1. The Address Was About Ukraine, Not Israel
I spent over a year trying to get inside Joe Biden’s brain while researching for my New York Times bestselling book, Breaking Biden, and in that time, I learned a few of his moves. One of them is that he tries to shift the political focus to something more favorable for him when his back is against the wall.
Zelensky Advisor Admits Gov’t Officials ‘Stealing Like No Tomorrow’ as Biden Pushes for Billions More to Ukraine
A top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly admitted that corruption is so rampant in the wartorn former Soviet state that officials are “stealing like there’s no tomorrow”.
Speaking anonymously to Time magazine, what is alleged to be a top presidential advisor to Zelensky said that the Ukrainian government’s efforts to stamp out corruption have proved fruitless, given that they were implemented too late to have any impact, including the firing of Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov.
“People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow,” the top advisor is said to have told the publication, saying that officials do not “feel any fear” of engaging in corruption because the firing of Reznikov and others took over six months after Zelenksy was warned that the Defence Ministry was drowning in graft.
Another advisor is reported to have told the magazine that by the time Zelesnky acted “it was too late” and that the corruption scandal had not only become known in Western capitals but also among soldiers on the frontline, where troops reportedly began making lewd jokes about “Reznikov’s eggs” — a reference to the accusation that the Defence Ministry had vastly overpaid for basic items such as eggs and coats for soldiers.
The report notes claims by officials that Zelensky’s office has worked to stop giving the impression, at least, of corruption. Working under what are described as strict directives to “avoid the slightest perception of self-enrichment…Don’t buy anything. Don’t take any vacations. Just sit at your desk, be quiet, and work”, members of his staff are claimed to be paid just $1,000 per month and sleep in bunker rooms the size of prison cells.
The issue of corruption in Ukraine, which has been ranked by Transparency International as the most corrupt European country except Russia, is becoming a major issue in Washington D.C. as President Biden continues to push for more American taxpayer dollars to be sent to the former Soviet state.
In addition to the $113 billion already committed to Kyiv, the Biden administration is attempting to convince Congress to send another $61.4 billion to Ukraine by tying the funding to emergency funding for Israel and the U.S. border crisis.
Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH), a leading opponent of continuing to fund the proxy war against Russia, said on Monday: “I’ve sat in a lot of briefings where I was promised Ukraine doesn’t have a corruption problem.”
“The Biden admin has lied to us. Not one more penny to Ukraine.”
The Republican-led Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives has claimed that “Ukrainian government officials allegedly engaged in bribery, used government vehicles for personal use, and purchased inflated food supplies for Ukrainian forces.”
Even the legacy media, which has been a proponent of perpetuating the proxy war in Ukraine, has begun to slowly admit that corruption is a major issue in the country, with the New York Times reporting last month that Ukrainian officials acknowledged that money intended for military contracts “failed to produce weaponry or ammunition and that some money has vanished.”
For his part, in an interview with Time, President Zelensky has claimed that battling corruption is one of his chief aims but asserted that the issue is being weaponised to cut off funding.
“It’s not right for them to cover up their failure to help Ukraine by tossing out these accusations,” he said.
A top official told the magazine that Zelensky has begun to feel betrayed by his backers in the West for merely providing enough assistance to survive rather than sufficient weaponry to win the war against Russia.
However, another said that Zelensy “deludes himself,” adding: “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”
The publication went on to claim that officials in Kyiv are beginning to believe that due to heavy casualties over the past year and a half, there may no longer be enough soldiers left to win the war.
Even if the United States were to supply all the weaponry needed, one aide said: “We don’t have the men to use them.”
‘Breaking Biden’ Author: Five Takeaways from Joe’s Duplicitous Oval Office Address About Ukraine
Joe Biden gave a rare Oval Office address Thursday night that began with a clear condemnation of Hamas terror, but quickly shifted focus to cynical politicking and narrative setting, even while Americans are still being held hostage.
Here are a few essential takeaways:
1. The Address Was About Ukraine, Not Israel
I spent over a year trying to get inside Joe Biden’s brain while researching for my New York Times bestselling book, Breaking Biden, and in that time, I learned a few of his moves. One of them is that he tries to shift the political focus to something more favorable for him when his back is against the wall.
That’s what he tried to do tonight.
