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.
81st Birthday Poll: Voters Doubt Joe Biden’s Fitness for Office
Most voters have doubts about President Joe Biden’s fitness for office and believe he is exhibiting signs he is too old to be president, according to a Harvard-Harris poll published on Monday — Biden’s 81st birthday.
The poll asked 2,851 registered voters from across the country, “Is Joe Biden mentally fit to serve as President of the United States or do you have doubts about his fitness for office?”
Of the respondents, 42 percent believe Biden “is mentally fit” for office, while 58 percent “have doubts about his fitness.” While the majority of Democrat poll participants, 71 percent, say he is mentally fit to serve, 81 percent of Republican respondents and 69 percent of third-party and unaffiliated voters have concerns about Biden’s fitness.
Voters were also asked if they think Biden “is showing he is too old to be President or” if they “think he is showing he is fit to be president.”
Two in three voters say that Biden has shown he is too old to be president, while one in three say the opposite. The vast majority of GOP voters (89 percent) and independents (72 percent) say he is exhibiting signs he is too old for office. However, a majority — 63 percent — of Democrats say he has shown he is fit for office, while 37 percent of the demographic express concerns about his age.
RELATED: Biden Appears Confused During Veterans Day Ceremony
C-SPANEven more problematic for Biden is that nearly half of all voters say he is worsening as a president rather than improving. Conversely, just 28 percent say Biden is improving as his presidency goes on, and 23 percent say his performance as president is neither getting better nor worsening but staying the same.
As was the trend in the previous two questions, a majority of independents (55 percent) join a majority of Republicans (73 percent) in saying that Biden is worsening as a president, while most Democrats (51 percent) perceive him as improving.
The poll, which also shows Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head general election and in a crowded field, comes as worry mounts among Democrats about Biden’s prospects in a potential general election rematch with Trump, as Breitbart News’s Wendell Husebø noted Monday, citing a report from Politico.
“Those close allies believe that Biden is mentally up for the job, but some acknowledge that the president can at times appear frail, according to two people involved in the conversations but not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations,” wrote Politico’s Elena Schneider, Holly Otterbein, and Jonathan Lemire on Sunday.
The poll was conducted on November 15 and 16, 2023, and a margin of error was not specified.
Joe in the looking glass
Let's see a show of hands of septuagenarians or octogenarians who haven't experienced a senior moment, tripped on an invisible obstacle, or embellished an old story? Not many, I suspect. Why? Because these things go hand-in-hand with the aging process. Our bodies just atrophy, naturally, and that goes for Republicans' bodies as well as Democrats'. It's normal. What isn't normal is that we put older folks in charge of nuclear weapons… or allow them to represent us on the world stage… or give them carte blanche to write all manner of off-the-wall executive orders with the potential of destroying our economy.
We wouldn't dream of suggesting that these folks enroll in the police academy or expect them to don football gear and compete with younger, stronger men who can easily recover from their injuries. Neither do we give them a driving license to operate a one-ton plus motor vehicle without a yearly exam after they've hit 75.
Those of us on the Right are understandably up in arms. Joe's errors in judgment suggest someone who is hopelessly out of touch with today's reality, and continually proves it through his actions. We are also upset because this now 81-year old man reminds us of our own human frailties. We're uncomfortable at the thought of "there but for the grace of God go I." Yes, Joe is a daily reminder of our own vulnerabilities, and while we conservatives are royally irritated at his dumber-than-dumb policies, we've 'seen this movie before' with his mentor-in-chief, Barack Hussein Obama for eight excruciating years. In contrast to Obama, President Joe has delivered us a haymaker by continuing those failed policies and gifted us with his senility -- a double whammy if there ever was one.
But Americans are lucky to have Joe in the White House for a number of reasons. One is because he reminds us that our leaders are fallible (and fall-able). Some of his missteps are like our own, and in that respect, he is truly "everyman." His exaggerations and fictional stories can be quite amusing. They're much more entertaining than Obama's singing and Bill Clinton's saxophone solos. The colorful characters from his real or imagined past reveal an imagination in overdrive. And there are many examples of it, but two of my favorites are Joe's contention that he grew up in a Puerto Rican community. The second is his frequently-made comment about "lying dog-faced pony soldiers." Joe has obviously been influenced by the movies, by fiction writers and by comedians of various stripes. Joe isn’t, however, the first President Americans have laughed at. John Kennedy was famous for his dry wit, but Joe is the first commander-in-chief who's fallen up the stairs in contrast to Gerry Ford who occasionally fell down them.
