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Government Corruption
Victor Davis Hanson - 'How Biden Will Circle the Wagons'
2023-09-18
[American Spectator] As impeachment becomes inevitable, the President's defense schemes are predictable

The strategies of saving the Biden presidency from an impeachment and a Senate trial despite overwhelming evidence of his corruption are starting to emerge.

The Family is confronted with damning evidence from the laptop, from the testimonies of Hunter’s business associates Bobulinksi and Archer, from Ukrainian oligarchs and Viktor Shokin, from IRS whistleblowers, from FBI writs, from a likely pseudonymous Biden trove of 4,000 emails to his son and associates, and from the absolute paranoia of a White House that must constantly change its narrative of denials to adjust to a growing portrait of utter corruption, bribery, and perhaps even the treason of warping U.S. policy to fit Biden family interests.

THE DEFENSE IN DEPTH
One of their strategies is to deny, then hedge, then ignore, then grow silent—and repeat the wash/rinse/spin cycle of stonewalling as many times as necessary to evade the mounting truth.

Insidiously Joe Biden has retreated from his once loud protestations that he supposedly had no idea of what Hunter and his associates were doing. Such a patently dishonest denial set the model that the President would have no compunction about lying to the American people until the evidence of his wrongdoing becomes overwhelming.

But this first line of defense did not crumble for years—only to be replaced by a second line of denial: Biden may have known of Hunter’s shenanigans, but he had no business interests with him. That was another blatant untruth.

And that additional stalling also allowed Biden to ignore the closing walls of incrimination for even more months. When these two forward lines of defense collapsed, as the Biden consortium knew they eventually would, a retreat to a third line of defense followed: yes, Joe knew, after all, of Hunter’s miscreant shakedowns; and, yes, Joe, after all, conceded that from time to time he did meet Hunter’s business associates, and upon requests made phone calls to Hunter’s clientele. But he did not profit from such knowledge and associations. Instead an upright old Joe from Scranton was playing along with the "illusion" of influence peddling: Scranton naiveté is not D.C. criminality.

Biden’s tripartite lines of defense always got shorter and shallower as evidence mounted. But so far Biden has managed to consume 31 months of his presidency through these strategic retreats. His fourth and final line of defense will likely be that he was involved, that he had rather than feigned contact, but that he did nothing other than what scores of other high-ranking politicians do who rub shoulders with would-be miscreants, sycophants, and crooks—and so did not knowingly take "loans" and "gifts" that had strings attached.

To breach this fourth defense line, House Republicans will have to break through the labyrinth of Biden paywalls and find how much money was rerouted into Biden coffers. And then they must additionally compare what came into the Biden hands with a) what the family reported on their respective income tax returns, and b) whether their various properties and lifestyles were remotely possible without such massive hidden income. And getting bank records from the Bidens will be near impossible.

THE UKRAINE FACTOR
Posted by:Besoeker

#6  VDH is correct that this is a stall. Joe’s team has no intention of running him in 2024. Joe may or may not know that he is not running but trying to undermine his poll numbers is both productive and not productive.
It does cost time, but it also thwarts his puppet-master’s legislative agenda which is part of the commie plan. It does not slow or stop the same being done by the Executive branch Everyday Joe stays in office is another day that Mayorkas can continue his invasion expediting operation. It would almost be better to crush Joe for his policy rather than his corruption. The corruption is a slow walk in DC because they are all getting paid for no product. Does anyone really believe that Romney doesn’t have a similar deal with his son? Maybe not as blatant.
Posted by: Super Hose   2023-09-18 17:01  

#5  Hunter Biden files lawsuit against IRS (h/t Instapundit)
Posted by: Grom the Reflective   2023-09-18 15:14  

#4  ^ and color-by-number pictures
Posted by: Frank G   2023-09-18 13:27  

#3  Any book by Bidet, if actually written by him, would read about as clearly as Naked Lunch.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2023-09-18 13:01  

#2  Joe's problem is that there was literally no product for the payments, except access and subsequent policy changes. Hard to explain the why of payments once you decipher the myriad cutouts and shell corporations.

Obama got much of his graft through a far more "credible" series of book deals, speaking engagements, the massive Netflix deal and other supposed intellectual property deliveries. Pure baloney, but at least a paper-thin veneer of credibility for the clueless faithful and fellow travelers.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2023-09-18 12:23  

#1  I have a question: did he split the take with Obama?
Posted by: Grom the Reflective   2023-09-18 10:57  

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