The dominant news cycle right now – radical Islamic terror directed at Israel – is a terrible one for Joe. As I noted in an article earlier this week, Joe Biden has harmed Israel in numerous ways over his presidency and vice presidency while simultaneously enabling terrorists and their funders. He is also clearly perceived as a weak target by our adversaries around the world; so, the longer the media is focused on Israel, Jews, Hamas rockets, decapitated babies, and American hostages, the worse Joe is going to look. His political instincts told him to try to switch gears.
He did that in his speech tonight. It was not only clumsy, it was offensive.
Actually, it was an attempted hoodwinking. The world thought the speech would be about Israel. And he did talk about Israel. But the speech was really about Ukraine.
He tried to connected Israel and Ukraine in order to suggest to Americans that if you support Israel’s war for its own survival, you must also support limitless taxpayer resources being sent to Ukraine – after those funds make a pit stop in the bank accounts of U.S. defense contractors, of course.
He ended up saying nothing newsworthy about Israel or Hamas, yet he revived the Ukraine funding discussion.
Yes, duplicitous Joe used dead Jews as an excuse to give a speech about Ukraine funding — from the Oval Office, no less.
2. Earth To Joe: Ukraine And Israel Are Not the Same
My colleague Joel Pollak beat me to the punch on this one:
Israel is not Ukraine. Israel is a much closer ally. It is a democracy, and has been for far longer than Ukraine. Its intelligence assists U.S. counter-terror operations; its technology, like the Iron Dome, keeps American troops safe.
Israel has taken bullets — or, rather, Scud missiles — for the U.S., allowing Iraq to attack it during the Gulf War without retaliating, because the U.S. needed to keep Arab allies in its wartime coalition. And millions of Americans — Christian and Jewish — love Israel, visiting in the millions.
The last point is crucial. Israel has been exemplary stewards of the Holy Land, a place where Jews and Christians alike make pilgrimages by the millions. This is fortunate for America, itself a Judeo-Christian nation. If Israel is wiped off the map—the stated objective of those who are at war against it right now—then the Holy Land will be in jeopardy.
I would also add that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and Israel is not. That counts!
3. Joe’s False Construct: Tying Israel’s Survival to Ukraine Spending
Joe wants his Ukraine agenda to continue to get funding. His base really likes sending stuff to Ukraine. And he needs his base happy if he wants to get reelected.
His ultimate goal appears to be to tie funding for Israel to funding for Ukraine in subsequent spending packages.
This is a false construct, and Americans should reject it.
The thought that helping Israel stave off extinction is conditional on sending another bag of goodies to grifters in Ukraine isn’t just totally bogus, it is, again, offensive. If we’re going to tie anything to Israel funds, it should be other issues of urgent national security importance like solidifying our border; but we know Joe doesn’t actually want a secure border.
4. Joe Wants More Cash for the Military-Industrial Complex
As I document in Breaking Biden, Joe Biden and his cabinet are in league with the military-industrial complex, none more so than his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. Blinken, whom I refer to as the “Secretary of Boeing,” was the managing director of the Penn Biden Center (home of Joe’s infamous classified documents) and co-founded WestExec Advisors, a boutique D.C. consultancy focused on “advising companies on geopolitical risk and emerging opportunities.” He also helped orchestrate the “Russian disinfo” hoax letter that got the Hunter Biden “Laptop from Hell” censored before the 2020 election, along with 50 of his Deep State buddies.
Blinken is one example of many in Biden’s administration. Joe loves to fund the defense industry because that’s where past and future cabinet officials go to bag cash between stints running our government.
In his Oval Office address, Joe Biden specifically called for “missiles for air defense, batters made in Arizona,” and “artillery shells made in 12 countries [sic] in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and so much more.” He then went on to suggest that it is patriotic to funnel unlimited amounts of your tax dollars to the ever-expanding security state.
The same security state that bankrolls people like Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who famously sat on the board of Raytheon. The list goes on.
Using the death of Israelis and Americans, especially children, to shake the can for the defense industry was not mereley a little too on the nose, it was grotesque.
5. Joe Is Thinking About a Two-State Solution and Islamophobia
The fact that he is even bringing up the “two state solution” debate right now, days after babies were murdered in their homes by Hamas, and while Americans are still hostage, is seemingly wildly out of touch. Sadly, it’s probably not. These comments were likely a sop to the pro-Hamas faction of our society (a group of people who seemingly control many of our major newsrooms).
