Dick Morris: Double-Edged Fake News on Ukraine
The media want to take out Donald Trump and, to do that, they have convinced themselves that they have to take out Joe Biden as well.
It’s not just that they want Elizabeth Warren, their true believer, as the candidate, it’s that they have serious doubts about Biden’s ability to survive a campaign in good health and in his right mind, to win.
So the media have invented a double-edged fake scandal. With one blade, they can invent a narrative that President Trump used his power to convince Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s son Hunter and to get it out in public.
With the other blade, they get to remind people constantly that Joe Biden — while vice president — tried to protect his son from investigation by the Ukrainian prosecutor by threatening to withhold U.S. foreign aid.
The lead paragraph of their stories peddles dirt about Trump while the body heaps negatives on the Bidens to provide readers with the “background” of the scandal.
Elizabeth Warren comes out ahead.
The Hunter Biden aspect of the scandal is all too real.
When he was vice president, Joe bragged that he was instrumental in getting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating his son Hunter and apparently coming too close, fired.
The scandal began when Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz, stepson of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, formed a partnership to peddle influence using their fathers’ power. A natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, gave Hunter a board seat in the spring of 2014, when Biden was vice president.
Burisma was a dirty business owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, part of the pro-Russian government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych (Paul Manifort’s client) who is facing a variety of investigations into corruption at the company.
Viktor Shokin was appointed in 2015 to investigate. When his probe got too close to Hunter Biden, Joe stepped in.
And, amazingly and arrogantly, he bragged about it!
During an event sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations on January 23, 2018, Biden said:
“I remember going over (to Ukraine), convincing our team … that we should be providing for loan guarantees. … And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from (then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko) and from (then-Prime Minister Arseniy) Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor (Shokin). And they didn’t…
They were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, … we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the president.’ … I said, call him. I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b—-. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
Solid for the Biden’s but not for the Ukrainian people.
The U.S. media tried hard to ignore the scandal. To prove his and his son’s innocence, Joe even invoked their lack of coverage.
Now, provoked by the media bias, President Trump is accused of pressuring newly elected Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the affair.
A “whistle-blower” who did not witness the phone call claims Trump made a promise to Zelensky if he pushed the investigation.
Nobody knows what the promise was and since the “whistle-blower” was not a party to the conversation (or even a wiretapper) we don’t know.
But, no matter — the media, led by The New York Times, is off to the races calling for Trump’s scalp.
Some facts:
- The president can say anything he likes to a foreign leader. He has the exclusive right to conduct foreign policy.
- Both Trump and Zelensky deny any quid pro quo was offered.
- Trump may — and should — release the transcript of the phone call with Zelensky to quiet this fake scandal.
In the meantime, let’s focus on the news here — Biden’s son’s wielding his father’s influence both in Ukraine and in China.
Most people wait until they are president to get corrupt. Biden has a head start.
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