The New York Times reports that Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt privately recorded his intentions to give Donald Trump money in order to advance his business interests in the United States. Pratt wrote, “If Potus is having his election party at mar Lago I’ll book as many rooms as available,” because doing so would not only help Trump win the election but also “be good for business.”
The Times reports that, according to witness testimony to federal prosecutors, Pratt “spent $1 million to attend the party, well in excess of the normal charge.” That is to say, Pratt was not merely indulging himself in amenities offered by Trump’s private club but consciously using those payments as a vehicle to pay Trump directly.
While there is no evidence this alleged scheme violates any criminal statute, the colloquial term for this behavior is bribery.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are continuing to circulate allegations that President Biden was connected to his son Hunter’s influence-peddling business. Representative James Comer has made a series of uncorroborated allegations that the conservative media have uncritically promoted, insinuating that Joe Biden personally benefited from his son’s business. Republicans have produced communications between Hunter Biden and his father, which might be expected between a father and a son, but no clear evidence that Joe Biden received any payments stemming from Hunter’s work.
They are attempting, so far without success, to show Biden did what Donald Trump is proven to have done.
Every accusation is a confession.
Yeah, they don’t “think” Biden did anything, they’re just trying to find something to justify what they did so when they get caught they can say “but what about…” Then the media gets to blissfully keep insisting that the parties are the same, so they can justify not running stories about all the terrible things their corpoRate owneRs keep doing.
They’re flooding media and their followers (they aren’t acting for constituents) so that when they get found out for doing X they can say it’s them dems just mirroring everything
Every Trump headline announces to the world that American politics is a joke
For all the “Hunter Biden” cries, the right sure doesn’t care that Ivanka got a lot of money from China (copyright deals that were held up until her father became President) or that Jared got billions from the Saudis for a job he had never done.
When Trump children use their father’s position to make money, the right says they are just being “smart business folks.” If Hunter Biden so much as sells a glass of lemonade, the Republicans want a Congressional investigation to see if Joe was involved in any way.
We all just need to accept anything the GOP does is not in the interest of the public but only the interest of their party.
No, holding Trump to account is not something they will do because they will not benefit. No, pointing out their hypocrisy won’t change anything because they aren’t acting in good faith. There is no moral or ethical standard to adhere to because the only objective is to gain more power. In this way they are doomed to consume themselves because the more they consolidate power the fewer people can be in the in group.
Like being in a family with a narcissistic parent (the GQP), and the Golden Child who can do no wrong (who always breaks every rule).
two things can be true at once. left sweeps bidens shady dealings under the rug, right sweeps trumps shady dealings under the rug. you really can’t deny that hunter biden working at Burisma and the emails showing him promising calls with his father to business associates isn’t sketchy.
“Enlightened centrism” once again appears to promote right wing agendas.
You are seen and recognized.
I’m just a bit sick of everyone pretending like Biden is squeaky clean. You have your own agenda which results in you defending the establishment
Zero people have defended Biden. I have myself declared that if it turns out that this is actionable then he should be prosecuted. I will bet you any amount of money that House Republicans and the DOJ will find nothing actionable, just like the last thirty times they launched investigations into Democrats.
So do us a favor and stop pretending you’re morally outraged. You didn’t give a shit about many public examples of corruption in the Trump administration, you’re not going to bring up his felony indictments, and you won’t admit it when Biden is cleared of any malfeasance. You’re just here to sling mud and pretend “both sides are the same” like a good sower of disinformation. We see you. We know who you are. You will not hear from me again.
You seem a bit too paranoid, I’m just a dude giving my opinion. This whole article is defending Biden. But “no one is defending Biden” give me a break, read the fucking comments of your own post.
The left that I know would be perfectly happy if Biden went away. By all means, if there’s evidence, convict him. If not, then we can all move on. Those of us who do vote for him only do it because we know what happens when Republicans are in charge, and it’s much worse than Biden.
How is anyone supposed to convict him? Are you seriously arguing that every single crime that has evidence is convicted upon?
Those of us who do vote for him only do it because we know what happens when Republicans are in charge, and it’s much worse than Biden.
I accept this view as valid. But what I don’t accept is people flip flopping from this view and defending Biden from substantive criticism.
Well, you could start by gathering evidence and presenting it in a court of law. I don’t know why you think that’s an unseemly burden.
Hunter Biden is not an elected official! Who cares what he does in his free time? Jesus fucking Christ.
It’s just the son of an elected official who would put his Dad (who happens to be vice president of the United States) on the phone on multiple occasions. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66368126 Are you really arguing this has no significance?
Years later and y’all are still desperately grasping at straws. Keep trying, one of these days something will stick for sure!
Gotta love the open and blatant hypocrisy of Republicans here. The Venn diagram of people who care about Hunter Biden, and people who criticized Trump/Ivanka/Kushner for open influence peddling (including copyrights from China for Ivanka, and literally billions of dollars in unexplained income from the Saudis for Jared) is two separate circles with no overlap.
