Joe Biden Archives - Washington Free Beacon https://freebeacon.com/tag/joe-biden/ Wed, 19 Jul 2023 23:17:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.1 https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/cropped-triangle_star_tan_bg-32x32.png Joe Biden Archives - Washington Free Beacon https://freebeacon.com/tag/joe-biden/ 32 32 The Major Revelations From the Hunter Biden Whistleblower Hearing https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/here-are-the-major-revelations-from-the-hunter-biden-whistleblower-hearing/ Wed, 19 Jul 2023 23:00:24 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1769871 Two IRS agents who worked on the investigation of Hunter Biden claimed in explosive congressional testimony Wednesday that Justice Department officials stymied an investigation into the first son and members of the Biden family. IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler provided extensive evidence of Biden’s efforts to avoid paying […]

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Two IRS agents who worked on the investigation of Hunter Biden claimed in explosive congressional testimony Wednesday that Justice Department officials stymied an investigation into the first son and members of the Biden family.

IRS supervisory special agent Gary Shapley and IRS special agent Joseph Ziegler provided extensive evidence of Biden’s efforts to avoid paying nearly $1.6 million in taxes from 2014 and 2019.

Here are the main revelations from their testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

 

Hunter Biden ‘should have been charged’ with tax felonies.

Ziegler, who opened the Biden probe in 2018, testified that Hunter Biden "should have been charged with a tax felony," but that federal prosecutors and the Justice Department settled only for misdemeanor charges.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failure to pay his taxes for 2017 and 2018. Ziegler and Shapley testified that prosecutors initially approved of felony charges for the tax years 2014 to 2019.

Shapley said that as recently as August 2022, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware supported felony counts against Hunter Biden for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019.

 

The Hunter Biden tax probe began with payments to prostitutes.

Ziegler, a registered Democrat, testified that he opened a tax investigation of Hunter Biden in November 2018 after reviewing bank records that "identified Hunter Biden as paying prostitutes related to a potential prostitution ring." The records also showed Hunter Biden spent "lavishly" from his corporate bank account, a pattern that Ziegler said is a red flag for potential tax fraud.

According to Ziegler, Hunter Biden filed false tax returns that included improper deductions for "prostitutes, sex clubs, and his adult children’s tuition."

Hunter Biden deducted payments to his "West Coast assistant," who was actually a prostitute. Ziegler also said that Hunter Biden deducted a $10,000 payment he falsely described as a golf club membership.

"That was not a golf club membership—that was for a sex club payment," Ziegler said.

 

IRS agents were warned against interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children.

Ziegler testified that the IRS investigators were prohibited from interviewing Hunter Biden’s adult children about suspicious payments they received from their father. Ziegler said prosecutors told him the interviews would "get us in hot water."

Ziegler said the stand-down order was "abnormal" and a "deviation from normal procedure." He testified the interviews would have helped investigators determine whether Hunter Biden’s deductions for payments to his children were for legitimate business purposes, or evidence of tax fraud.

 

Prosecutors blocked agents from investigating Hunter Biden’s infamous WhatsApp messages.

Ziegler said prosecutors handling the Biden probe blocked him from investigating an infamous Hunter Biden text message in which he invoked his father in a threatening text message to his partners at CEFC China Energy.

"I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father," Hunter Biden wrote in a July 30, 2017, message to a CEFC China Energy executive.

"I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."

Ziegler said prosecutors declined to approve his request to obtain location data to see if Hunter was with his father when he sent the message. The IRS agent said the line of inquiry "simply wasn’t supported by the prosecutors."

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Hunter Biden was photographed at his father’s home in Delaware on the day of the message.

 

Foreign entities made seven-figure payments to Biden family.

Shapley and Ziegler revealed that foreign entities in China, Romania, and Ukraine paid the Biden family $17 million from 2014 to 2019.

