Biden’s Corruption Problem

Joe Biden is being portrayed as the Democrats’ safest potential presidential nominee, despite his obvious flaws as a candidate. But one wonders how Biden’s history of swamp corruption will play if he actually faces the scrutiny of a national run. Biden’s family has gotten wealthy, like those of so many low-paid “public servants”–Tom Daschle and Harry Reid are obvious examples. How does that happen?

Politico headlines: “Biden Inc. Over his decades in office, ‘Middle-Class Joe’s’ family fortunes have closely tracked his political career.” It begins:

The day the Bidens took over Paradigm Global Advisors was a memorable one.

In the late summer of 2006 Joe Biden’s son Hunter and Joe’s younger brother, James, purchased the firm. On their first day on the job, they showed up with Joe’s other son, Beau, and two large men and ordered the hedge fund’s chief of compliance to fire its president, according to a Paradigm executive who was present.

After the firing, the two large men escorted the fund’s president out of the firm’s midtown Manhattan office, and James Biden laid out his vision for the fund’s future. “Don’t worry about investors,” he said, according to the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation. “We’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden.”

At the time, the senator was just months away from both assuming the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and launching his second presidential bid. According to the executive, James Biden made it clear he viewed the fund as a way to take money from rich foreigners who could not legally give money to his older brother or his campaign account. “We’ve got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash ready to invest in this company,” the executive remembers James Biden saying.

Hunter Biden, Joe’s surviving son, was on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, when Joe, on behalf of the U.S. government, threatened to pull $1 billion in loan guarantees unless a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma was fired. And Biden is notoriously soft on China, perhaps because Hunter has a $1 billion deal going with the state-owned Bank of China.

Not surprisingly, it is being reported that the Chinese government plans an extensive campaign to influence the 2020 presidential campaign on behalf of the Democratic candidate. No doubt China’s support for the Democratic nominee will be especially enthusiastic if it turns out to be Biden.

The Democrats have made feeble efforts, including the lame Emoluments Clause theory, to make an issue out of President Trump’s business dealings. It will be interesting to see how the very real corruption issues surrounding Joe Biden play out if Biden becomes the Democrats’ nominee.

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