Back in the day President’s kids where off limits….
Not with a Donald Trump trying to find a way to derail a Joe Biden campaign….
Joseph R. Biden Jr. called an octogenarian voter a “damn liar” and challenged him to a push-up contest. He dismissed a heckler as an “idiot.” He commanded the news media to focus on President Trump instead of the overseas business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, demanding of one reporter, “Ask the right question!”
For months now, Mr. Biden has been confronted on the campaign trail with questions, attacks and misinformation concerning his son — encounters that have taken on a dramatic feel, given the uncertainty of how Mr. Biden will respond. As he began to address the crowd in a high school gym in Sparks this month, a group of protesters held up letters spelling out a taunt that Mr. Trump uses regularly: “Where’s Hunter?” Mr. Biden responded by saying his son “sends his best regards.”
As the Senate impeachment trial of the president continues this week, there is renewed focus in Washington on Hunter Biden, who held a seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company at a time when his father was vice president and handling diplomacy with the country.
And Mr. Biden is no longer just dealing with questions about his son from hecklers: On Wednesday, he rejected the suggestion that he and his son testify in the trial in a swap for the testimony of current or former Trump administration officials, an idea raised by an attendee at an Iowa campaign event that has been dismissed by congressional Democrats. “This is a constitutional issue, and we’re not going to turn it into a farce, into some kind of political theater,” Mr. Biden said.
For Mr. Biden, the stream of questions about his son touches on a vulnerability for his candidacy and presents a fine line for him to navigate. As a former vice president, he wants to show that he exudes statesmanship but also wants to prove to Democrats desperate to oust Mr. Trump that he has the fortitude and temperament to take on the president.
He can be by turns calm or curt as he stresses that his son committed no wrongdoing in his overseas business dealings. For the most part, he has kept his cool, but he has also been prone to displays of anger….
Note…
Donald Trump’s kids went under media scrutiny at first…
But have faded from view….
Other Democrats have been able to keep their children out of the media spotlight…
image…washpost.com
Hunter is far from a “kid.”
And if he should be “off-limits” Biden should have made that clear to Ukraine when they hired him for hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a job he was not remotely qualified for.
Hmmmmm?
May I ask about the Trump kids and their real estate holding’s using their name ‘brand’?
How about the selling of visa’s?
How about u and I paying for their security details why the do business deal around the planet?
Ah,?
Should I continue?
All fair game too.
The fact though is that Trump and Biden are both pretty swampy.
What is swampy about Biden? I have no reason to believe that Biden is unethical. The only thing that comes to mind is plagiarizing 40 years ago, and I suspect that lots of people have plagiarized a few sentences while in college on their term papers.
It’s the prime excuse to then justify throwing a vote away on a third party and actually helping to re-elect Trump.
Change Ukraine to Burisma in my previous post if you wish. The bottom line is that the entire deal stinks to high heaven and reflects very badly upon both Bidens. This is why the other Democrat Presidential candidates have said their Administration will have rules to prohibit the same thing.
Now, that certainly does not mean a crime was committed or that any President has the right to endanger national security to try to dig up the dirt on the matter. If Trump felt like he needed to use it politically, the facts alone would have been enough. Of course, he has the matter of his own “kids” to deal with too though.
Now, as for plagiarism, which is not what I was even getting at previously let’s at least be cognizant of the relevant facts from late 20th Century history.
Yes, Biden did plagiarize a paper in law school, which would be enough to get many people thrown out of school but that was not as big of a deal compared to numerous instances in which as a Presidential candidate in 1987, he was caught plagiarizing speeches. On a couple of occasions, he lifted large passages from Bobby Kennedy speeches and used them as his own, and in the most famous instance, he took the speech and very biography of Neil Kinnock, then the Labor Party leader in the UK, and used it as his own on several occasions.
Yawn.
Hunter Biden has some issues, but many political families have a member or two that embarrassed the family. What Hunter Biden does as an adult has nothing to do with Joe. So if you do something stupid now, should we blame your father? Because as stupid as that sounds, it appears to be what you are saying.
so exactly what should Joe Biden’s say to Burisma? Did Mitt Romney call up his kid’s employer to discuss their working relationship? I am not following your point at all. Please rephrase it.
What exactly did Joe Biden do regarding Burisma that upsets you?
I’ve not run afoul of the law in various instances or had the problems that Hunter Biden did. If I did and my father was a politician, it would certainly reflect on him, although of course an adult is responsible for their own behavior. Hunter Biden has definitely used his father’s prestige to get out of other situations (such as his discharge from the military) that other people without privilege could not have obtained.
Biden should have made it clear to his son why Burisma was a horrible idea.
Why else are the other Democrat candidates saying that there is no way their adult children will be allowed to do this.
Was it illegal, technically? No. Was it “swampy”, yes, and I think you Zreebs said so on here before yourself.
As long as we are talkibg about politicians sons
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2003/12/28/the-relatively-charmed-life-of-neil-bush/388db316-f6b9-456e-8720-b4b2bf60a8ab/
You seem to be talking about the sibling of a politician.