CEFC China Energy, an energy conglomerate linked to the Chinese Communist Party, made a total of $6.7 million in payments to Hunter Biden and his consulting company. Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings paid $6.5 million to Hunter Biden and his associates. A Romanian businessman under investigation for bribery paid another $3.1 million to Hunter Biden and his associates.

According to Ziegler, Hunter Biden did not report any income from Ukraine’s Burisma in 2014, though he received more than $80,000 a month from the company.

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'I Would Be Embarrassed': Economists Hammer Biden's Attempts to Spin Sky-High Inflation https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/i-would-be-embarrassed-economists-hammer-bidens-attempts-to-spin-sky-high-inflation/ Wed, 19 Jul 2023 22:00:25 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1769763 President Joe Biden this week spun the numbers to brag about a mere two-cent rise in real wages. Economists say that’s both misleading and embarrassing.

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President Joe Biden this week spun the numbers to brag about a mere two-cent rise in real wages. Economists say that’s both misleading and embarrassing.

Biden in a Sunday social media post boasted that real wages, which reflect a worker's pay after accounting for inflation, are higher than before the pandemic. "That's Bidenomics," the Democrat said. Biden's claim, however, relies on data from February 2020, when real wages were just two cents lower than they are now. Over the next 11 months—from March 2020 to January 2021, when Biden took office—real wages rose, only to continuously decline under Biden. In total, real hourly wages have dropped more than 3 percent since Biden became president.

Biden is nonetheless insisting that his "Bidenomics" have clawed Americans out of a deep economic hole created by the coronavirus pandemic, a message that comes as he faces a difficult reelection campaign and abysmal approval ratings.

For now, Americans aren't buying it—just a third approve of the president's economic decisions, according to an Associated Press poll released in June. Many economists agree, contending that the U.S. economy is not in the shape Biden says it is.

Hillsdale College economics department chair Charles Steele, for example, told the Washington Free Beacon he "would be embarrassed" to brag about a two-cent jump in real hourly wages. "I'm reminded of when my wife and I each measured a course we were running and disagreed over where the half mile point was—by a distance of four feet. That's the kind of argument they are making," Steele said. "It is dishonest to pretend this shows 'Bidenomics' works. 'Bidenomics' has failed to match the economic growth of the Trump era."

EJ Antoni, a public finance economist at the Heritage Foundation, echoed Steele's rhetoric. Antoni told the Free Beacon that Biden is "either ignorant or intentionally deceptive" if he believes his economic policies have helped Americans.

"The administration seems to be implying that real earnings have clawed their way back up from depressed levels, but the opposite is true," Antoni said. "Real earnings are still down relative to when Biden took office."

Still, the White House defended Biden's Sunday claim, arguing that March 2020—when real wages were higher than they are now—is not an accurate portrayal of the pre-pandemic economy because the United States was already in a recession. As a result, the White House told the Free Beacon, the labor force was "substantially distorted" and did not reflect a "pre-pandemic normal."

That argument is "nonsensical," Antoni said. He noted that wage data are "gathered the week of the month containing the 12th," meaning the data for March 2020 would have been compiled before "government-imposed lockdowns and mass layoffs" plagued the U.S. economy.

"You can certainly consider March 2020 as pre-pandemic when it comes to wage data," Antoni told the Free Beacon. Using March 2020 as a pre-pandemic benchmark would mean real wages are not higher today than before the pandemic, as Biden claimed.

Biden is far from the only prominent Democrat to use misleading stats to pump up the economy. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) on Monday said the "Biden economy" has produced "declining inflation," adding that "extreme MAGA Republican haters are having a meltdown" as a result. Under Biden, however, inflation in 2022 reached a 40-year high. While inflation is now slowly coming down from those record levels, prices remain high. Nearly 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a CNBC survey published in April.

For Job Creators Network president and CEO Alfredo Ortiz, Biden "is desperate to distract from the reality that average Americans have gotten poorer under his presidency."

