As Harry Truman famously said, “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook”. Joe Biden has spent all but two of his 54 working years in politics — and he’s got very, very rich. From a middle-class family, he has gone on to amass a personal fortune estimated at closing in on $10 million. Almost all of that has been racked up in less than two decades: in 2009, his fortune was estimated at less than $30,000.
In that time, he has earned far more: up to $18 million, but, hey, life is expensive when you’re a Washington mover and shaker, apparently. Plus, kids can have costly habits, hey, Hunter? It all adds up.
Still, where did all the money come from?
The traditional answer for an ex-president or VP is “books and speeches”. But investigators probing the Biden family finances are looking elsewhere — and it’s not looking good for Biden Inc.
Some Republicans on Monday demanded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy begin the process to impeach President Biden after The Post revealed a key witness saying first son Hunter Biden frequently put his father on the phone with foreign business associates.
Of course, impeachment ain’t what it used to be. Under the Democrats, it’s become little more than just another political cudgel. So, the question is whether Republicans are going to stoop to what the Dems have bastardised into a low political tactic. Ha, ha… who am I kidding?
“House Republicans should initiate impeachment proceedings against President Biden,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) flatly told The Post on Monday.
“Joe Biden was trading his personal influence to enrich himself and his family and must be held accountable for selling out America,” said Banks, former chairman of the powerful Republican Study Committee.
A source close to McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, “Kevin will never go all in on a [former House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi-style sham impeachment.
“But the evidence is piling up, and he’s getting more bullish on a Biden impeachment,” the source said.
“As soon as there’s clear and convincing evidence directly tying Biden to Hunter’s shenanigans, the moderates will jump on board.
New York Post
So, what kind of influence peddling are they accusing Biden of, exactly?
Hunter Biden would dial in his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone into meetings with his overseas business partners, according to testimony expected before Congress this week from Devon Archer, the first son’s former best friend.
Archer, 48, who is facing jail for his role in a $60 million bond fraud, is scheduled to testify to the House Oversight Committee about meetings he witnessed that were attended by Joe Biden either in person or via speakerphone when Hunter would call his father and introduce him to foreign business partners or prospective investors.
Especially foreign business partners in a little place you may have heard of, called “Ukraine”.
According to Archer, during drinks in Dubai, after a dinner with the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, Hunter received an urgent call from senior executive Vadym Pozharskyi. Pozharskyi and owner Mykola Zlochevsky, requesting an urgent conference call to dear old Dad.
Hunter then called his father, put him on speaker, placed the phone on the table, and introduced the Ukrainians to Joe Biden by name as “Nikolai and Vadym.”
He also said words to the effect that the Burisma bigwigs “need our support.”
Although Archer is expected to testify that the then-VP only exchanged “vague pleasantries”, subsequent events followed a curious timeline.
Three days after the speakerphone call, the then-vice president, who was the Obama administration’s point man for Ukraine, was due to fly to Kyiv to address the Ukrainian parliament, known as the Rada, on Dec. 9, 2015, about the “poison of cronyism, corruption, and kleptocracy.”
Just ten weeks before that, US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt had targeted Zlochevsky by name in an Odessa speech about corruption. Zlochevsky and Burisma were also under investigation by Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. Shokin would seize four houses, two lots of land and a Rolls Royce belonging to Zlochevsky.
Then it all went away — with the help of who else?
A month later, Shokin was fired, after Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US aid to Ukraine.
“I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden would brag to the Council on Foreign Relations. “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired” […]
In an email to Hunter and Archer on Nov. 2, 2015, one month before the speakerphone call, Pozharskyi explicitly demanded that they use their influence to “close down” the criminal investigation against Burisma.
At other times, rich-kid dilettante Hunter would get Dad on the phone simply to impress prospective investors. At least two-dozen times, Archer is expected to testify.
Another former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, recalls Hunter offering to get his father on the phone during a meeting by the pool at the Chateau Marmont in LA.
“I am also aware of other Biden family business associates confirming that Joe would take phone calls from Hunter in the middle of business meetings and would weigh in via speakerphone,” says Bobulinski […]
“The American people don’t fully appreciate yet the key role Joe Biden played in the Biden family global influence peddling … I would equate it to a chairman’s role in a traditional business structure.”
Which very much made Joe the “big guy” of the operation.
If that phrase is familiar, it’s because it emerged from a particularly juicy email on the Laptop From Hell, where Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden were setting up a deal with a Chinese-owned company. That deal alone netted the Bidens millions of dollars for… no-one can say what, exactly.
But at least Hunter and Jim shared the money around.
In a notorious 2017 email to Hunter and Bobulinski, their business partner James Gilliar outlined percentage equity breakdowns of a joint venture with Chinese firm CEFC, with “10 held by H for the big guy?” […]
In the FBI document, known as an FD-1023, Zlochevsky is quoted calling Joe Biden “the big guy.”
Archer is expected to testify that “big guy” was a nickname used by Hunter’s business partners to refer to his father. Bobulinski also says Joe Biden is the “big guy.”
New York Post
Even if Joe Biden didn’t illegally use his influence, it’s becoming clear that he has repeatedly lied about knowing nothing about Hunter’s overseas business dealings. An obvious lie doubled down on by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is also adamant that the president “never” discussed international business dealings with his son.
Sure — and Richard Nixon was not a crook. He said so himself.