This article is about events that were alleged to have occurred long after George H.W. Bush left office.
What exactly are you talking about?
Now you’re splitting hairs. Or heirs
Politicians family members get special treatment.
If you think it is all “swampy” then the Bushes must be “swampy” too
Yes, there have been a lot of seemingly “shady” deals over the years for people trading on family names in both parties. We should take steps to stop it.
The Biden/Ukraine thing seems to stand out though. While there is no allegation that anything illegal happened, VP Biden was known as the person in charge of Ukraine policy in the Administration, During the time he was VP, his son was given an extremely high paying job in an area where he had absolutely no experience whatsoever. This definitely raised red flags at the time inside the Obama White House. Nonetheless, Hunter took the job. He now says it was a huge mistake. It was. There shouldn’t even be an argument about that.
Neil Bush had S&L fail but he was hardly the only American businessman involved in something like that. This was of course a huge story at the time and he was very heavily investigated and Congressional Democrats made a very big deal about him.
Years later, he had a messy divorce. That’s on him. It had nothing to do with his parents or brothers. He has never run for office, though his son is currently running for Congress in Texas.
What “steps” do you propose?
Well, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar have come out with specific plans.
I know you are fans of them.
No I’m not a fan of Elizabeth Warren.
I didn’t think you really cared about this.
Just some to bash Biden a little.
Boring Friday eh.
You aren’t??
Wow. Surprise of the day. I’m not bashing Biden. I just don’t believe anyone is deserving of hero worship. You guys want all Democrats to never get a word of criticism.
I may even have to vote for Biden in my state’s primary if it is down to him and Sanders for instance.
Others are still trying to make up their minds I know. It’s a tough choice…
And your “ criticism” of any Republicans ,save for Trump, is limited to expressing your “ disappointment” and obsessively informing us of the status of your license plate.
I criticize Republicans all the time, but when others do so in a factually incorrect way or in a way I feel is offbase, I can say my part too.
Do you genuinely believe Hunter Biden was right to take the Burisma job? Is he wrong to say he made a mistake?
I don’t think you actually believe that.
So, not a Warren fan because of policy or personal reasons?
I would assume you agree with her on 95% of policy matters.
You make lots of assumptions.
I agree with Warren on Policymissues about as much as you agree with Trump.
Maybe 75% of the time.
I find her a little shrill .
So you’ve dropped Bloomberg?
I don’t recall the last time you criticized any Republican specifically beside Trump.
And when you do?Its very mild as I pointed ,expressing “disappointment.”
No,… just stay with me now, it’s not all that complicated…
I would prefer to vote for Bloomberg over Biden, but if Biden does well in the early contests and “stays in the game” and Bloomberg thus never takes off and it’s basically Biden vs. Sanders or Biden vs. Warren, then it would be the right strategic decision to vote for Biden in the primary.
james thinks the contest will long be wrapped up by the time Illinois votes in the primary, so in that case I will write in Theo Epstein for President (with the hope that he still knows what he is doing as Cubs Vice President of Baseball Operations.)
Well, now you got me down to 75% on Trump (still too high). For a year plus it was 90%.
And if I ever said Elizabeth Warren was too “shrill” I’d be accused of sexism. Not saying you are, just saying that is what y’all would say about me.
Yeah “disappointed” is I believe how CG described the evangelicals who will make up the vast majority of the crowd cheering Trump at the anti Roe v. Wade rally in DC today. He is disappointed that they don’t see that this whore monger (who has likely paid for abortions) is not really “pro-life”.
I just call them hypocrites.
I’ve never called you sexist.
I don’t know what else to say except to maybe read closer or read my own blog entries from Saturday, etc.
I also think it should go without saying that if this particular website was full of Republicans I would be speaking badly about them “more.” Over on HHR, they think I only attack Republicans and never speak ill of Democrats. To them CG = “Clinton Groupie.”
Since you are all in the Donkey Tribe, it makes perfect sense that I use this opportunity to point out the many faults of that kind.
So now, I have to attack average people too. It’s a sad tribalist mindset that Scott has.
Others have. In the past the word “shrill” has specifically set them off on some tirades.
So I am “tribalist” for pointing out that people who call Donald Trump the second coming of Christ are hypocrites?
Well sign me up
I don’t think attendance at the march equals the specific claim you made. If Trump expresses support for Pro-Life values and policies and they cheer, that doesn’t mean they are calling him Christ. As a non-Christian it’s not really my concern anyway.
You just don’t like them because they disagree with you on an issue.
Hey CG?
U have any grown kids?
Does this mean that Melanie Trump has a poor character because she plagiarized?Funny how writing about a Devil’s Triangle in a yearbook (what you for some reason believe MUST mean consensual sex – as if that is an appropriate thing to write about in a yearbook) is less problematic to you than using Neil Kinnock’s words,
Either she plagiarized directly, or whomever wrote the speech did. Very bad form. Many thought at the time that people were deliberately sabotaging her.
Joe Biden plagiarized speeches from dead Senators and other world leaders and made up stories about a grandfather being a coal miner as a 40 something year old Presidential candidate.
