When bragging about having another nation’s top government official fired, former Vice President Joe Biden is not the example to follow. Oh, he’s bumbled about thousands of times, but as he crowed about his victory in having former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin fired – on air during a Council on Foreign Relations seminar – his handlers had to admit it was a major misstep. Rather than let this years-old gaffe come back to haunt Biden's latest presidential campaign, his team has put out an edict setting out rules on how the media should describe the incident so as to cause the least amount of damage to his 2020 chances.
Of course, the bumbler is known for several fatal flaws in his public persona: He’s inappropriately handsy, makes erroneous and ridiculous statements, bites fingers, and sniffs hair. Yet the transgression that has the campaign in a tizzy is this peacocking statement, as Biden describes his threat to the president of Ukraine that he will withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees:
“I looked at them and said, I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a b**ch. He got fired.”
It seemed like a good idea at the time. And now, the ol’ Biden Boys are scrambling to find a strategy to keep the media vultures focused somewhere else, especially on the current president’s trials and tribulations. You can imagine the strategists and public relations gurus in the Biden war room – penny loafers leaping, high-fiving each other with jazz hands, and yelling “Eureka” when it finally came to them: Threaten the media to keep quiet or promote the statement as a “debunked right-wing conspiracy.” As Jon Lovitz would say in his classic pathological liar character, “Yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket,” and one of the lackeys would pen the missive to media outlets. That staffer is Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield:
“[Trump’s] objective was to pressure the Ukrainian government into spreading a malicious and conclusively debunked conspiracy theory: that Vice President Biden engaged in wrongdoing when he executed official United States policy to remove a corrupt prosecutor from office.”
Poor choice of words aside, Bedingfield claims the debunkers are “fact-checkers” and reporting “from numerous outlets.” Which is snort-worthy. But give the Dems credit due: They stick to their story no matter how foolish.
Another distressed presidential contender, Michael Bloomberg, told his media-empire minions they weren’t allowed, as Liberty Nation’s Editor-in-Chief Leesa K. Donner extolled, “to dig up dirt on [their] fearless leader, his businesses, his family, his charitable activities, and – if he owns one – his dog as well.” What a putz move – which now appears was highly contagious.
The Memo
Joe Biden (Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Drive-by left-wing media outlet NBC was first to report on the Biden campaign’s “unusual” memo, which demanded that “any media organization referencing, reporting on, or repeating” Biden’s dealings with Shokin, Burisma Holdings, Ukraine, Hunter Biden, and the like “must state clearly and unambiguously that they have been discredited and debunked by authoritative sources.”
They did not leave much to report on and added that words like “allegations unsubstantiated” were not sufficient cover for their Democratic presidential frontrunner. The memo went so far as to demand news writers tell their audience “there is a mountain of evidence,” which surely sufficiently debunks the inconvenient chatter, and anyone reporting on it must toe the party line, elsewise be committing journalistic malpractice. Sticks and stones work better, Biden Boys, sticks and stones. Which compels this writer to type “Biden, Burisma, and Shokin. Oh my!”
It would appear Shokin himself spent a good bit of time cogitating on whether to tell the tale of his unfortunate departure. But recent events, with Biden under fire for his son Hunter’s board appointment with Burisma Holdings, may have unearthed a spoiler. Recently, Shokin stated in an affidavit obtained by President Trump’s legal counsel, Rudy Giuliani, on the firing in question:
“After my dismissal, Joe Biden made a public statement, saying — even bragging — that he had me fired. This is when it became clear that the real reason for my dismissal was my actions regarding Burisma and Biden’s personal interest in that company.”
But which to believe? The Ukrainian or the former vice president ineptly leading the presidential pack of wannabes? More importantly, will the naturally nosy political journalists out and about act in principle and find the truth?
Will the memo impede the calling of Hunter Biden to the stand in the impeachment trial of the president? At this juncture, it would only make matters worse – for the Democrats – akin to handing out kerosene squirt guns to Republicans while debunking the dumpster fire that House Democrats and RINOs created.
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