“Senator, do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed? Because I’ve yet to see anybody explain. It is not a crime to make money off of your last name.”
Chuck Todd questioning Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Moscow
At times, it seems that you cannot be a progressive, liberal Democrat if you don’t publicly disdain Chuck Todd. To me, he’s always sort of been a non-issue, better at times, worse at times, but angering both sides. It is exceedingly easy to report and analyze things from a liberal point of view, as we do here. It is far harder to report straight down the middle line, asking tough questions of both sides. Again, sometimes Chuck misses. Today he hit it out of the park.
Senator Ron Johnson is the perfect foil because he is an extremist, not very bright (and that’s being nice) and likes to play the victim.
With the new House committees set to go on investigating the “weaponization of the federal government,” which will include something about Hunter Biden, Chuck Todd wanted to know two things. First, Chuck wanted to know what crime – if any, they believe Hunter committed, and Johnson couldn’t answer other than possible prostitution. Todd called it out. Transcript from Mediaite:
“Chuck, you ought to read the Marco Polo report, where they detail all kinds of potential crimes,” Johnson replied — referring to a 634 page report on the controversy surrounding the president’s son, which was published by a right wing group called Marco Polo.
“Let me stop you there,” Todd said. He added, “Potential is innuendo. That’s why you do investigation!”
“Chuck, is it a crime to be soliciting and purchasing prostitution in potentially European sex trafficking operations? Is that a crime? Because Chuck Grassley and I laid out about $30,000 paid by Hunter Biden to those types of individuals over December of 2018, 2019, about $30,000. That’s about the same time that President Biden offered to pay about $100,000 of Hunter Biden’s bills. I mean, again, that’s just some information. I don’t know exactly if it’s a crime. It sounds sleazy as you know what.”
You would have to ask the countries in which any of it happened if that’s a crime. Given that Johnson couldn’t even come up with a possible crime committed here in the United States, that seems a little flat to be the focus of a committee.
Here is the video, but there is an even better exchange is below:
Ron Johnson unspools an impossible to follow Hunter Biden conspiracy theory on Meet the Press, prompting Chuck Todd to ask him, "Do you have a crime that you think Hunter Biden committed?" (Johnson suggests something involved prostitution) pic.twitter.com/NHbppskyrf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2023
Given that Johnson’s primary concern is “influence peddling,” Todd really hammered Johnson about why he wouldn’t be just as interested and concerned with the fact that the Qataris refinanced Jared Kuschner’s wretched mortgage on 666 Fifth Ave, which is a very nice address but Jared managed to buy it for the most money ever spent on a building in New York. (That didn’t tip our boy Kush off?) Jared had a balloon payment coming due in 2018, and – just in time, a Qatari group refinanced the building.
Todd wanted to know why Johnson wasn’t concerned about influence peddling there because Kushner actually worked within the Middle East diplomacy! We also know that Jared became fast friends with the butcher MBS and that two weeks after Kushner and MBS spent the night meeting until 5:00 a.m., the Saudi government rolled on about 200 dissidents, some in the family, some outside. Many speculate that the information was provided by Jared through U.S. intelligence (Jared never did qualify for a clearance). At the time, the Saudis, the UAE, and Qatari were all quarreling, and ports were shut down. Somehow, MBS was able to round up the most dangerous dissidents, Qatar’s port was unblocked, and Jared – who was in the middle of all of it – got his building refinanced when no respectable bank would touch it.
It was one of the Democrats’ biggest failures in the Trump era, not to demand answers as to how that got done. Chuck Todd wanted to know why Johnson wasn’t even slightly concerned about Kushner’s influence peddling if he is that worried about Johnson.
WOW- Chuck Todd nails Ron Johnson: "Were you at all concerned [about] Jared Kushner's loan from the Qatari government when he was working in the government negotiating many things in the Middle East. Are you not concerned about that?"
(Johnson responds by accusing Todd of bias) pic.twitter.com/uPZXCoWDMe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2023
Johnson’s non-answer says it all. No, he isn’t concerned because he’s part of the MAGA-Moscow-Arab axis, and everyone in that triangle is getting rich off American corruption and what Trump allowed. It ended with Johnson whining about being treated so unfairly:
“And part of the reason are our politics are inflamed is we do not have an unbiased media,” Johnson said. “We don’t. It’s unfortunate.”
Johnson added, “Primarily it occurs from the left.”
Evidently, Johnson has never heard of Fox News, Hannity, Tucker, etc. It’s amazing how Fox is never included in their definition of “media.”
Frustrated, Todd completely shut down Johnson’s gripe about the fourth estate.
“Look, you can go back on your partisan cable cocoon and talk about media bias all you want!” Todd said. “I understand it’s part of your identity.”
Nice job, Chuck. I don’t hate you, never did.
****
[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: PUT PELOSI ON ‘WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT’ COMMITTEE
The ignorant nazis reelected this traitor! Fuck them! And fuck him! If this was world War two, he’d be in the crosshairs of an allied solider.
As Brad Pitt said as the character Aldo the Apache,
I didn’t come out of the Smokey mountains, cross thousands of miles of ocean, fight my way across Sicily, and jump out of a goddamn plane to teach the nazis humanity. The nazis have NO humanity. They are the foot soliders of a jew hating maniacal mass murderer. I want 100 nazi scalps. This fucker is one of their foot soliders and pisses on the graves of all the dead soliders who fought for democracy. Fuck that asshole and all the nazi loving mothers in his state who put him back in the senate!
I look forward to his dirt nap!
45 paid Stormy to STFU. Right Ron? Prostitution a “crime?” Really? Maybe not where Hunter was. So it’s okay that Kavanaugh & Thomas sexually harassed women – but they didn’t pay them? The hypocrisy in the RW is so deep.
I almost never watch these clips with RW a**holes spouting their nonsensical propaganda, but I just watched this one and I’m reminded how thoroughly pissed I get watching these jagoffs run their mouths, overrunning the moderator, lying their a** off. I just can’t watch these evil hucksters. RonJon is a lying tool, like they all are, promoting Putin’s tRump agenda, running this country into the ground. Wish we could drop him and his ilk into the heart of Mother Russia, where they so deservedly belong, sans parachutes.
“Evidently, Johnson has never heard of Fox News, Hannity, Tucker, etc. It’s amazing how Fox is never included in their definition of “media.”
Well, there’s a very good reason for that: They know that Fox “News” is nothing more than an ENTERTAINMENT network. Didn’t Murdoch and crew use that argument in a court case that ruled FOR Fox “News?”