"Over the course of his term, inflation has risen by approximately 16 percent, significantly faster than average wages," Ortiz told the Free Beacon. "In an attempt to sell 'Bidenomics,' Biden is making a series of misleading and false claims about Americans' wages. But as any consumer or small business can tell you, the reality is that 'Bidenomics' equals Bidenflation."

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Joni Ernst Blasts Biden Admin's 'Appeasement' of Iran, Outlines Plan To Fight Tehran With Arab Allies https://freebeacon.com/national-security/joni-ernst-blasts-biden-admins-appeasement-of-iran-outlines-plan-to-fight-tehran-with-arab-allies/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 22:00:23 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1769094 Amid a surge in Iranian attacks on commercial oil tankers, one senator is readying legislation that will enlist Israel and its Arab allies in the fight against Tehran’s terrorism.

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Amid a surge in Iranian attacks on commercial oil tankers, one senator is readying legislation that will enlist Israel and its Arab allies in the fight against Tehran’s terrorism.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) told the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday that she is leading efforts to forge a coalition between the United States, Israel, and other Arab signatories to the Abraham Accords. The military coalition would specifically seek to thwart a massive uptick in Iranian attacks on commercial ships traversing through the region. In an unprecedented move, the countries would also link their missile detection systems together to greatly increase reconnaissance on Iran’s missile and drone programs.

Since President Joe Biden took office, Iran has tried to seize nearly 20 oil tankers as they make their way through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route. The administration also has avoided enforcing sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade, helping the regime rake in record profits. Tehran’s terrorism has become so problematic that the Biden administration announced on Monday it will send additional war planes into the region to help deter attacks.

Ernst blamed Biden’s "strategy of appeasement" for emboldening Iran’s hardline regime, saying the only solution is to build a coalition that can "start pushing back on these tanker seizures." The senator’s plan would significantly increase military cooperation between the United States, Israel, and Arab allies in the region at a time when the Jewish state is facing unprecedented criticism from far-left Democrats in Congress.

Republicans like Ernst, on the other hand, say they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish state, even as the Biden administration works to undermine the conservative Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking to the Free Beacon following a keynote speech Tuesday morning at the Christians United for Israel annual Washington, D.C., gathering, Ernst said she is concerned by an uptick in anti-Israel activism among House Democrats.

At least four members of the Democratic Party’s progressive "Squad" announced this week they would boycott a congressional speech by Israel’s president. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and fellow progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) also faced widespread condemnation over the weekend for maligning Israel, which Jayapal claimed is a "racist state."

"Israel’s under attack from so many different angles," Ernst said. "It’s under attack from Iran, from violent extremist organizations backed by Iran, and now even from members of Congress they are under attack."

Her legislative efforts are meant to bolster Israel’s security at an uncertain time and also send the message that most in Congress still have the Jewish state’s back.

Biden is "really appeasing Iran, and then we see members of Congress in his own party who feel they can also target Israel," Ernst said. "I think it’s unacceptable to do this."

The lawmaker, who sits on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, also raised concerns about U.S.-Iran envoy Rob Malley, who recently had his security clearance revoked amid an investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified information.

"We have to know what was going on. What’s the deal here? What was released? What information may have gotten into the wrong hands?" Ernst said, joining a chorus of Republican lawmakers who are demanding answers from the Biden administration. "It’s very troubling, especially when we’re talking about an actor like Iran."

Before being removed from his post and put on unpaid leave, Malley was engaged in secret negotiations with Iran aimed at resurrecting the 2015 nuclear accord. Congress, Ernst said, is already examining several routes to block a potential deal.

"Congress really needs to step in," she said, "and try to thwart these behind closed doors, under the radar type meetings and any agreement President Biden reaches with Iran."

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COLLUSION? FDA Approves New Alzheimer's Drug Just in Time for Biden Reelection Campaign https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/joe-biden-dementia-scandal-reelection/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 20:45:44 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1768857 What happened: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to a new Alzheimer's treatment on July 6, less than three months after President Joe Biden formally announced his candidacy for reelection.

