As the worst Presidency in US history slinks to an ignoble end it is appropriate to ask if there is anything in the endless claims from political opponents about the existence of a ‘Biden Crime Family’.
In 1991 a book was published called What It Takes by historian Richard Ben Cramer. It is a collection of biographies (of a sort) of various notable politicians of the 1980s, including Joe Biden. It details various rather dubious Biden activities dating back to the early 1970s. My point is that this book was written 35 years ago: it is not some recent smear by political opponents. It’s worth a read if you can locate a copy.
I am going to paraphrase a bit. Starting around 50 years ago the Biden family engaged in something like this:
The young senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, decided there was no sense being a US senator if you weren’t going to rob the place. His brother James formed a large number of corporations in Delaware – a haven of privacy where owners of corporations can be quite anonymous if they wish.
Senator Biden, during the course of his work, would meet with various lobbyists, corporate executives and others seeking his support for some matter or other. Let’s say he was meeting with people from the auto industry: James Biden would send an invoice for, e.g. $3000 to each of the automakers in the name of a vague and anonymous corporation. The invoice would be for ‘window cleaning’ or ‘consultancy services’ or something equally vague. As the meeting began, Senator Biden would say ‘Before we begin, a constituent of mine has been complaining that none of you people have paid his invoices; here is a copy; perhaps you could call your company treasurer and get a check issued right now settling this?’ – and it would happen. It was ‘pay for play’ in a deniable way, and the Bidens were not exactly subtle or let anyone off the hook. If you wanted to meet Senator Biden you had to settle an outstanding invoice.
In due course James Biden controlled companies flush with cash that got invested in stocks, and real estate – such as the infamous mansion (bought for one million dollars, according to Richard Ben Cramer) where Joe Biden campaigned from the basement in 2020. Rather than risk pesky questions about how someone earning $62,000 (a US senator’s salary at the time) could afford a one million dollar mansion, it was bought for cash by a corporation and Joe became the ‘tenant’ paying one dollar per year in rent. As I say – not exactly subtle.
This sort of activity went on for several decades without difficulty or problems until they were forced to start using son Hunter as a frontman for various business deals. His personal problems, big mouth, larcenous nature and lack of touch with reality (cocaine and meth does that…) meant it all unravelled fairly quickly in 2019. To the horror of Joe and James, it seems Hunter had been doing a long list of things in his own name rather than using nominees and corporations. It all hit rock bottom a fortnight ago with a highly embarrassing pardon that has the effect of admitting that every allegation ever made was true.
What is most amusing about all this? Remember how Obama didn’t endorse Biden in 2020 until the convention? Remember Fox News were asking ‘What does Obama know about Joe that is so disqualifying to be president?’ Well, now we know. And boy, it takes some doing to be ‘too corrupt’ even for Obama!
