Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Something Is Rotten In The State Of....Ukraine

And it isn't just Trump, but also Biden---Joe and Hunter, his son.
The President's handling of this matter is bad enough, but it crosses party lines, IMHO
The President may, or may not, have been coercing the new Ukranian president and withholding military aid to work on corruption there. That's open to debate...BUT..when he asked for help in digging up possible dirt on his possible opponent next year, and then repeated the offer to China days later, that violates an old, important federal law, and Mr. Trump had to know it.

The poor lady who heads the Federal Election Commission has so stated every time he has done so, and these two examples aren't the first ones, just the latest. I would hope no American of any party wants foreign interference in our elections, and for Mr. Trump to seek such help actively really is beyond the pale of our politics as well as illegal on the face.

Whether that is sufficient for impeachment, we will see. But it IS a case of his violating our laws, by commission.  As to former Vice-President Biden, he does not come off looking so well either, by omission.

2 conservative sources have reported his son, Hunter, received a monthly salary of $50K to sit on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas firm, itself the subject of some corruption probes. (Nothing proven yet) That alleged salary has not been verified. The Washington Post, in a wide ranging story could not verify those reports. But, if they are true, that's just incredible. $50K a year, to someone not known to have any expertise in the energy field would be bad enough. What little the son has said so far about why he is a board member and what he does for whatever salary he is paid have been very far from satisfactory. And now President Trump says the son, and maybe dad, has been involved in some type of business dealings in China, maybe worth a billion or so. All this not substantiated either.

BUT, Mr. Biden knows better. He should never have allowed his son to be involved in a country where he was the point man for President Obama in some important policy matter, and the same is true for China, where the possibility of a major conflict of interest for the present Trump administration (or even a possible eventual Biden administration) looms large. He knows that and he should never have permitted it.

But now it has come out, in many murky details. Candidate Biden should clear the air and tell the American people, in full detail, whatever his son has done in the Ukraine and whatever he and son may be doing in China. For a supposedly astute politician, he has handled this as stupidly as can be.

I'm just sayin'...