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What happened: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to a new Alzheimer's treatment on July 6, less than three months after President Joe Biden formally announced his candidacy for reelection.

• Leqembi is the first new Alzheimer's treatment fully approved by the FDA in 20 years, and the first drug that slows progression of the cognitive disease.

• The FDA granted "accelerated approval" for Leqembi in January 2023, roughly three months after Biden attempted to converse with a dead congresswoman at a White House nutrition conference.

• The FDA is a federal agency housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, which is run by a presidential appointee. The timing of the drug's approval raises some troubling questions about government collusion and election interference.

SILVER ALERT: Biden's Bumbles Hit New Low

Why it matters: This is great news for Biden's reelection campaign. Leqembi has been shown to "modestly slow the pace of cognitive decline" in Alzheimer's patients, according to the New York Times.

• A modest reduction may well suffice. Biden, 80, just needs to remain minimally upright and competent until Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024.

• In phase 3 clinical trials, patients taking Leqembi experienced a 27 percent slower rate of decline compared with the placebo group.

• Side effects include brain swelling, seizures, and death.

Crucial context: Biden reportedly has been prone to violent temper tantrums since taking office, which is a common symptom of Alzheimer's and other forms of cognitive decline.

• Biden's cognitive decline was likely exacerbated by his failure to properly treat his longstanding sleep apnea, the Washington Free Beacon reported in June.

Bottom line: Biden should be resting comfortably at home, surrounded by friends and family. Not running for reelection.

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On Israel, Biden Surrenders to the Left https://freebeacon.com/democrats/on-israel-biden-surrenders-to-the-left/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 20:20:23 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1768899 All the chatter in Washington ahead of Israeli president Isaac Herzog's visit to the White House on Tuesday was about the dust-up in the Democratic caucus over Rep. Pramila Jayapal's (D., Wash.) remark that Israel is a "racist state."

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All the chatter in Washington ahead of Israeli president Isaac Herzog's visit to the White House on Tuesday was about the dust-up in the Democratic caucus over Rep. Pramila Jayapal's (D., Wash.) remark that Israel is a "racist state."

Then came the walk-back in the face of criticism from the dwindling number of her Democratic colleagues who are not anti-Israel. It's Groundhog Day in America.

Don't let that sideshow distract from the Democrats in the White House, whose decision to intrude into a matter of Israeli domestic politics is doing more harm to the U.S.-Israel relationship than the casual bigotry that has become a permanent feature of the American Left.

President Joe Biden and his ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, don't approve of a series of judicial reforms that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports. That sounds to us like something for Israelis to debate among themselves, but Biden has decided to throw spitballs from the sidelines, advising Bibi that Israel "cannot continue down this road"—and then icing him out, announcing in March that he had no plans to invite the prime minister to the White House.

Until Monday, it had been months since they spoke. Biden, at last, has grudgingly extended Bibi an invitation to meet in the United States—but not necessarily at the White House. His invitation to Herzog, who is a critic of the judicial reforms and whose position is purely symbolic, adds insult to injury.

The U.S. president's petulance, meanwhile, has forestalled conversations on important issues. News reports indicate Hezbollah has been crossing into Israeli territory, illegal weapons are proliferating in the West Bank, and the White House is trying to engineer another ill-conceived deal with Iran.

Jayapal's racism is not news, and the decision of a group of Democrats to boycott Herzog's speech makes clear their objection is not to any set of Israeli policies but to the existence of the Jewish state. Biden, on the other hand, has described himself as a "lifelong friend and supporter of the State of Israel." As on so much else, he has surrendered whatever principles he once held to his party's ascendant progressive orthodoxy.

