Academic

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Meet the Bidens: What happens after the world?s most expensive introduction?

By Glenn Reynolds

WALL STREET JOURNAL: Meet the Bidens: What happens after the world?s most expensive introduction?

What kind of meetings can a Chinese tycoon buy for $10 million a year? A full seven days after the New York Post began publishing emails showing Biden family influence peddling, former Vice President Joe Biden still isn?t saying the emails are fake. But Mr. Biden did finally have to discuss his family business on Tuesday, thanks to Milwaukee television reporter Adrienne Pedersen of ABC affiliate WISN.

Ms. Pederson asked if there is ?any legitimacy? to the statement by Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) that the former vice president?s son and other family members profited off the Biden name. ?None whatsoever,? Joe Biden responded, and said it was part of a ?last ditch effort in this desperate campaign to smear me and my family.?

If Mr. Biden wants to argue that none of the millions of dollars collected from various overseas tycoons or their companies had anything to do with his name, then he?s making an argument that not even his son Hunter Biden was willing to make in 2019. National Review?s Mairead McArdle reminds:

Joe Biden denied that his family has profited from his public offices, appearing to contradict a statement his son Hunter Biden made last year in which he said he thinks he would ?probably not? have been asked to be on the board of a Ukrainian energy company if he were not Biden?s son.

The Post?s Thursday follow-up to its earlier email scoop has made it much harder to believe the current argument from Joe Biden. . . . Perhaps at some point the Bidens will choose to offer an explanation. In the meantime, a reasonable person would conclude from this report that the buyer willing to spend this mind-boggling sum was not seeking introductions to former acting assistant agency deputies. And having been introduced, it?s reasonable to assume such a buyer was seeking much more than a pleasant greeting.

Team Biden and much of the press corps would prefer not to have to acknowledge the Post reporting.

Indeed they do.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on October 21, 2020 (boomark / email).