life disqualifies someone from employment?
22. Why did you single out journalist David Daleiden for prosecution for undercover journalism that others do without penalty?
23. Your chief-of-staff, Karine Jean-Pierre, wrote an op-ed last year attacking the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Americans who associate with it, stating “You cannot call yourself a progressive while continuing to associate yourself with an organization like AIPAC that has often been the antithesis of what it means to be progressive.” Do you believe that pro-Israel activism is incompatible with progressive values?
24. The Biden campaign has adopted a version of the Green New Deal that calls for 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2035. California has adopted similar “green” goals, but now it can’t keep the lights on due to the state’s reliance on wind and solar energy. California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newson admitted this week that the Golden State needs a “backup” plan for energy because the current blackouts caused by lack of wind and overcast skies have shown the danger of relying solely on “green” energy. Why would the nation fare any better than sunny breezy California in keeping the lights on if we adopt 100 percent renewable energy?
25. You said in the past that we “need to hold China accountable” for trade violations, but you are against the use of tariffs. How do you intend to hold China accountable? You also said that “we need to export American products, not American jobs.” How do you intend to make sure we don’t export more American jobs to China? How would your policy differ significantly from the same policies that led to the loss of 3.4 million jobs to China?
QUESTIONS FOR BIDEN OR HARRIS:
26. You both supported the George Floyd protests, which you claimed were peaceful. Have you spoken to any victims of the riots — people who lost loved ones or businesses?
27. Do you believe that the looting of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago was a “form of reparations,” as one Chicago Black Lives Matter organizer claimed? Is looting an appropriate form of protest as a means of reparations?
28. Seattle Black Lives Matter protesters stormed a neighborhood last week, demanding that residents “get the f*** out” and “give black people back their homes” as reparations. Do you support that style of protest?
29. If elected, would you object if protesters decided to tear down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square across from the White House? What about statues to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington? Would you be willing to sign a written pledge to protect our national monuments and statues?
30. What is the maximum number of illegal immigrants you would allow into the country before securing the border to stop more from entering?
31. The Obama administration deported an estimated 3 million illegal aliens. Was that a bad thing?
32. With 30 million Americans unemployed due to the coronavirus, would you support a halt on work visas for foreign workers competing with Americans for jobs?
33. Do you still support a ban on fracking? If so, what do you say to the estimated 7.5 million American jobs that will be lost due to such a ban, which includes an estimated 550,000 jobs lost in Pennsylvania, 500,000 jobs lost in Ohio, 363,000 jobs lost in North Carolina, 353,000 jobs lost in Colorado, and 233,000 jobs lost in Michigan?
34. Wall Street has praised the choice of Kamala Harris as VP. Why do you think financial special interests support her so much?
35. Will you be following the advice of your Wall Street and Silicon Valley donors in negotiating with China? If not, whose advice would you seek out in negotiating with China?
36. Do you support China’s actions in Hong Kong?
37. Do you support China’s actions in Xinjiang province where an estimated 3 million predominantly Uyghur Muslims are imprisoned in what the Pentagon has described as “concentration camps”? Are you concerned about the fact that Hunter Biden’s China-backed private equity firm invested heavily in the surveillance technology used to spy on the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province?
38. Do you disagree with how the Trump administration is handling Huawei? Do you think Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou should be extradited to the United States for trial?
39. Do you believe China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a form of colonialism or is it a good program that Third World nations should sign up for?
40. What are you prepared to do if China invades Taiwan or uses military force to assert its claims in the South China Sea?
41. Do you believe the U.S. should return to the Iran nuclear deal? Would you make further concessions to Iran to secure that? Do you believe the Iranian regime should be allowed to buy weapons again?
42. Are you pleased with the results of the Obama administration’s intervention in Libya?
43. Why did the Islamic State fold up so much more quickly under Trump than the Obama administration predicted?
44. Would you advise Arab nations to follow the UAE’s lead and make peace with Israel, or should they hold out for big concessions to the Palestinians?
45. Should the United States apologize for demanding NATO partners meet their financial commitments? If not, why didn’t the Obama administration ever do that?
Rebecca Mansour is a Senior Editor-at-Large for Breitbart News. Follow her on Twitter at @RAMansour.
Oversight Committee: Joe Biden ‘Lied’ at Least 16 Times About Family Business
President Joe Biden “lied” at least 16 times about his family’s elaborate business schemes, the House Oversight Committee recounted Thursday.
The committee says Joe Biden lied in five different ways about his family’s foreign business endeavors: 1) That Joe Biden never spoke to his family about their business dealings; 2) His family did not receive $1 million through a third party; 3) Hunter Biden never made money in China; 4) Hunter Biden’s dealings were ethical; 5) and his son did nothing wrong.
Below are the 16 examples.
Joe Biden on not talking to his son about his business dealings:
1) August 28, 2019
Joe Biden: “First of all, I have never discussed with my son, or my brother, or anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses, period. What I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between the personal and private, and the government. There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. And I will impose the same kind of strict, strict rules. That is why I have never talked with my son or my brother, or anyone else in the distant family about their business interests, period.”