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Emergency Oil Reserves Drained by Biden Could Take Decades To Refill, Experts Say https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/emergency-oil-reserves-drained-by-biden-could-take-decades-to-refill-experts-say/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:30:51 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1768560 After President Joe Biden emptied the country's strategic oil reserves to the lowest level in 40 years, experts now warn a refill of the vast tanks could take decades and leave the country vulnerable.

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After President Joe Biden drew down the country's strategic oil reserves to the lowest level in 40 years, experts warn a refill of the vast tanks could take decades or more—leaving America vulnerable in the meantime.

"It would be a very slow process even if you had the money and the facilities were all in good shape," John Shages, who used to oversee the oil reserves for the Energy Department, told Bloomberg. "It could take decades."

"In the meantime, with the reserve at its lowest level in 40 years, the U.S. could be vulnerable to oil price shocks. It also means that during domestic supply crunches, the nation will be left to the mercy of global exporters like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the rest of the OPEC+ cartel," Bloomberg reported.

Over about six months ahead last year's midterm elections, the Biden administration sold off 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gas prices, marking the fastest withdrawal in history. In December, Biden announced an effort to replenish the supplies, which are intended to prevent the United States from running out of oil in the case of disruptions or crises.

But as the Washington Free Beacon reported in May, at the pace set by the Biden administration, it would take 40 years to reach the previous oil supply levels. The DOE announced in June that it purchased 3 million barrels and plans to buy 3 million more.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in March the administration "will begin that process this year, but to refill the full amount is impossible." Granholm admitted that it would take years to return oil reserve levels to where they were before Biden entered office.

In an interview this week with CNN, Granholm said it is "definitely possible" her agency will pick up the pace but the job won't be done before the end of Biden's term.

The reserves are intended to prevent the United States from running out of oil in the case of disruptions or crises.

Among the recipients of Biden's selloff of the oil reserves was a Chinese state-controlled gas company. The Energy Department announced it sold 950,000 barrels to Unipec, the trading entity of the government-owned China Petrochemical Corporation.

Republicans have criticized the White House's failure to fill the reserves faster.

"DOE’s mismanagement of the SPR has undermined America’s energy security, leaving the nation more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions, and increasing the ability for OPEC and Russia to use energy as a geopolitical weapon," Republicans lawmakers in a May letter to the Government Accountability Office. They requested an audit of the reserves.

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FBI Agent Confirms Agency Slow-Walked Hunter Biden Probe, Republicans Say https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/fbi-agent-confirms-agency-slow-walked-hunter-biden-probe-republicans-say/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:30:18 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1768695 The FBI never interviewed Hunter Biden over the course of its investigation into the first son’s business dealings, according to a senior agent who worked on the probe. The supervisory special agent’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door interview on Monday corroborates key claims from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley about the peculiarities […]

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The FBI never interviewed Hunter Biden over the course of its investigation into the first son’s business dealings, according to a senior agent who worked on the probe.

The supervisory special agent’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door interview on Monday corroborates key claims from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley about the peculiarities surrounding the bureau’s investigation. According to the agent, who was identified by Shapley as Joe Gordon, the two planned to interview Hunter Biden in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2020, but were stymied at the last minute after FBI headquarters notified the Secret Service and the Biden transition team about their plans.

Gordon said that intervention meant Biden, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor tax charges, avoided ever having to meet face-to-face with law enforcement. Such an intervention from FBI headquarters was unprecedented in the course of Gordon’s career, he testified.

Those claims match with what Shapley told lawmakers in an interview in May. Shapley, an IRS supervisory special agent, said that the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware took unusual steps to slow down or block certain aspects of the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and his foreign business dealings. Shapley also said that prosecutors prohibited investigators from inquiring into Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business affairs.

Gordon’s testimony is the first time an employee of the Department of Justice has corroborated some of Shapley’s claims, fueling Republican criticism that Hunter Biden received special treatment from prosecutors. Senior Republican lawmakers previously blasted Hunter Biden’s charges—none of which will result in jail time—as a "sweetheart deal."