In what was another low point for the night, Joe scolded Americans for Islamophobia from two decades ago, despite the fact that radical Muslims targeted Jews for torture, rape, and murder just this month. “I know many of you in the Muslim American community are outraged saying to yourself ‘here we go again’ with Islamophobia and distress we saw after 9/11,” Joe said.
The timing would seem a bit off, unless you see it as a dog whistle to extremists in his political base.
Can we at least try to free the hostages before we get a lecture on why we need to be careful not to hurt people’s hypothetical feelings?
Despite his constant haranguing about unity, Joe Biden rarely misses an opportunity to divide so long as he believes it advances his political position.
Breaking Biden: Exposing the Hidden Forces and Secret Money Machine Behind Joe Biden, His Family, and His Administration is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook read by the author.
Alex Marlow is the Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart News and a New York Times bestselling author. His new book Breaking Biden is available now. You can follow Alex on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @AlexMarlow.
Former German Chancellor Claims Biden Administration Blocked Ukraine from Agreeing to Peace Deal in 2022
The Biden administration blocked Ukraine from agreeing to a peace agreement with Russia in the early days of the war, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has claimed.
In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, Gerhard Schröder, who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005, claimed that hundreds of thousands of lives could potentially have been saved if not for pressure exerted on Kyiv by Washington to reject peace negotiations with Moscow.
Schröder, who has faced criticism over his friendship with Vladimir Putin and his business ties in Russia, including as a broad member of the Nord Stream 2 AG, revealed that last year he was asked by Ukraine to act as a mediator with Moscow to seek a peaceful end to the conflict after the Russian military invaded the former Soviet state.
“The only people who could settle the war against Ukraine are the Americans,” the former chancellor said. “At the peace negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul with [now-Ukrainian Defence Minister] Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they were not allowed to. They first had to ask the Americans about everything they discussed.”
“The war could be ended if geopolitical interests were not at play,” he added.
Schröder said that he had two conversations with Umerov, as well as a private discussion with Vladimir Putin and then with the Russian president’s envoy. He said that Umerov expressed willingness to agree to terms that would give safety guarantees to Kyiv while addressing several key concerns of the Kremlin, such as Ukraine committing not to join NATO and introducing reforms to grant more autonomy to the heavily ethnic Russian Donbas region.
The ex-chancellor also said that Kyiv was willing to discuss the status of Crimea — which Russia annexed in 2014 — and pointed to contemporary reporting from the Bild newspaper to back up his claims.
“He [Umerov] also showed willingness on the other points,” Schröder said. “But in the end, nothing happened. My impression: Nothing could happen because everything else was decided in Washington. That was fatal. Because the result will now be that Russia will be tied more closely to China, which the West should not want.”
“Americans believe they are strong enough to keep both sides in check. In my humble opinion, this is a mistake. Just look at how torn the American side is now. Look at the chaos in Congress,” the former German leader added.
Schröder’s criticism was not limited to the Biden administration, with the ex-chancellor saying that both French President Emmanuel Macron and his successor as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz need to do more to lobby for the cause of peace, saying that the war is “not just an American matter but above all a European matter.”
He argued that rather than trying to come up with solutions to end the war, Western leaders seem to be more interested in the question of how to supply Ukraine with more weapons, which the former German chancellor said has been to the “delight of the American and German arms industries.”
“Why can’t support for Ukraine be combined with an offer to talk to Russia?” Schröder questioned. “The arms deliveries are not a solution for eternity. But no one wants to talk. Everyone is sitting in trenches. How many more people have to die? It’s a bit like the Middle East. Who are the victims on one side and on the other? Poor people who lose their children. None of the people who matter are moving.”
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com
Peter Schweizer with ‘Breaking Biden’ Author: The Bidens ‘Run a Very Sophisticated Criminal Enterprise’
Despite Joe Biden’s mumbling and stumbling, the checkered pasts of brothers Frank and James Biden, and the lurid, embarrassing details found on Hunter Biden’s laptop documenting his drug addictions and frequenting of prostitutes, the Biden family “actually run a very sophisticated and, I would argue, criminal enterprise that is designed to extract wealth and to leverage Joe’s power, but to keep him at arm’s length so that it is harder to connect him to it,” says investigative journalist Peter Schweizer.
