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David Pakman Host of The David Pakman Show
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Baseless GOP allegations against Biden might backfire

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David Pakman Host of The David Pakman Show
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2023 was a year filled with broad Republican accusations of corruption against President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Although the accusations remain unverified and unsubstantiated, critics contend that they have nonetheless provided political benefits to the Republican lawmakers who propagated them.

Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman says that Republicans are hoping their smear campaign against Joe Biden — even entirely without evidence — will help increase the odds of Trump winning in 2024. He cautions, however, that the Republican plan might backfire, as more and more Americans become aware of the game that the GOP is playing.

I want to talk with you today a little bit about the so-called Biden crimes, Biden bribery, Biden influence peddling, all of that sort of stuff for which we still have no evidence whatsoever. You know, I think the goalposts have been moved significantly on this issue. And at the same time, in the midst of the primaries starting and Trump’s criminal trials coming up and all of this, it is also true that there has been a decline in media discussions of the supposed Biden crimes, not to zero, but there has been a decline.

There are a couple of possibilities for the way that this could go. Republicans, in a desperate attempt to not see Joe Biden get reelected in November, may decide, ‘We’ve got to impeach the guy, even if we have nothing, even if we’ve been looking for years for the evidence of criminality, high crimes, misdemeanors, etc., and we don’t find any, we’ve just got to impeach this guy, because otherwise, he’s gonna run away with reelection.’ That’s one possibility.

The other possibility is that as the Trump trials get going, as the election gets closer, with Republicans still finding no evidence — and remember the Republican Judiciary Committee has found no evidence against Joe Biden — they haven’t even found evidence of crimes, but I’ll get to that in a moment — they may instead say, ‘You know, we really don’t want to debase ourselves further by impeaching the guy with no reason to impeach him. Let’s just never mention this again. We’ll just talk about it less and less.

I want to talk with you today a little bit about the so-called Biden crimes, Biden bribery, Biden influence peddling, all of that sort of stuff for which we still have no evidence whatsoever. You know, I think the goalposts have been moved significantly on this issue. And at the same time, in the midst of the primaries starting and Trump’s criminal trials coming up and all of this, it is also true that there has been a decline in media discussions of the supposedly Biden crimes, not to zero, but there has been a decline.

 

There are a couple of possibilities for the way that this could go. Republicans, in a desperate attempt to not see Joe Biden get reelected in November, may decide we’ve got to impeach the guy, even if we have nothing, even if we’ve been looking for years for the evidence of criminality, high crimes, misdemeanors, etc. and we don’t find any, we’ve just got to impeach this guy, because otherwise, he’s gonna run away with reelection. That’s one possibility.

 

The other possibility is that as the Trump trials get going, as the election gets closer, with Republicans still finding no evidence, and remember the Republican Judiciary Committee has found no evidence against Joe Biden, they haven’t even found evidence of crimes, but I’ll get to that in a moment, they may instead say, you know, we really don’t want to debase ourselves further by impeaching the guy with no reason to impeach him. Let’s just never mention this again. We’ll just talk about it less and less.

 

And then I don’t know, Biden, crimes, I have no idea. I don’t know which way it’s going to go. But here is the way in which the goalposts have been moved. We need to remember that the Republican Judiciary Committee hasn’t found evidence of crimes. Notice how I don’t even mention Joe Biden there. I’m just saying the Republican judiciary hasn’t found evidence of crimes in the areas they’ve investigated. If they want to link Joe Biden to criminality, first they need to find evidence of crimes. And I see many interviews on Fox News and other right-wing platforms, Maria Bartiromo, Fox News anchor to her credit, she will bring people on, Nancy Mace, Scott Perry, James Comer, and others, and she will say: “What is the evidence against Joe Biden?”

 

And they will say, I’ll give you examples. Nancy Mace has said we don’t have it yet. We need the impeachment inquiry in order to find the evidence, fishing expedition, but she doesn’t have any evidence. Scott Perry was recently on when he was asked what’s the most damning evidence against Joe Biden? He said, bank statements and financial transactions. And then he didn’t mention what about the bank statements? What financial transactions? Because they don’t have any evidence. And so the conversation that many on the right are having is what’s the strongest evidence that Joe Biden committed crimes? A responsible journalist, anchor or interviewer would actually take a couple of steps back and say, “What is the evidence that a crime was committed at all? Before we talk about the evidence against Joe Biden?”

 

Now, if you want to mix the conversation by talking about Hunter Biden, and the fact that he is under indictment, you absolutely can. But the things that Hunter is under indictment for aren’t even alleged to have anything to do with Joe Biden. The gun thing and some of his personal financial things, there isn’t even the allegation seriously being made that that’s what has to do with Joe Biden. So as is the case with many of these discussions, Republicans benefit from being extremely vague in their allegations, criminal bribery, influence-peddling, policy for money, money coming into Joe Biden’s accounts. And then when you look at the details, you see, okay, Joe Biden is not linked to any of that stuff. Yes, money came into Joe Biden’s account. But that’s not a crime. And there’s been no demonstration that any of the money that came in was in exchange for policy changes or any of it, it’s really important that we maintain the conversation about where the facts currently are. And right now, we don’t even have a crime.

 

They want to talk about Biden’s involvement in the crime. We don’t even have a crime. And when you ask them this stuff, they say, “Well, we’re still trying to figure that out.” So political question becomes, does this, is this likely to have an impact on Joe Biden in the 2024 election? I increasingly think the answer is no. And if the lack of evidence continues, and Republicans move to impeach anyway, I believe it’s more likely that it backfires, with the American people seeing there’s no evidence, why are they even impeaching this guy? I think it is far more likely that they quietly end the impeachment inquiry, say nothing else about it, don’t impeach, and hope that Trump or whoever is the nominee can simply defeat the guy in November. Let me know what you think.

 

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