OPINION:
Last March I wrote a column, described by some correspondents as overly cynical, about the Democrats’ running a failing Joe Biden while planning to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him after the election. One correspondent called it “over the top.” Another wrote, “[I] doubt if most people share your analysis of Biden’s likely presidential longevity, but some Democrats undoubtedly do. So it is good to get the word out.”
Now the plot thickens. A laptop, purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, has surfaced and is said to contain unbelievably damaging information about the Biden family–China financial connections, as well as the Biden–Burisma scandal.
You can read all the details in The New York Times or The Washington Post.
Oh, no, wait a minute. Those organizations haven’t covered the story. You’ll have to go to Fox News or other non-woke outlets for details.
Time may tell if the laptop actually did belong to Hunter Biden, and if the information is genuine. There are said to be hundreds of, er, remarkable photos of Hunter Biden and people of the opposite sex (Can you say “opposite sex” anymore? Opposite to what? Catercornered sex?) in various poses, which pictures, we are told, are difficult to fake, even for Photoshop jockeys, and which you wouldn’t want either your grandmother or children to see. They may conclusively establish the ownership of the laptop.
But when?
The FBI apparently has had the laptop for months, having obtained it shortly before President Trump’s impeachment. But the FBI did nothing with it. Why not? Will we ever find out? Do we really need the FBI?
Joe Biden appears, now, to be a wealthy man. Forbes magazine wrote last year that Mr. Biden had $8 million in addition to his million dollar government pension. Most of that $8 million seems to have been acquired after he stopped being vice president—but that seems like a lot of money to make in only three years from speaking and writing. A curious journalist might attempt to find out exactly where Joe Biden’s money came from.
Mr. Trump inherited his fortune, and may, according to one anti-Trump news source, actually have diminished it. But at least the public knew where the money came from. And the media practically had a cow when a few foreign potentates stayed at a Trump hotel. Mr. Trump probably made several thousand dollars (excluding tips) from those hotel visits — yet it was front page news.
But no mainstream-media types seem interested at all in Mr. Biden’s somehow raking in enough money to buy the huge houses he now owns.
All that will change after January. His mental problems will be far more difficult to hide then. According to the Washington Examiner, former White House physician Ronny Jackson has said he is “convinced” Mr. Biden is not mentally fit to be president.
“I’m pretty familiar with what it takes both physically and cognitively to do that job and what the demands of that job are,” Dr. Jackson said. “I’ve watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I am concerned and convinced that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander-in-chief and our head of state.”
“The best way I can describe him every time I see him is that he’s just lost,” Dr. Jackson continued, adding, “I won’t make any particular diagnosis about dementia. But what I will say is that something is not right.”
So: His mental state is weak, and he has amassed a fortune, perhaps by being involved in sketchy dealings with the Chinese and Ukrainians. For the left-wing, progressive-socialist-woke AOC-Kamala Harris Democrats, that’s heaven (not capitalized here because they don’t believe Heaven is a real place).
In the spring of 2021 they’ll go to Mr. Biden and say, “Look: let’s make a deal. Go quietly and you can keep everything. Create problems and you’ll be prosecuted for your misdeeds, which are shocking [you know, like gambling in Casablanca] and you’ll have to give up everything, and even your children may go to jail.”
What’s a poor somewhat confused president to do? Suppose the laptop files are fake? How will he prove it? Who will come to his aid? Bernie Sanders? Barack Obama? Please.
He can’t expect any help from the Republicans, much as they might prefer him to Kamala Harris. They’re too invested in the truth of Mr. Biden’s failing health and the likelihood that he did have shady dealings. Supporting him would look … opportunistic.
No, it would be curtains for Mr. Biden.
And also, probably, curtains for Taiwan, the U.S. regime-change-crisis making irresistible the temptation for Mr. Biden’s friends, the Chinese, to take over the island. Foreign policy mischief will be irresistible for others of our enemies too.
And then curtains for the United States’ reputation.
What to do? Vote for Donald Trump.
• Daniel Oliver is chairman of the board of the Education and Research Institute and a director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco. Email Daniel Oliver at Daniel.Oliver@TheCandidAmerican.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.