The Biden family got rich by leveraging Joe’s rising political power while keeping him at arm’s length from the lucre, Schweizer says on the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast.
Their far-flung enterprise made them millions by doing influence deals in countries not known for their ethical hang-ups — places like Kazakhstan, Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, and of course, China. Some see this as just a symptom of a larger problem of corruption within the permanent governing class in Washington, but today’s guest, Alex Marlow, the senior editor of Breitbart News, disagrees.
“Joe Biden is not a ‘symptom’ of the problem. He is the problem,” Marlow tells Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers of the Government Accountability Institute.
Marlow is most recently the author of Breaking Biden, a New York Times bestseller that extends Schweizer’s own earlier research on Biden. Inc. and breaks new ground in the ongoing investigation of Joe Biden that has now become an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Brother James, who was previously a nightclub owner, managed to become a partner in a company bidding on reconstruction projects around the world. Marlow quotes from Schweizer’s 2020 book, Profiles in Corruption: “James Biden remained with Hill International, which accumulated contracts from the federal government for dozens of projects, including projects in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mozambique, and elsewhere.”
Joe’s other brother Frank meanwhile was turning deals with the government of Costa Rica, when he wasn’t dodging the $450,000 settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit after his speeding Jaguar XK8 car killed a pedestrian in California in 1999. Schweizer notes on the podcast that brother Joe actually helped Frank hide from the investigators who were looking into that incident at the time.
Marlow’s new book goes further, explaining the secret cadre of consultants who are running Joe Biden’s Washington, how Biden sold America’s intellectual property to communist China, and the many ways Bidens bag cash using the family name.
He remains guardedly optimistic about the current investigation by the House Oversight Committee, because while it has spent a lot of time getting testimony from the lower bosses of the Biden Inc. syndicate, what he calls “the capos,” he believes there are many more answers to get from the principals if Congress gets serious about hauling them before the committee.
“I have a million questions to ask, if anyone out there wants to reach out,” Alex said. “I’d be asking, ‘What did you do for these companies, James? What did you do for these companies, Frank? What did you do for these companies, Hunter?’” he added.
Schweizer agreed with that, complimented Marlow for “out-researching me,” and noted that the answers to these questions on the Biden family business empire have been hanging loose for more than five years.
“These are insane loose ends for this country,” Marlow concluded.
To hear more of the Drill Down podcast – click here.
Chuck Grassley: FBI Had 40 Confidential Sources with ‘Criminal Information’ on the Biden Family
The FBI had more than 40 confidential sources with “criminal information” on Hunter, James, and President Joe Biden before political pressure might have caused an FBI investigation into the Bidens to be shut down “subject to foreign disinformation,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrote in a Tuesday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The FBI ran the confidential human sources from multiple FBI field offices across the nation, including the FBI Seattle Field Office, FBI Baltimore Field Office, and FBI HQ holdings, Grassley stated.
“Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family,” Grassley wrote.
RELATED: “ARE YOU PROTECTING THE BIDENS?” — Gaetz GRILLS FBI Director Wray
House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTube“Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director but also line agents and prosecutors,” he added.
Grassley noted that Justice Department whistleblowers say one of the investigations into the Bidens entailed an FBI informant FD-1023 file that alleged Hunter and Joe Biden were each bribed $5 million.
Grassley released the FD-1023 file in July that alleged Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, bribed Joe and Hunter Biden after then-Vice President Biden withheld aid to Ukraine until then-President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.
WATCH — Grassley: Foreign National in Alleged Biden Bribery Scheme Has “Insurance Policy” Recordings of Joe and Hunter
C-SPAN“There is—and has been—an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family, including but not limited to FD-1023s referencing the Biden family,” the letter said.
“An essential question that must be answered is this: did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down?” Grassley wrote, raising the question that if those sources were “improperly shut down, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the FBI.”
Fox News first reported Grassley’s letter.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Mike Johnson Strongly Supports Impeachment Inquiry into Joe Biden
Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is a strong advocate of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden for his involvement in the Biden family business.
During a September House floor speech, Johnson eloquently articulated three reasons to justify the inquiry initially launched by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):
There are three irrefutable facts that have taken us to this point: Number one, President Biden lied directly to the American people. Number two, President Biden’s family and their associates profited millions through shell companies. Number three, President Biden’s federal agencies are stonewalling our legitimate congressional inquiry.
