The NY Times does a look back and finds a Vice President who was ahead of his boss on supplying arms to to a desperate Ukraine….His boss, President Obama , was hesitant ..But later would relent and send American ‘advisor’s to help the Ukrainians …America still has ‘boots on the ground’ in the country…
Instead?
Vice President Biden made numerous trips to the country trying get it to clean up its problems….The country had been led by a pro-Russian leader who was voted out of office for the mass corruption …
The Times story explains how Biden’s son was involved and the efforts of the American Vice President ….
The story is NOT what Donald Trump is trying to sell….
One can also surmise that the Times piece is a effort to counter Donald Trump’s story about Hunter Biden and his dad the Vice President at the time and the Ukraine…
It’s a bit complicated….
Mr. Biden wants to move on.
“I carried out the policy of the United States government,” he said during the most recent Democratic debate. “That’s what we should be focusing on.”
But he did not take advantage of a chance to eliminate the distraction four years ago, when the threat resurfaced — in the form of questions from The New York Times and follow-ups from other news organization — as he flew to Kiev on Air Force Two to deliver the anti-corruption speech to Parliament.
Several aides recalled a surreal split-screen of activity onboard, as Mr. Biden’s team focused mostly on the speech (he urged them to make it tougher), but peeled off for intermittent huddles on how to handle the Hunter story (Mr. Biden dismissed the story as a distraction, and did not engage). The group defaulted to the pushback plan used the year before when the story had first emerged, issuing a statement that Hunter Biden was “a private citizen and a lawyer.”
They emphasized “private citizen,” many former aides said, because the vice president would not even discuss taking the step that could make all questions vanish: asking his son to quit the Burisma board, as editorial boards and Ukraine experts were suggesting.
Mr. Biden’s advisers say that he and his son had informally agreed years earlier not to discuss anything pertaining to the younger Mr. Biden’s business activities, as a way to insulate them both.
Bob Bauer, former Obama White House counsel and Biden adviser, said that even pressuring Hunter Biden to quit the board would have constituted a breach of that firewall, and suggested that was one of the reasons the vice president chose not to do it. “The independent activities of an adult child simply don’t create a ‘conflict of interest’ for the parent who is a public official,” he said. “And as a matter of sound ethical practice, it is important for officials in this position to maintain that distance: to be able to show that, in doing their jobs, they could not have been affected by discussions or involvement with their adult children relating to private business matters. Their posture has to be, ‘Whatever you decide to do, I am going to do what I have to do.’”
Mr. Biden has said he first learned of his son’s activities in Ukraine when the story broke in 2014. He told his son, “I hope you know what you are doing,” according to Hunter Biden’s account of their discussion in The New Yorker earlier this year.
If that settled matters between father and son, Hunter Biden’s activities struck many of the officials working on Ukraine policy as an unnecessary distraction, or worse. Mr. Biden’s own aides were so worried about the optics, they enlisted State Department officials to gather facts to determine how to handle the story, according to people who worked with his office.
Yet few, if any, had raised the issue with Mr. Biden directly when it first arose. Most viewed the revelation — unseemly, but not illegal or a violation of ethics rules — as simply not worth risking a scolding from Mr. Biden, who had reacted angrily when Mr. Obama’s aides raised the issue of his son’s lobbying during the 2008 campaign. One person who briefly discussed the matter with Mr. Biden said he was anguished by his son’s personal problems and unsure how to help him recover…
image…The Washington Post
Trump and Co. use of headlines absent action to scare people…
The Financial Times profiles Ruslan Ryaboshapka, the new general prosecutor in Ukraine.
“Asked about a potential probe focusing on the Bidens and their connection with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, Mr Ryaboshapka said Mr Trump’s attorney-general William Barr had made no contact to formally request a joint investigation. A broader audit into past and current cases, including those involving Burisma, were under way, he said.”
Playbook: So after all of that, the Justice Department never asked for an actual investigation of Burisma and the Bidens?…
More…
My brother in law–a former supporter of Reoubmicans– was the loudest Trump critic at my family gathering. Luckily the only ones in my family that would have defended him–my sister in law and possibly her husband my brother-were in the other room at the time.
Question there Scott….
Will they still vote for Trump?
My sister in law likely will.
My brother, possibly. My mother the former Eisenhower Reoubmican says she has checked our of politics (she’s in her 80s now)
The rest of the family is definitely a vote for the Democrat.
All Right!
My family discussed Trump and Republicans without any disagreement.
No politics this year …,
But my sons do think that Trump could wiggle a second term….
I presume just about everybody believes that Trump”could” win a second term.
If you don’t think he could win, then you haven’t been paying attention.
I don’t WANT him to win…
Could he?
Of Course he could….
And we’d be FUCKED by American voters that completely STUPID….
Then, perhaps you should stop distorting things about the other Democratic candidates.
Saying you will vote for the Democratic nominee might help. Other than you, all of the people on this site who identify as Democrats have said they will vote for the Democratic nominee. (I’ll ignore Keith’s comment about Tulsi – who is an even longer shot than her very weak showing in the polls indicates).
Z?
I’m gonna KEEP saying MY choice is Joe Biden, who I (Along with most polled Dem’s) think is the best choice to win the nomnation and send Trump & Co. home unemployed and looking over their shoulders ….
You and others SHOULD be supporting who YOU want….
Not sure you just did not understand my comment, or if you just ignored it.
I have no problems whatsoever in you supporting Biden. Who knows, I might eventually support Biden in the primary. There is a lot that will happen in the coming months that will change how I view each of the Democratic candidates.
The odds are great that the candidate of our choice (regardless of who it is) in the primary won’t win. All I am saying is that other than you, everyone on this site who self-identifies as a Democrat has said that they will support the Democratic nominee if their choice doesn’t win.
You have written that Trump is corrupt, incompetent and unethical. You also are adamant that you are a Democat. And you recently stated that all of the major Democratic candidates are good people. So it shouldn’t be difficult for you to say that you will still support the Democratic nominee against Trump even if Biden is not the nominee.
Not sure why that is so difficult for you to say or understand?
Been saying what I feel…
That’s all….
Oh he understands.
He is ignoring it.
He often does this or sometimes even answering a question or comment that wasn’t even asked or posted.
He, he, he….
Jack why do you wanna give me up on this?
I don’t know a single Democrat who thinks Trump cannot win a second term.
All of the overconfidence is on the Republican side. They are so emboldened by their narrow 2016 win that they have ignored any of the warning signs since.