"The Justice Department’s efforts to cover up for the Bidens reveals a two-tiered system of justice that sickens the American people," said Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys have tried to discredit Shapley as a disgruntled IRS employee. Abbe Lowell, one of Hunter Biden’s attorneys, called Shapley "biased" and "aggrieved." Chris Clark, who also serves on Hunter Biden’s legal team, has suggested that Shapley "committed a crime" by discussing Hunter Biden’s taxes.

Shapley, who will testify at a public hearing on Wednesday, alleged in his House testimony that prosecutors initially approved of felony tax charges against Biden, although those were never filed. He also called the case against Biden for tax evasion related to millions of dollars of income from foreign sources a "slam dunk." One of the ways Hunter Biden tried to evade taxes, Shapley said, was deducting payments he made to prostitutes and sex clubs from his taxes.

But those charges never came. Shapley testified that he and Gordon developed plans to interview Hunter Biden on Dec. 8, 2020. FBI agents planned to interview other Biden associates as part of their investigation as well, but Shapley said he was informed the night before the interview that someone at FBI headquarters "had notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day."

"This essentially tipped off a group of people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave this group an opportunity to obstruct the approach on the witnesses," Shapley said.

Shapley said Gordon was "clearly dejected" that someone had "interfered" with their plan to interview Biden. The two, according to Shapley, were later instructed to wait in a car outside Biden’s home until he called, but only heard from an FBI official who said that Biden’s lawyers refused to allow him to speak with the agents.

"We received a telephone call later that morning from Hunter Biden's attorneys, who said he would accept service for any document requests, but we couldn't talk to his client."

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Media Fall Hard for Biden's Reelection Fundraising Spin https://freebeacon.com/media/biden-fundraising-spin/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 18:15:16 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1767642 President Joe Biden's team put on a master class in media spin over the weekend with the release of its first reelection campaign fundraising numbers.

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President Joe Biden's team put on a master class in media spin over the weekend with the release of its first reelection campaign fundraising numbers.

After anonymously teasing its "strong" figures earlier in the week, the Biden campaign on Friday released only the totals it raised in combination with the Democratic National Committee—along with a lot of hype. The resulting headlines read like Biden campaign press releases.

NPR: "President Biden Posts 'Blockbuster' Three-Month Fundraising Total: $72 Million":

President Biden is starting his reelection campaign with tens of millions of dollars in the bank, dwarfing second-quarter fundraising totals already announced by the campaigns of former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

CNN: "Biden Raised $72 Million in His First Quarter of Fundraising Since Announcing Reelection Bid":

President Joe Biden raised $72 million for his reelection effort and for the Democratic Party in his first quarter of fundraising since launching his reelection bid in April, his campaign announced Friday.

The showing could help quell some concerns about the president’s ability to fundraise as he seeks a second term. His campaign boasted an average contribution of $39 from nearly 400,000 donors and said 97% of all donations were less than $200.

Biden’s campaign, which has yet to open a headquarters and maintains a skeletal staff several months in, also boasted a sizable war chest, with $77 million in cash on hand at June 30, the end of the quarter.

USA Today: "Biden Raises $72 Million Since Announcing Reelection, Doubling Trump Over Same Stretch":

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign said Friday it raised a combined $72 million with the Democratic National Committee in the second fundraising quarter, doubling the amount former President Donald Trump raised during the same three-month period.

MSNBC: "Biden Surrogate Messina Touts Fundraising Haul: ‘Biden Outraised All The Republicans Combined’":

"There's a whole bunch of Democrats this morning, taking a big sigh of relief. These numbers are just incredibly impressive," said [Biden campaign surrogate Jim] Messina. "And the other number that really strikes out is that Biden outraised all the Republicans combined."