Johnson, who served as vice chairman of the House Republican Conference and on the House Judiciary Committee, noted those facts are “just the tip of the iceberg”:
There are so many scandals; there’s so much corruption that’s been uncovered. Every stone that we overturn leads to more and more corruption. And because of that, Mr. Speaker, a lot of the American people are simply getting lost in the barrage of evidence, in the barrage of allegations of corruption and the evidence itself.
After defining key points in the investigation, Johnson also slammed the media for covering up the scandal. “And as expected, the D.C. and the national press corps have blindly accepted the White House’s spin, and they’re trying to convince the American people that our inquiry, even the impeachment inquiry, is illegitimate.” He then mocked several headlines written by establishment media outlets about the sandal:
From CNN, “The most predictable impeachment investigation in American history.” From Reuters, “McCarthy opens Long Shot impeachment probe of Biden.” From MSNBC, “McCarthy’s Biden impeachment inquiry is the Benghazi investigation on steroids.” These headlines are going to increase. We know what’s coming.
…
We know that they’re working against us, against the American people, in this case, and for the White House. They’re on their [White House] team.
Most recently, Johnson drew attention to the latest development in the probe, slamming Joe Biden for accepting a $200,000 check from James Biden, who claims the money was not a part of a business agreement with his brother.
“.@JoeBiden received $200k payment from his brother James— Hunter Biden’s business partner. My friend @RepJamesComer is taking the next steps for us to hold the President accountable for his influence peddling scheme,” Johnson said. “No one should get away with this— especially a President.”
Johnson also had the opportunity to question Attorney General Merrick Garland in September about IRS whistleblowers who claimed political appointees influenced the Justice Department’s probe into Hunter Biden. “Whistleblowers are lying to us under oath — those whistleblowers are lying?” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) questioned Garland.
“Their description of the process, Congressman, is an opinion, not a fact question,” he replied.
“Have you had personal contact with anyone at FBI headquarters about the Hunter Biden investigation?” Johnson asked Garland.
“I don’t recollect the answer to that question, but the FBI works for the Justice Department,” he replied.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Johnson interrupted. “You don’t recollect? You don’t recollect whether you’ve talked with anybody at FBI headquarters about an investigation of the president’s son?”
“I don’t believe that I did,” Garland affirmatively replied. “I promised the Senate when I came before it for confirmation that I would leave Mr. Weiss in place and that I would not interfere with his investigation.”
Among the allegations, the IRS whistleblowers alleged Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf refused to allow investigators to ask about Joe Biden being “the big guy,” the DOJ twice prevented now-Special Counsel David Weiss from bringing stronger charges against Hunter Biden, and the IRS recommended charges against Hunter Biden that were not approved by Garland.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
Dem Rep. Auchincloss: Ukraine Fund Accountability ‘Is a Stalking Horse’ for GOP
On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) responded to a question on whether he would support more accountability for U.S. aid to Ukraine by stating that “Accountability is a stalking horse for Republicans to try to avoid taking a vote that might anger their Trump base.”
Co-host Kate Bolduan asked, “Congressman, would you be open to more accountability around the funds? That is one thing we have heard from Republicans not named Sen. JD Vance (R-OH). I know Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) — who was just on with us — she’s talking more accountability of where the funds are.”
Auchincloss answered, “Accountability is a stalking horse for Republicans to try to avoid taking a vote that might anger their Trump base. The funds going to Ukraine have rigorous accountability within the State Department, within the Department of Defense, and within Ukraine itself. And we’ve seen President Zelensky take muscular action when necessary to ensure that. I will also go a step further and say that the funds being sent to Ukraine have been the highest return on investment for national security dollars in my entire lifetime. For less than Americans spend on soft drinks every year, we have doubled NATO’s border with Russia, we have cratered half of Russia’s conventional military capacity, we’ve induced our allies to spend more on their own defense spending, we have sent a clear message to Beijing that America stands for freedom and democracy the world over and changed their calculation regarding Taiwan. This has been a successful foreign policy endeavor by President Biden. And Republicans agree with him privately, but publicly, they’re afraid, because Donald Trump tweets mean things at them.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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