There was nothing surprising about President Biden’s debate performance. Nothing. To anyone who paid even passing attention to the news in the preceding months, which is just about everyone, there was nothing out of character. Biden had appeared out of it, drifted off mid-sentence, forgot or mispronounced names and words, read teleprompter cues as if they were part of his remarks, stared into space with mouth agape, wandered off, and fell down.
So why the professions of shock at the debate, especially among the media? It can only be explained as a form of mass media myopia. As Jill Abrahamson, a former executive editor at the New York Times, says, “I worry that too many journalists didn’t try to get the story because they did not want to be accused of helping elect Donald Trump.” But even this burst of candor suffers from delusion. There was no story “to get.” Reporting Biden’s decline would have only been stating the obvious.
There is an even more consequential myopia about Biden that the debate debacle has done nothing to undermine. It is the even more inconvenient reality that the President and his family have been on the payroll of China for many years. Even as House Republicans, led by the House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), carefully assembled and released whatever evidence they could pry loose from banks around the world, they were dismissed by the White House and much of the media as “House Republicans.”
Hunter received millions from Chinese companies. Chinese firms may be allowed latitude to conduct economic activities, but all ultimately report to the state. A financial relationship between a Chinese entity and the family of a prominent American politician would not only be known Communist Party intelligence services but would likely be directed by them.
Have you ever wondered about the relationship between two people, and then unexpectedly witness some private encounter between them that explains it all? It wasn’t exactly private, but the Biden dynamic may have been on display immediately following the debate when Mother Jill enthused about his performance to a beaming Toddler Joe. Could it be that the First Lady is in charge? If so, what is her motivation to cling to the White House? Most political wives, and especially First Ladies, end up hating Washington and can’t wait to leave.
Could it be that Biden’s family, more so than anyone else, is aware of their vulnerability should the China payments be investigated by someone with real subpoena power and the authority to indict? The Chinese money rained down not only on Hunter, but other family members.
The media now reports that son Hunter is stepping up his role as a presidential advisor. Of course, Hunter has been convicted of gun crimes and now faces trial for even more serious tax evasion charges.
But even here, the media still ignores the real story, that the investigations of Hunter conducted by U.S. Attorney David Weiss were calculated to protect him and his father, not result in prosecutions.
For five years, Weiss and his staff cooperated and strategized with Hunter’s legal team. The New York Times came into possession of emails between the two parties showing that Weiss was willing to forgo any criminal charges. All this changed in the spring of 2023 with the testimony of IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler. They told Comer’s committee that the Justice Department prevented them from following evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, divulged sensitive information to Hunter’s attorneys, and allowed the clock to run out on some felonies.
The subsequent plea deal, whereby Hunter would plead guilty to misdemeanors and receive immunity for any other crimes, was still so favorable to Hunter that Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected it. She inquired specifically about Hunter’s possible prosecution under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
In August 2023, Attorney General Merrick Garland gave Weiss Special Counsel status, a move Garland had long resisted. It was a rear-guard action, calculated to keep the criminal investigation from reaching President Biden. But to do so, Weiss had to conduct a real investigation and prosecution of Hunter, right up to the line, but never crossing it, of implicating the president.
Weiss became hostage to events he never anticipated. The media is now an even a bigger hostage to these events, unable to report the China story without looking even more intentionally clueless than about Biden’s physical and mental deterioration.
Peter Flaherty is Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center.