Rep. James Comer has been trying to bushwhack Hunter Biden for months and months and months. He's desperate to prove that Hunter passed along money to Joe Biden, thus showing that Joe was part of Hunter's lobbying operation all along.
The problem is that he just outright lies about everything. These are not subtle lies, either. He claimed that Joe accepted a $200,000 payment from James Biden as a payoff for something or other. It wasn't, and Comer knew it. It was just repayment of a loan.
Then Comer did the same thing again. And again, it was a completely innocent and legitimate loan.
Now he's doing it again, claiming that Hunter made monthly payments to Joe in 2018. J'accuse! But as Comer knows perfectly well, this was all about a truck that Joe bought for his son during the worst of his drug addiction phase. Hunter took over the payments when he could, which meant reimbursing Joe.
After years of investigation, Republicans have come up with nothing. They have precisely one (1) actual grievance against Joe Biden: that in the 2020 debate with Donald Trump he said his son hadn't made money from China. That was untrue.
And that's it. There have been no pass-through payments to Joe. There was no corruption over the pressure on Ukraine to fire its head prosecutor. There were no conversations with Hunter's clients deeper than, "Hi, howya doing?" There were no offshore accounts for Joe. There were no meetings set up for Hunter. There was nothing. Period.
But Republicans are nonetheless bound and determined to destroy Hunter Biden just for the sheer joy of knowing how much it will hurt Joe. It's nauseating behavior.
No cynicism implied, but Joe Biden's family sure treats him like a money faucet, don't they?
You've never heard the phrase 'Bank of Dad'.
Which is pretty much the opposite of what Republicans are accusing Joe of.
I'm impressed by the promptness with which he's paid back. All too often, people borrow from relatives because nobody else will lend to them, due to their record of failing to repay.
Really? You sound, not cynical, but catty and resentful.
We have, what, a loan to James Biden - paid back rather quickly. Picking up payments on Hunter Biden's truck while he was in crisis, and, apparently paid back after he got stable.
What else you got?
Assholes gonna asshole. Including the “non cynical” among us.
It’s really not worth the effort. It’ll be fun to watch what happens if trump wins. Given all the past American sins and crimes that so many love to point out, maybe this punishment is just karma.
This appears to be a new and unfamiliar use of the word "fun."
Misanthropes are different from you and me.
As a confirmed misanthrope myself, I deeply resent being lumped together with the racist troll.
I admit it, I am amused by the degree to which the desire for tolerance expressed by people on the left has been turned into a weapon against us and thoroughly rejected by so many. Being nice is seen as bad to nearly half the voting public. So much so that they decided to punish you. (and me too I suppose). I find that amusing. Sad, tragic, pathetic, and amusing. They say the last stage of grief is acceptance, but it's followed by sarcasm and contempt when it comes to political and social losses.
Fun? Nothing will be fun if Trump gets in again.
Nothing will be fun to watch if Trump wins.
Republicans lie all the time because the political media eagerly broadcast and publish the lies. So often that the general public - the dullard voters who determine outcomes in the swing states - believe the lies to be established as fact.
Can we please stop repeating the Republican lie that Joe "said his son hadn't made money from China"? Here is what was actually said in the final 2020 presidential debate:
A few minutes later, when Joe was given the opportunity to respond to a torrent of Trump lies that he'd been paid three and a half million dollars by Russia, that he'd been paid by Ukraine, that he'd been paid by China, that he had "houses all over the place", that his brother made millions of dollars in Iraq, he replied (my emphasis):
In other words Biden was denying the stupid allegation made earlier by Trump that Hunter had "walked out with a billion and a half dollars from China". It's misleading to claim he meant Hunter had never done business with China; he knew very well he had and it would have been stupid to deny it.
Agree, I would take the qualifying ‘in terms of’ to mean, ‘nowhere near a billion’ or words to that effect.
Are you suggesting that RepubliQans are lying? As usual? Again and again and again?
