You bet it's fi'ng moot. Count on the GOP and their supporters to be imprecise, to overlook salient info and consequently lose their shit over absolutely nothing while overlooking far more serious ACTUAL influence peddling by Donnie's daughter and son-in-law while the orange prick was in office.
Biden wasn't VP when Hunter sent the WhatsApp message. Wow!
Last night was the first time I’d seen this message even though I’d heard about it (it’s usually said to be messageS) for a while. My wife’s first comment was “Does anyone consider that he could have been lying?”
We were watching CNN and I don’t remember them mentioning the date.
I read this from Media Matters (below),the message was sent July 30, 2017. Joe was in his 6th month of what everyone thought would be his retirement.
Totally blew me away. Media Matters details the rightwing media’s coverage of this story and how even they let the date slip in from time to time.
This narrative has the same fundamental weakness as other Republican- and media-led probes of Hunter Biden’s business dealings during this period: Joe Biden’s family members would have been able to peddle political influence on his name only if their business partners somehow knew in advance that he was going to come out of retirement years later and then pull off the rare feat of winning a presidential election against an incumbent. But now it seems right-wing media outlets are willing to just lie about the crucial fact of whether Biden was in office at the time.
However, The New York Times reports that one of the whistleblowers, IRS agent Gary Shapley, also told Congress that there was evidence some of Hunter Biden’s claims of his father’s support in his business dealings were really “wishful thinking.”
Shapley quoted Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker as having told investigators: “I certainly never was thinking at any time the V.P. was a part of anything we were doing.” CNN also reported that the second, unnamed whistleblower spoke with Congress, “saying prosecutors questioned whether they could be sure Hunter Biden was telling the truth that his father was actually in the room in the messages.”
Later in the program however, Varney delivered a monologue in which he repeated the false claim. “‘I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father’ — that was then-Vice President Joe Biden,” Varney declared. “We don't know if Hunter was actually sitting next to his father, but that was clearly a threat — clearly using the office of vice president to intimidate.”
Of course, this message could not have been “using the office of vice president to intimidate,” because that office was held at the time by then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Regarding Hunter Biden claiming his father was in the room during a business call...
You've got a big nothingburger...
1.) There's no proof Hunter wasn't lying. You're talking about a guy with a known drug problem. Moreover, even if Joe Biden was literally in the room, he may not have heard what Hunter was saying or been involved (e.g. I'm often in the room when my wife makes a call but I have no idea what she's talking about nor am I listening). Nothing here proves that Joe Biden was involved in Hunter's business dealings. 2.) Biden wasn't vice president anymore when the call was made. The other party wouldn't have known that Joe Biden's support was worth anything anymore. 3.) Influence peddling alone is not a crime in the US. It's done all the time in business. (e.g. My company is partnered with MicroSoft).
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