New York Times: "Biden and D.N.C. Announce $72 Million in Fund-Raising, a Substantial Haul":

President Biden’s campaign announced on Friday a combined fundraising haul of more than $72 million from April through June alongside the Democratic National Committee and a joint fund-raising committee, a figure that far surpasses what former President Donald J. Trump and other leading Republican presidential candidates have announced. ...

"This is proof positive that this party and its people and the country believe in Joe Biden and the accomplishments of this administration," said Henry R. Muñoz III, a former Democratic National Committee finance chairman. "This reaffirms Joe Biden’s appeal to the working people and everyday heroes of this country."

Axios: "Biden Campaign Raises $72M in Second Quarter":

President Biden raised over $72 million with the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees from April to June, the campaign announced Friday.

Why it matters: The numbers may quell some private concerns over his early fundraising numbers, and they give the first major look at the war chest behind his reelection campaign.

Acknowledged NBC News White House correspondent Mike Memoli: "The numbers we're talking about today are the numbers the campaign wants us to talk about heading into the weekend before everyone tunes out and the report lands with more specifics."

Liberal Twitter seized on the news.

Then came Saturday, the deadline to disclose full fundraising figures from April 1 to June 30. In context and without the padding of the DNC numbers, Biden's performance looked a lot more like the slow start the media had been fretting about for months.

According to a New York Times analysis of the disclosures:

-Biden individually raised less money than DeSantis.

-Biden had less cash on hand than Trump or even GOP Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

-Biden barely spent $1 million—less than Democratic challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or some senators.

New York Times: "Biden, With Sluggish Small Donations, Waits for Liberal Energy to Rise":

Democrats involved with Mr. Biden’s campaign and the world of online fund-raising detailed a host of reasons for Mr. Biden’s relatively low small-dollar haul.

Google and Apple have made it harder for email senders to see data about who has opened solicitations. Inflation slowed political donations across the board. Donors are exhausted by the unending flow of emails asking for money, and recipients are responding to far fewer of them.

At the moment, Democrats aren’t quite as fired up as they were in 2018 and 2020, when Donald J. Trump’s presidency opened floodgates of liberal money, or ahead of the 2022 midterms, when the Capitol riot, the rise of the election-denial movement and the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade all motivated donors.

And Mr. Biden is not an insurgent candidate who is motivating students to put up posters of him on dorm-room walls, as Mr. Obama or Senator Bernie Sanders did in their campaigns. His low-key White House and bare-bones campaign haven’t yet motivated supporters to rage-donate to his campaign.

Axios: "Charted: Biden's inflation-adjusted war chest":

Why it matters: Fundraising totals provide a snapshot for which campaigns will have the resources to go the distance. But they are also a barometer for party enthusiasm about a candidate.

Some outlets softened the whiplash by couching the new information in reports focused on the Republican candidates' money challenges.

CNN: "Alarm Bells For DeSantis, Pence Falls Behind And Biden Stays Frugal: Takeaways From New Campaign Finance Reports":

Despite talking up the big numbers he’s raised with the DNC, Biden’s campaign is a bare-bones operation, his new filing shows–a slow start that’s sure to only deepen worries among some Democrats about the president’s reelection preparations.

NBC News: "Fundraising Reports Have Warnings for DeSantis, But He’s Still the Top Trump Challenger":

Biden’s filing, like DeSantis’, was a good reminder why we preach caution around campaign finance deadlines. While Biden and the Democrats spent Friday spiking the football on a combined $72 million haul between the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state/territorial parties, the late-Saturday night filing showed Biden’s campaign itself only directly raised a little more than a quarter of that.

That’s significantly less than the $46 million former President Barack Obama’s campaign raised during his first quarter running for re-election, despite changes in campaign finance practices and law allowing Biden to raise larger sums.

ABC News: "Pence Struggles, Trump is Ahead of DeSantis and More Presidential Fundraising Highlights":

The figure itself is not gargantuan -- in the second quarter of 2019, during his last campaign, Biden raised $22 million while running in a contested primary.