Of course they are. It is the one thing they are really good at and they know that lying works.
thanks for the context. i didn't even know what kevin was referring to.
One of the reasons Republicans and Democrats find it so hard to find common ground is that the former devote enormous amounts of time and effort to inventing fictitious narratives which they call "joining the dots", and which normal people would label "evidence-free speculation and innuendo". Right-wing websites are full of agitated condemnation of supposed Democratic misdeeds which occurred only in their collective imagination. When they refer to their cherished bedtime stories in conversation with non-cultists, the latter don't know what the hell they're talking about.
Not just one purpose here, but two for the price of one. First, yes, ruining Hunter Biden's life in public where Joe has to watch it. But second, mere accusation has a purpose. Remember that what trump wanted from Zelensky in the perfect phone call wasn't even an actual investigation-- he only wanted Z to announce that they were going to investigate. That's all.
That would have been an accusation in effect, and by itself would have been good enough for the campaign. And that's the idea here too. The idea is to create the impression that Hunter is the kind of guy who gets accused of things, and so he must be a bad guy because you have to be a bad guy to get accused of things, and there's that whole "Biden crime family" phrase endlessly repeated, etc.
Comer is just the kind of odious sleazoid toad to do this kind of thing, and do it as if it's the reason he was put on this earth. We ask what sentient person, seeing and listening to him, would believe anything he hints or says? But his sound bites and accusations will be picked up and amplified, and everybody who does that will know they're bald-faced lies. But they'll do it anyway. It's the wall of coordinated noise.
I hate that my party engages in this nonsense. I don’t agree with Joe Biden on everything, but he is a good man and a good father.
I am told there are many self-identified Republicans who feel the same.
Alas that they seem unable to bring themselves to do anything about it.
Define “do anything about it”.
Not voting or supporting TFG? And voting for Biden.
Many probably will.
Atticus bemoans the situation but won’t actually do anything to help fix the situation, like vote for democrats or just not vote at all (which has the effect of voting for democrats in a two party system) until the republicans behave better.
This sounds about right. Republicans put party before country.
What makes you think that? Why do you think you have any knowledge of how I’ve voted in the past or willl vote in the future?
Working to rid the party of those who "engage in this nonsense," by speaking out, donating, organizing, and if possible running for office. Working to change the direction of the party from within. And if that is impossible, at minimum doing a Liz Cheney and publicly renouncing it and repeatedly and forcefully calling out by name those who "engage in this nonsense."
But alas, few do. And I think for some it's out of simple fear of being "shunned by the tribe," but far more of the non-Base who say they don't like what the Base does nevertheless go along with it because they think it's worth their while economically. Put bluntly, I think a lot of "quiet" Republicans are willing to go along with the depravity of the Base -- the medical mistreatment of women, the racism and other forms of bigotry defining executive policy and even law, the absurd and materially harmful anti-intellectualism, etc., etc. -- for the money.
And presuming that's true -- and I've known several for whom it is -- I don't know who's worse: the crazy Base or the quiet enablers.
As an individual voter all you can do is vote for Democrats until the Republican party becomes a legitimate party.
The so called leasers such as Romney, Cheney and so on could create a new Center Right party, a legitimate one not a clown show like No Labels, but a party that runs candidates for the House and Senate, basically the same way the Republicans replaced the Whigs.
Using transferable vote can help this happen.
If the US had it, it would already have happened while Trump was president.
He’s also been a very good President.
In some ways. I’m some ways not at all.
Off the top of my head, I mostly support him with how he’s handled the Hamas terrorist attack and Israeli’s response. On the other hand, I strongly disagree with his student loan forgiveness nonsense and his lack of border control.
"Lack of border control" is just nonsense. On Biden's watch, CBP 'encounters" have hit a record high two years in a row. That means two years in a row of record high border enforcement.
And a lot of the record high movement from Central and South America has to do with disasters caused by bad government and general corruption.
President Biden isn't cranking a valve open and shut to create MIGRATION - that happens at the countries being fled FROM.
