There is no longer the argument that documents were held at a ‘personal residence’: Jonathan Turley
GW constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley discusses how 5 more documents were discovered at Biden’s DE home on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’
The jig is up for Joe Biden.
Revelations that he mishandled classified documents are just the beginning. Joe Biden’s bad luck is that these developments coincide with the GOP takeover of the House, which promises to investigate the seamy business dealings of the first family, and the emergence of a newly uncensored Twitter, thanks to Elon Musk. Democrats and their allies in the leftist media are no longer running the show.
As these events collide, the artfully crafted but fragile architecture of the president’s public persona will come unglued. Joe Biden is not honest; he appears most definitely compromised and he will not be the Democrat candidate in 2024. Count on it.
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR: TIMELINE OF BIDEN'S CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS DEBACLE
Doubtful? Consider the case of Hillary Clinton.
On July 5, 2016, FBI chief James Comey announced he would not recommend that charges be brought against Hillary Clinton, even though she had been "extremely careless" in using an authorized private email address and server, destroying tens of thousands of records that she should have kept and that it was "possible that hostile foreign governments had gained access to her account," according to the New York Times. He also acknowledged that Hillary had lied about not receiving and sending classified information on multiple private servers.
Hillary may have escaped punishment, but her reputation never recovered. As she became the Democratic candidate for the Oval Office, only about one-third of voters considered the former secretary of State honest and trustworthy – worse marks at the time than Donald Trump.
Now, after numerous classified documents have been found in Joe Biden’s various offices and residences, it is the president’s reputation that is on the line. For sure, Biden has more to lose.
In 2015, Chris Cillizza published a piece in the Washington Post entitled "The Amazing Honesty of Joe Biden." He wrote: "Joe Biden's unique trait as a politician is – and always has been – his honesty."
WHY BIDEN'S DOCUMENTS MESS COULD BE ONE OF THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDALS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
That was then. In the intervening years, Biden has issued so many falsehoods – about his academic record, about getting jailed with Nelson Mandela, about his family being killed by a drunk driver, about how he once worked as a truck driver – that already less than half the nation considers him honest.
The discovery that Biden mishandled classified documents will change the way voters view him, especially since many questions remain unanswered.
Why, for instance, were Biden’s lawyers rooting through his former office at the University of Pennsylvania? Where were the documents in the year between when he left the White House and occupied the Penn Center digs? Why won’t the Biden team release visitor logs for the Wilmington White House, where the president has spent more than one-quarter of his time in office? Oops. We know the answer to that question. There are no visitor logs for Biden's Wilmington residence.
HUNTER BIDEN, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: MYSTERY SWIRLS AROUND PENN BIDEN CENTER
Perhaps most important: why did the Chinese cough up tens of millions of dollars for the University of Pennsylvania, much of it in the form of anonymous donations, after Joe Biden was hired there? Does it relate to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China – about which Joe Biden has professed complete ignorance?
The White House isn’t saying.
But that will not protect Joe Biden. Because the ongoing scandal is going to rock all those millions of people who (unaccountably) think, like "The View’s" Joy Behar, that Biden is an honest man.
Behar, who is not the brightest bulb in the firmament, said about the emerging fuss over Biden’s secret documents: "Well, we all know that Trump is a liar and a thief. It’s not that big a jump to say he obstructed, and he lied. We don’t think Biden is a liar and a thief, so we give him the benefit of the doubt."
There you have it, critical analysis for the masses.
Here’s the problem: No one removes himself from a presidential campaign, as Biden did in 1987, for plagiarizing and inflating his academic record unless he is profoundly dishonest.
Biden lied then and also recently, as he has denied ever talking to his son Hunter about the latter’s business operations in Ukraine, Russia and China. Because of Hunter’s infamous laptop and the testimony of people involved, like Tony Bobulinski, we know better.
The press and Democrats generally have given Joe a pass on his fabrications. The Washington Post, reviewing yet another untrue tale, effuses "Joe Biden has a reputation for stories that are rich in theater but loose with details." In other words, Joe’s deceptions are harmless.
In the coming months, voters may conclude otherwise. Republicans in the House will play a role, publicly revealing the depths of the Biden family’s alleged corruption and the threat it poses to our country.
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Last November, Republican members of the House Oversight Committee reported, "The president’s personal participation in his family’s global business ventures –committed through and by a complex network of relatives and associates to enrich the Biden family – has exposed the United States to national security risks that could be leveraged by our enemies to undermine the Office of the President."
The committee further states that the government has obstructed their efforts to investigate Biden’s business dealings when he was vice president. For example, "The Department of Treasury is in possession of at least 150 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to Biden family members’ financial transactions", which they will not share. So much for transparency.
The liberal press will attempt to discredit the GOP investigations, but with Twitter now committed to open discourse, findings about Hunter and Joe Biden’s intertwined finances and influence peddling will get out.
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Democrats know this and know that for many reasons Joe Biden is not a strong 2024 candidate. Some 70% of the nation, including 57% of Democrats, said in a CNBC poll last month that Biden should not run.
Now someone needs to convince Joe Biden.