Kavanaugh mentioned a dumb drinking game in his High School yearbook and to you they are the same thing.
We could also talk about the Bush legacy, after all young W spent the Vietnam years face down on the floor of an Alabama bar room and refused to pee in a bottle for fear of exposing his Cocaine use. The wayward son of a President.
There are countless examples of the children of famous people not living up to the family reputation (manufactured or otherwise). Hunter is following in some rather big footsteps.,
I do find Corey’s criticism of Republicans so very Susan Collins like, he’s concerned, and her “concern” this week is on overdrive as she works to avoid the wrath of Trump. Why she even sent a note to Justice Roberts.
But the best chuckle today is our friend’s definition of “The Devils Triangle” as a drinking game. When anyone who has any experience with such things knows it’s a fucking game. A three way, one woman with two men.
So, if when Brett Kavanaugh was playing this game and if his partner had come up pregnant, do we think the girl would have had an abortion?
You can bet Beach Week and a case of beer on it!!
and there goes Racist Misogynist Keith again with his wacky theories.
The only factual thing in that entire post is that Susan Collins reportedly sent a note to the Chief Justice.
The other part of that story is why Jerry Nadler could not control himself better. Schiff must really hate him being there, and for good reason. Schiff is much better.
Speaking of impeachment. What if Mitt doesn’t even vote for witnesses.
Will you just be “disappointed” in him?
You already called Romney a “scumbag” on here regardless of what he does, so you have made up your mind.
I care more about the ultimate vote than “witnesses, etc.” He has said he wants to hear from witnesses. We will see what happens.
jack has said he wants the trial over with as soon as possible and its all a huge waste, so he would vote against witnesses, and I would have to get past the “disappointment.”
Gosh, I guess the truth hurts.
I’m still confounded about anyone not knowing what Little Brett Kavanaugh’s Triangle was?
Such innocence and I’m not talking about Brett.
Scott makes an excellent point, how are people like Saint Mitt and Susan (aka as Lucy with the football) going to finesse not calling witnesses. I want to hear them explain this one.
Devil’s Triangle sounds far more like a drinking game then whatever twisted perverted concept Keith has. Remember, he used to like to spam a blog with porn links. Pretty sad.
As if these conservative Catholic kids in the 1980s were going to be bragging about having gay sex in their High School yearbook. Beam Me up!
So now a Jew who went to a secular university is lecturing someone whowent to both a Catholic High School and a Catholic University in the 70s on how young Catholic men think?There was nothing about the attempted rape of Ford that could be called gay sex. And if you think that is gay sex, then you never belonged to a fraternity or you think all fraternity members are gay.
Back to the “posting porn” accusation again I see, postings that no one else remembers.
An urban legend.
Speaking of urban, the Urban Dictionary defines Devils Triangle and it ain’t a drinking game.
And it doesn’t even sound like a drinking game either.
No it doesn’t sound like a drinking game.
Unless you convince yiurself it does to fit a narrative.
Kavanaugh could have just said we were dumb perverted kids who bragged about that kind of stuff but never did it.
It is my recollection that the story about the yearbook came AFTER Ford came forth.
It isn’t a drinking game, it’s two boys on one woman. It’s easy to look up and it ain’t gay sex.
Brett, whether he participated or not and I clearly think the little drunk tried, knew what the Devil’s Triangle was when he bragged about it.
White Privilege at its worst.
Hunter Biden was hired by a company, not by the Ukrainian government. I have no idea why CG is confusing the issue.
I am sure that Hunter Biden got the job because of his last name – in much the same way that the talentless (at least compared to their fathers) Jalen Smith and EJ Johnson got jobs because of their famous fathers.
Should Hunter Biden have turned down the job? I’m inclined to think that if I was in his position I would have taken it too. But even if that is wrong for some reason , it is not Joe Biden’s fault for what his son did.
I think there are a few reasons why Joe Biden is not the Democrats best choice, but to blame him for what Hunter Biden did is not one of them. CG should know better than that.
CG has to confuse the issue so he can say “both sides” in the fairly likely event Biden is the Democratic nominee.
likely?
Fairly likely.
Right now I think Biden’s chances of winning the nomination are at least 50%.
I don’t
Trump has been trying desperately to emulate the Hillary Clinton email ‘gotcha’ in Hunter Biden against Joe…
No fool…
He properly guessed Biden was gonna be his chief rival for a second term early one…
I would think that when you do something that permanently stains your reputation and gets you impeached, then that act is foolish. So I disagree with james that trump is “no fool”
Oh come on
Devil’s Triangle is clearly three way sex.
Yes Catholic high school boys might brag about double teaming a girl in rheir year book. Doesn’t mean that they actually did it. But to make up a story about it being a drinking game (what exactly are the rules of this “game”) is just silly.
Yes it is Scott. I am beginning to believe that even though our friend Corey is Jewish he must go home every night to an actual Convent.
This last exchange was absolutely nuts, very much like the marijuana discussion.
Zreebs is right of course, and I fear the zeal we saw in ramming Preppy Kavanaugh in the Court has bled over to this Impeachment Trial. Damn the facts we have to spring our cult leader.