Many of those countries are in bad shape because of decades of US policies encouraging authoritarian governments to hold down the "communists" - mostly non-existent, but a good excuse for imprisoning and killing anybody NOT espousing grinding poverty for all except oligarchs and cartels (I include both criminal and business, local, US, and beyond).
+ 1000. The border is not open. If the GOP wants to slow immigration, require E-Verify for each and every job. And fund the IRS and Social Security Administration so they can cross check all data for fraud.
"Border" is a trigger-word for Republicans, not an actual issue. First, they're not really interested in physical control of the border, nor do they know the first thing about it (eg that the vast bulk of undocumented immigrants enter the country legally, or that undocumented entry is a misdemeanor, or that the vast bulk of illegal drugs enter the country via the mails). And second, they don't really want immigration reduced because it would have material and painful economic effects for them both personally and in some cases financially. (Look at what happened to the agricultural businesses in 3 states that actually enforced laws against hiring undocumented immigrants. Funny how that practice stopped practically overnight...)
When a Republican says there is a problem with "the border," they typically mean they don't like brown people who speak Spanish and wish they would just go away and pick vegetables and mow lawns as is meet and right in Our Country.
‘lack of border control’ translates to ‘following US and international law’. Congress makes US law. Enforcement of the law depends on personnel and facilities to handle the number of cases. Congress appropriates the funds to pay salaries and build facilities.
The House is controlled by Republicans, the Senate by Democrats. The rational course is compromise, but your team would rather demagogue the issue, so nothing is getting done.
How do you regard his actions on ACA, on costs of medications, on infrastructure, on reinvigorating American manufacturing, on climate change?
"Lack of border control".
SO - what changed when we went from Bush to Obama? From Obama to Trump? From Trump to Biden?
Almost NOTHING. EXCEPT - when there is a RepubliQan, FQX news says that the border is properly secure and everything is great. When there is a Democrat, FQX starts screaming that the border is wide open and anybody can cross.
And sadly - lying works on almost everybody.
so in other words a trivial amount of money and a nonissue that is total BS made up by Republicans
This is just a hint of the future t-Rumpistan. Best we prepare ourselves.
He does it primarily because it excites the Base -- and I mean "Base" in both senses of the word. The Republican Base lives for that sort of nonsense, and the more over-the-top the better. It's like WWE "wrestling" -- it's false and wildly overblown and everybody knows it, but they find it entertaining, in the same way primary-schoolers on the playground find mindless and overtly stupid taunting entertaining and hilarious.
As to hurting Joe Biden, yeah, maybe, slightly, with some of the absolutely dimmest parts of the population who are not already part of the Republican Base (which the vast majority of them are). But it doesn't affect the Base in that regard: they hate him entirely and all the time, with the simple rage of children.
To understand today's Republican Party, it doesn't hurt to start with the mentality of children between, say, 6 and 10.
“I mean "Base" in both senses of the word”
+1!
As I see it, House Republicans are firmly focused on the bullshit business and it shows. They haven't completed their budgets or passed any meaningful bill that became law.
This session was a total waste of time despite all the threats we face and issues coming up.
"They haven't completed their budgets or passed any meaningful bill that became law."
Mission accomplished, then.
Yes.
#Comer Pyle trending on Twitter
A fitting tag! But if it's trending, Elmo's grip must be slipping . . .
It is also about inoculating the Trump clan. If they can show that the Biden's were guilty of something, then whatever the Trumps did in office is an attempt at payback.
aka "Every Accusation is a Confession"
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It's also worth pointing out that the guys in Ukraine who first planted the Biden bribe story with Rudi Giuliani are now charged with treason and being Russian agents. (Which, to be fair, had been obvious for quite some time)
Well played, Republicans. Well played.
All those who think that the stimulus checks caused inflation should be refunding them now to bring inflation to an end. Just send them to me and I will take care of it.
You don't need the signature on the back or something, just in case something is wrong?