2) September 21, 2019
Reporter: “Have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings?”
Joe Biden: “I’ve never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
3) October 4, 2019
Reporter: “Excuse me. There was a photo of you golfing with your son Hunter and his business partner Devon Archer. Do you stand by your statement that you did not discuss any of your son’s overseas business dealings?”
Joe Biden: “Yes, I stand by that statement.”
The House Oversight Committee announced it has subpoenaed Devon Archer (highlighted in red), a Biden family associate. (Tucker Carlson Tonight)
4) October 9, 2019
Joe Biden: “I don’t discuss business with my son. I didn’t know that was the case when in fact I found out after the fact. And I don’t discuss things with my son or my family because I don’t want to have any knowledge of any, I don’t want to be accused of well you talk with your son, you talk with your whomever.”
5) October 15, 2019
Joe Biden: “I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having do with Ukraine. No one has indicated I have. We’ve always kept everything separate.”
6) October 16, 2019
Joe Biden: “I never discussed with my son anything having to do with what was going on in Ukraine. That’s a fact.”
7) October 27, 2019
Joe Biden: “I’ve never discussed my business or their business, my sons and daughters. And I’ve never discussed them because they know where I have to do my job and that’s it.”
8) October 29, 2019
Joe Biden: “I’ve never discussed my son’s business with him.”
9) April 5, 2022
Reporter: “The President has said that he never spoke to his son about his overseas business dealings. Is that still the case?”
Jen Psaki: “Yes.”
10) June 26, 2023
Reporter: “Did you lie about never speaking to Hunter about his business dealings?”
President Biden: “No.”
11) August 9, 2023
Reporter: “There’s this testimony now where one of your son’s former business associates is claiming that you were on speakerphone a lot with them talking business. Is that what?”
President Biden: “I never talked business with anybody, and I knew you’d have a lousy question.”
Joe Biden on his family receiving over $1 million in payments from China through an associate:
12) March 20, 2023
Reporter: “Any reaction to House GOP’s memo about your family’s dealings […] revealing that Hunter Biden’s business associates sent over $1 million to three of your family members?”
President Biden: “That’s not true.”
Joe Biden on Hunter Biden making money from China:
13) October 22, 2020
Joe Biden: “My son has not made money, in terms of thing about, what are you talking about? China. The only guy who made money in China is [President Trump].”
WATCH — “Give Me a Break, Man”: Biden SNAPS at Reporter Asking About Family’s Business Relations in China:
The White House
Joe Biden on his son’s business dealings being ethical:
14) October 22, 2020
Moderator: “There have been questions about the work your son has done in China and for a Ukrainian energy company when you were vice president. In retrospect, was anything about those relationships inappropriate or unethical?”
Joe Biden: “Nothing was unethical.”
Joe Biden on his son doing nothing wrong:
15) October 27, 2019
Joe Biden: “And it turns out, [Hunter] didn’t do a single thing wrong as everybody has investigated.”
16) December 8, 2019
Reporter: “So you think that everything that happened was kosher?”
Joe Biden: “You know that there’s not one single bit of evidence. Not one little, tiny bit to suggest that anything done was wrong.”
WATCH — Biden: Hunter Has “Done Nothing Wrong” and His Situation Impacts My Presidency “by Making Me Feel Proud of Him”:
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Washington Post Columnist Changes Mind, Says Biden’s Role in Family Business Warrants Investigation
President Joe Biden’s involvement in his family business warrants investigation, Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen wrote, changing his tune on a scandal he previously dismissed as an “irrelevant sideshow.”
Years after Senate Republicans issued the 2020 Senate report detailing the Biden family business, Olsen wrote that he “changed” his mind on the Biden family scandal because of “more than enough evidence.”
Biden family (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
“I have long dismissed the Hunter Biden story as an irrelevant sideshow, but recent revelations have changed my mind,” Olson wrote. “There’s more than enough evidence to merit a thorough investigation of President Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.”
Olson said a couple of pieces of evidence changed his mind:
- Devon Archer’s congressional testimony that Joe Biden called into over 20 business meetings, permitting Hunter Biden to sell the “Biden brand” to foreign business associates.
- An email that shows Joe Biden used an alias to receive an email, cc’d to Hunter Biden, about business with Ukraine.
- An email in which Hunter would hold 10 percent for “the big guy.”
We hear a lot these days about the rule of law and the importance of applying it evenhandedly regardless of a person’s political power. That’s correct, of course, which is why Trump’s alleged crimes deserve serious scrutiny even if his indictments are partially motivated by politics. The same logic, though, should apply to Hunter and Joe Biden.
“Mature democracies do not use trumped-up charges to imprison political opponents. But they do follow and apply the law regardless of political consequences,” Olson said. “Only a methodical investigation of the Bidens can conclusively determine which side of that equation their activities fall.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