Just completely incapable of applying the same standard when the shoe is on the other foot. Actually, a much higher standard.
Jared Kushner was a government official (even though he shouldn’t have been, for literally this exact reason: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437292-kushners-security-clearance-was-denied-due-to-concerns-of-foreign/) and we know he mysteriously received billions of dollars from the Saudi government.
Nobody gave a shit.
It’s shady shenanigans vs illegal shenanigans
Quid pro quo is illegal, just hard to prosecute since powerful people are careful to not leave traces
Did you give McDonald’s money in exchange for a burger? You’re guilty of quid pro quo.
Words have meaning, and quid pro quo is not inherently illegal.
Uhh i’m obviously talking about in the context of politics. I know you think you said something smart but you didn’t.
And it still doesn’t matter. No matter if you or I think it should be otherwise, bribery laws are quite narrow in this country.
Quid pro quo is illegal ONLY IF IT BREAKS THE LAW
Edit- caps for emphasis, not yelling 😁
What kind of nonsense pedantry is this? Do you not think it’s wrong to do political favors for those who help out your sons business dealings?
I just repeated what Google told me, take it up with him 🙄
Do you not think it’s wrong to do political favors for those who help out your sons business dealings?
Where is the proof? Been years now, and I’ve seen nothing but Hunter hanging dong.
The fact that you’re still here arguing the talking points kind of detracts from the whole, “I’m just a normal guy asking questions” bit. If that were at all true, any number of the correct answers provided to you would be more than enough. Yet here you still are, just coincidentally using right wing talking points word for word.
How this will be received: “yeah because both sides are the same.”
It’s always projection.
Has anything been done about Trump forcing the secret service to stay at his hotels?
Conservatives are pathological liars who are not capable of honesty. Every word uttered by a conservative is either dishonesty or manipulation. Every word.
Never believe the word of a conservative. Never.
I think you mean pathological liar:
https://short-q.com/is-compulsive-lying-a-mental-illness/You’re right. Thank you. I will edit the comment.
Every accusation is a confession.
every one of them?
Especially you.
It’s all part of whataboutism. It’s okay that Trump did it if they can prove (or make everybody believe) that Biden does it too.
Gaslighting
Obstruction
ProjectionI’m gonna have to borrow this.
Congratulations on being one of today’s lucky 10,000.
I hate to tell you, but I’m already over 30. So I guess you can stick me in the dumb fuck bucket.
How could you have had a chance to hear it every day over the last thirty years when the meme has only been around half that, if that much?
Huh?
You haven’t had 30 years to learn that GOP meme. You’re not as stupid as you’re saying.
Well thanks kind internet stranger. Have an upvote, for it is all I have to give.
Yeah… I’m not sure if this is obvious but it does not matter to right wingers what crimes trump committed. Trump aligns with the right wingers morals. Regardless of the consequences caused to the future it simply not matter to them.
It’s called malignance. I see many treating right wingers as stupid when their just willfully malignant.
This just in: bears found to defecate in the woods.
We’re all adults here.
You can say “poopy.”
If you want to know what Trump is doing, it’s anything he says the Democrats are doing.
guys. he’s a crook. that’s not even in doubt. he had a set price for pardons for christsake. you think he stopped there? his e tire life and fortune was and is thanks to corruption of every kind available to him at whatever level he was at. why would he stop when he hit the bigtime? he didn’t. (obviously, this comment is addressed to those saying otherwise. if that’s not you, congrats on having some common sense.)
Jared Kushner very openly accepted 2 Billion in Saudi investment the receives 25 million annual fees from, and whose collaborative policy has led to a once in a generation international crisis. It’s very goofy,
Anyone else remember when Jared Kushner’s security clearance was denied over and over and over until Trump personally stepped in to override our intelligence agencies for this exact fucking reason?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/us/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance.html
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person that remembers all this shit.
It’s ALWAYS projection with the right wingers.
as they say, “every accusation is a confession.”
I dunno. The 200k payment looks pretty suspicious even to a lefty like me.
Yeah dude, I will never vote for Hunter Biden.
Liar. He wasn’t even in office when the events took place.
because the events took place at his inauguration party, your “rebuttal” is hilarious.
TIL that Biden was inaugurated in 2018.
Go away, troll.
What office in the US government was Hunter Biden’s inauguration for?
Bet it still had more people than Trump’s. Even though it didn’t even happen.
Yes, no, maybe. It’s enough to investigate further.
Part of the problem is that bribery statues are extremely narrow. Merely getting “access” to a politician happens all the time to representatives from both parties. Biden probably didn’t do anything legally wrong, or even all that out of place in Washington politics.
It is, however, troubling in a much broader sense than the law as written. Just not in a way any Republican would want to open up, because as soon as they do, literally all of them are guilty.
accurate as to how things work, for sure. we allow a lot of legal bribery. why? because concresss wants it, so they passed laws to allow it. their wealthy doners, aka the american oligarchy, want it even more.
