The Democrats and the Media Gave Biden a Pass, Trump Won't
By: Eric Spencer
Thanks to a friendly media, and a field of Democratic candidates, who all refused to call out his most glaring weaknesses, Joe Biden has become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for 2020. However, the kid glove treatment Biden received in the primary will not propel him to the White House.
The corporate media played a pivotal role in securing Biden’s primary victory. The media that has consistently called out Trump for his lying, his corruption, his misogyny and his horrific policies, are clearly unwilling to do the same to Joe Biden.
Every lie told by Trump is closely scrutinized, and rightly so. However, if you scrutinize many of the claims Biden has made on the campaign trail, you might not find any prettier a picture. Remember the Afghan War story that seemed to change every time Biden told it? Or, his stories of being arrested visiting Nelson Mandela, and another of marching in the Civil Rights movement— neither of which happened?
Biden has also lied repeatedly about his policy record. Despite claiming to have defended Social Security and Medicaid his whole life, he has, in fact, advocated for cuts to the programs for 40 years. Perhaps the most brazen example of Biden’s willingness to rewrite history is when he claims to have opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As a member of Congress, he voted for the invasion. A simple YouTube search is all that one needs to put that myth to bed. There you can watch video after video of Biden, in his own words, defending the justifications for going to war, as well as defending how the war was being conducted—well after the invasion had occurred. It’s hard to believe, we all can find these clips, but MSNBC, CNN and NPR can’t.
Joe Biden’s corruption is often overlooked or outright denied by the corporate media. His son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company that paid him over $50,000 a month. As Hunter has no experience in this industry, there is only one reason this company paid him— access to his father. Joe Biden ran point on policy in Ukraine for the Obama Administration.
He also ran point for policy, for the administration, in China. Back in 2013, Hunter accompanied his father on a trip to China aboard Air Force Two. A few days later Hunter became a partner in a newly formed investment firm backed by the Chinese government to the tune of billions of dollars. If that had been Trump’s son, you would hear about it every minute of every day. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are engaging in political and financial corruption right now. The country needs to have a leader that can call this out, but if your son’s name is Hunter Biden, you are not that leader.
Biden’s history with women, like Trump, is also highly questionable. By now most have seen the many viral videos depicting Biden being creepily touchy with women and kids in public spaces. Sometimes even landing an unsolicited kiss or a hair sniff. Hair sniffing is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Biden’s horrible track record with women.
Biden and his judiciary committee treated Dr. Anita Hill shamefully during her testimony at Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991. Hill, quite credibly, accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment before he was ultimately confirmed anyway. Hill has since said Biden “set the stage” for the confirmation of Trump’s most recent Supreme Court appointee, Bret Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh was confirmed in the face of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s rape allegations.
Now Biden has his own sexual assault allegation. Tara Reade, a former staffer, has accused Biden of pushing her up against a wall, in 1991, and digitally penetrating her, telling her she was “nothing.” Rich McHugh (who helped investigate and break the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct stories) has been investigating Reade’s accusations for his recent article featured in Business Insider.
In a recent interview with The Hill, McHugh said he finds Reade’s accusations “credible.” In the three weeks since these allegations came to light, Biden has given 10 interviews to the media, fielded 81 questions, and not one them was about Tara Reade’s allegation.
Joe Biden’s policy record is full of skeletons as well. He actually wrote the 1994 crime bill, signed into law by Bill Clinton. This bill baked, even more, racial inequalities into our criminal justice system. The bill exploded the prison population, disproportionately stuffing our jails with people of color. He even opposed busing to desegregate schools earlier in his career. He said he would veto single payer healthcare that polls show a majority of Americans favor. His anti-worker, pro-Wall Street agenda spans the length of his entire career.
Even Bernie Sanders refused to attack Biden on crucial issues, and constantly described him as a “friend” and a “good guy” that could “beat Trump.” One of the failures of the Sanders campaign, and of the Democratic Party was that they never put Biden through a tough enough gauntlet during the primary to prove he is a strong enough candidate to beat Trump.
Every time Biden asked Sanders how he was going to pay for Medicare for All (M4A), Bernie should have turned to him and said, how are we going to pay for what, Joe? How are we going to pay for something that costs less? Is that really what you’re asking, Joe? Then I would follow by pointing out that Biden is paid by big pharma and the health insurance industries to pretend not to know M4A is cheaper and produces better health outcomes. He could have pointed out the fact that Joe has a pharma lobbyist working as one of his top aides.
Sanders also refused to point out the fact that Hunter Biden has been profiting from his father’s political power. Heaven forbid Sanders points out Biden’s history of misogyny and alleged sexual assault. Even Obama called out Hilary Clinton during the primary in 2008 for being disingenuous. That’s what primaries are for.
When all of the other establishment candidates dropped out and coalesced behind him, Joe Biden became the default nominee. Now that both Obama and Bernie Sanders have endorsed Biden, it appears defeating Trump is now squarely on his shoulders.
It’s hard to believe that the Democratic Party is tasking a man who has no new ideas and is the moral superior to no one with defeating a presidential incumbent on the grounds that he’s an immoral liar.
Unlike the corporate media and the Democratic Party, Trump will not use kid gloves when dealing with Biden. This is a guy that brought Bill Clinton’s sexual assault accusers to a debate with Hilary Clinton in 2016. He’s made up names for all his political opponents. He called them “losers", "liars", and "choke artists.” The elephant in the room, that Trump will undoubtedly not ignore, is Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline which is clear to anyone being honest with themselves. Trump already calls him, “Sleepy Joe.”
The Democrats have taken a major risk by nominating Joe Biden. Biden is not ready for the onslaught of attacks that will come from Trump during the course of this campaign, and he has no moral cover to hide from them.