No, Joe is a solo act at the 1600 Pennsylvania improv. It's like he needs to find something, anything, to compensate for his shortcomings, so if there's nothing relevant to the situation in his actual background to lighten the moment, he'll make something up like the tough guy 'Cornpop' at the swimming pool, for example. Like the vast majority of us, Joe wants to be liked… and needed. His life has been tragic at times. He lost a wife and child in a fatal car accident and a son to cancer. His other son is a nationally-known embarrassment. His brothers are hangers on, happily mooching on Joe's celebrity, so it's only natural that he should retreat into the recesses of his mind for temporary comfort.
Unfortunately, that's not in his job description.
Being President isn’t the same as storytelling on the front porch to one's grandchildren or doing stand-up comedy in LA or shaking invisible hands. It's serious business, and risky business, when all the world's dictators and strongmen are watching his every move and equating his condition with that of an entire nation. The world is not getting safer because of Joe; it is getting more dangerous. And while we can laugh with (and at) Joe's machinations, we must realize that he will not improve with age. He's not some vintage wine whose value is obvious to all who love the grape; he's more like an old tuna sandwich that's been gathering mold under our sofa cushion (thanks to Grumpier Old Men for that one).
Granted, he can manage his decline and compensate somewhat for his frailty, but that requires that he share power with his advisors and allow them to make policy, something most of us fear. After all, we didn’t elect them; we elected him. We must stop treating Joe like our quirky uncle or our spouse that we've pledged to stand by "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health." Americans thought they chose a leader and instead got a follower that pandered to special interests and created policies that no senior citizen in his right mind would have instituted -- policies that led to rising costs endangering our ability to live on fixed incomes, increased chaos on our streets, out of control immigration, unstable gasoline/energy prices, etc.
Those of us who have been around the corral a few times know what happens when America takes its eyes off the ball and pretends that the world is our oyster. We all end up paying the price for our naiveté. The truth is that there are two groups of people that should never have too much power: adolescents and those in their twilight years.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, seven of which deal with American politics. He has also written over 1,300 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website, www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
JOE BIDEN = A DISGUSTING POS!
JOE BIDEN is known as a serial liar, a "public servant" who has somehow managed to accrue tremendous wealth, a race-baiting opportunist, a Catholic-in-name-only, and a bought-and-paid-for politician in bed with criminal cartels and foreign foes. In another era, Joe Biden would have been run out of his country much the same way Benedict Arnold was two and a half centuries ago; in an era when integrity, honor, fortitude, fidelity, and grit have been jettisoned for immorality, unscrupulousness, weakness, betrayal, and craven pliability, however, he is elevated to king sleazeball in a city drowning in sleaze. JB SHURK
They couldn’t help but notice how Trump was deemed a scoundrel for pointing out that women generally allowed him easy sexual access because he was a wealthy celebrity. But those same folks upset with Trump’s statement of fact, were totally incurious about our current demented president’s fondness for touching, fondling, and smelling small children; nor did they show any interest in reports that Creepy Joe took showers with his young daughter, who then became a promiscuous young woman and an addict.
WATCH: Joe Biden Admires Little Girl’s Ears, Asks If She’s 17
President Joe Biden told a six-year-old girl “I love your ears” during a Thanksgiving celebration at a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday.
The octogenarian approached the child, named Catherine, and gushed her ears were “really cool” at the public event, apparently drawn by what appeared to be her Mickey Mouse headwear.
He bent down and almost touched the youngster as he hovered near her during the ‘”Friendsgiving'” ahead of the holiday later this week.
The public exchange included Biden speculating the girl’s age at 17 – she corrected him to say she is six. The exchange went like this:
The dinner at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads wasn’t the first time Biden has appeared drawn to admire a young child.
In the middle of a 2021 speech to military personnel in Hampton, Virginia, the president said, looking towards the family who was being honored, “I love those barrettes in your hair … She looks like she’s 19-years-old”
Biden said he was “especially honored to share the stage with Brittney,” whose husband, Major Nathan Bean, is currently deployed.
Biden continued to talk, looking towards Brittney and the rest of her children, whom he named but not clearly, saying, “I love those barrettes in your hair, man.”
This was a presumed reference to the daughter, Margaret Katherine.
Then the president added, “I tell you what — and look at her; she looks like she’s 19-years-old, sitting there with her — like a little lady with her legs crossed.”
He then noted Brittney is on “triple duty” since she’s “a veteran, a military spouse, and a teacher.”
FLASHBACK Biden Admires Girl’s Hair Styling
A year later Biden again appeared to get a little too personal while posing for pictures with a young girl and her friends, as Breitbart News reported.
“Now, a very important thing I told my daughters and granddaughters: ‘No serious guys until you’re 30,’” the president said while grabbing the girl’s shoulders.
“Okay,” the unidentified girl said while laughing nervously, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
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