Over the weekend, a campaign surrogate for Joe Biden announced the candidate called what’s being named a “super lid.” A lid means the candidate is not available for press appearances, usually for the day. In this case, Biden will not be available until after the debate in Nashville on Thursday night.
CBS News says Joe Biden "will not be seen again after today until Thursday night" at the debate.
Joe Biden is in hiding, refusing to answer questions about the money his family got from the Chinese.pic.twitter.com/UC7W3uOrSA
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2020
Supposedly, Biden needs an extended break to prepare for the debate. But lids have been a feature, not a bug for Joe Biden. The campaign called ten in the month of September without giving any real explanation. Some of these were blamed on debate prep. However, it is difficult to understand how a cable news interview would significantly interfere with that process. He kicked off the month of October by calling another lid on the first of the month.
The most plausible explanation now is the scandal that is brewing related to emails and text messages purportedly found by a repairman on his son Hunter’s computer. The New York Post reported several incriminating messages implying Joe Biden profits from his son’s overseas business ventures. Others indicate the foreign businessmen who were hiring Hunter Biden were explicitly looking for access to his father when he was vice president.
The campaign called a lid the day the initial report emerged in the New York Post.
Biden has a history of becoming angry when questioned about his son’s business dealings in countries the former vice-president oversaw during the Obama administration. During the primary, Biden became frustrated when an Iowa voter challenged him on Hunter’s Ukraine business dealings. Biden challenged the voter to a push-up contest and called him fat:
Watch Joe Biden’s tense exchange with a voter in Iowa who accuses him of selling access to the White House with his son in Ukraine and being too old for the presidency
pic.twitter.com/dn49FyVW0j— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 5, 2019
A few days later during an interview on HBO, Mike Allen from Axios asked Biden about Hunter’s business dealings. Biden looked shocked by the question. When Allen does not accept Biden’s answer that he didn’t know anything about Hunter’s business arrangements and presses him as to whether there should not be a higher standard for the vice-president, Biden became angry:
.@JoeBiden on his son Hunter's work in Ukraine: "I don't know what he was doing."@mikeallen: "Well you've had a lot of time. Isn't this something you want to get to the bottom of?"
Biden: "No. Because I trust my son." @dctvny @hbodocs pic.twitter.com/zozGlVZ3WP
— Axios (@axios) December 8, 2019
In September, Biden got frustrated with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy for asking a similar question:
In a brief press availability while he was leaving Detroit this weekend, a CBS reporter asked Biden about the Post story, and Biden called it a “smear campaign.”
VIDEO
Joe Biden briefly stopped to answer reporters questions at Detroit airport before boarding
CBS Reporter asked Biden about @nypost #HunterBidenEmails story
“I knew you’d ask it. I have no response. Another smear campaign. Right up your alley” pic.twitter.com/yFV4wptJrk
— Mona Salama (@MonaSalama_) October 17, 2020
Unfortunately for Biden, corroboration appears to be on the horizon. Author Peter Schweizer was contacted by Hunter Biden’s former business partner Bevan Cooney. Cooney is currently serving a federal sentence for financial deals he made connected to Hunter Biden and his other partner, Devon Archer. According to Breitbart News, Cooney has given Schweizer 26,000 e-mails that bolster the initial reporting by the Post:
Schweizer, appearing on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, said that former Hunter Biden business partner Bevan Cooney provided 26,000 emails to him—the first of which were published late last week in a Breitbart News exclusive investigation by Schweizer and author Seamus Bruner. Cooney is currently serving a sentence in federal prison due to his conviction over financial deals he made connected to Hunter Biden and his other partner Devon Archer. Archer, who was also convicted by a jury in federal court, saw his conviction vacated by a federal judge. That conviction was later—just a couple weeks ago—reinstated by an appellate court, which overruled the lower court judge’s decision to vacate it. Archer awaits sentencing.
With Archer about to be sentenced, it will be interesting to see what he may come forward with.
During an appearance this morning on Fox Business, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe also said the emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop are not part of a Russian disinformation campaign. This takes a swipe at the initial narrative the Democrats and corporate media put forward.
The Biden campaign counts on the media and social media to suppress the Hunter email scandal and protect the candidate. The tech companies’ censorship is obvious, and during the town hall last week, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos (a former official in the Clinton White House) did not bring up the subject. The New York Post has not complied with Twitter’s requirement to remove their reporting on Hunter Biden, and its account remains locked.
But with corroborating evidence being published and Senator Ron Johnson demanding answers from the FBI about the whereabouts of Hunter’s laptop, a debate moderator may struggle to avoid this topic. To date, the Biden campaign has not been able to say the emails are inauthentic. Biden surrogate Jenna Arnold had a disastrous appearance on Fox News HQ, and the rest of the campaign has remained mum on these straightforward questions.
Staying hidden until Thursday is a strategy. But it may not work out as well as the Biden campaign hopes.
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