However, his team is keeping their war chest well-stocked by running a lean operation. They spent a paltry $1.1 million during the three months, paying only four full-time staffers and dishing out less than $1,500 on travel, accommodations and airfare.

Biden was slow to kick off 2024 campaign events after his announcement, holding his first -- and so far his only -- campaign rally nearly two months after he declared. But the president and his team have since made a big push on fundraising.

Others just kept spinning.

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'If I Get Into the Race, I’m Going to Win': Manchin Teases Third-Party Run At No Labels Event https://freebeacon.com/elections/if-i-get-into-the-race-im-going-to-win-manchin-teases-third-party-run-at-no-labels-event/ Tue, 18 Jul 2023 00:00:07 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1768470 The self-styled centrist group No Labels on Monday reiterated its pledge to run a third-party presidential candidate in 2024, even as questions linger about whether the group has the necessary funds.

Voters in the greater New Hampshire area gathered at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester for a question-and-answer session with Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) and former Utah Governor John Huntsman (R., Utah) issues ranging from China to the national debt. Both Manchin and Huntsman flirted with the prospect of potentially running together on a "unity ticket," should they believe voters are unhappy with the Democratic and Republican party options in 2024.

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Senator Joe Manchin teased a third-party presidential run at a No Labels event Monday, even as questions linger about whether the self-styled centrist group has the necessary funds to mount a successful challenge in 2024.

Voters in the greater New Hampshire area gathered at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester for a question-and-answer session with the West Virginia Democrat and former Utah governor John Huntsman (R., Utah). Both Manchin and Huntsman flirted with the prospect of potentially running together on a "unity ticket," should they believe voters are unhappy with the Democratic and Republican Party options in 2024.

But Manchin was characteristically coy about his presidential ambitions.

"I’m not here running for president tonight. I’m not," the centrist Democrat said at the town hall’s conclusion. "I’m here trying to basically save the nation. I’m more concerned now than I’ve ever been concerned in my lifetime."

Whether No Labels—which says it will announce by Super Tuesday next year whether it plans to run a candidate—has the resources to mount a serious challenge to the two-party system is unclear. The group has repeatedly said it will spend up to $70 million on a campaign, but controlled just $10 million in assets at the end of 2021.

"We’re going to gain, as an insurance policy, ballot access," former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory (R.) said at the start of the event.

As of June, No Labels has gained ballot access in just four states. The Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in March to remove No Labels from the 2024 ballot. That litigation is still ongoing.

Still, the prospect of No Labels offering voters a viable third option in 2024 has caused severe anxiety among many Democrats, who are convinced such a scenario would hand the 2024 election to former president Donald Trump. A group of veteran Democratic operatives and former White House staffers, including former chief of staff Ron Klain, met with No Labels last month to implore the group to ditch their plans.

Manchin and Huntsman brushed aside fears from Democrats that a No Labels presidential ticket would hand the election to Trump, who holds a wide lead in the Republican presidential primary. Huntsman compared efforts by Democrats to intimidate No Labels out of the 2024 race as something out of "China or Russia."

"This is the latest talking point," Huntsman said when asked about one poll that showed a third party would siphon more votes away from Biden than Trump. "The only element of American society that hasn’t been transformed … is politics."

For most of the town hall, Manchin and Huntsman discussed the issue of partisanship in Washington, D.C. Partisan gridlock, as well as both parties allegedly playing to their respective bases, has stopped any serious efforts to tackle the nation’s record-high debt.

Manchin, who has not yet announced whether he will seek another Senate term, said Democrats are "putting the cart in front of the horse" over whether he will run for president. But, Manchin said, if he won, he wouldn't cost Biden anything.

"I’ve never spoiled a race," he continued. "If I get into the race, I’m going to win."

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EXCLUSIVE: Here Are the Paintings Hunter Biden Gave His Daughter in Lieu of Child Support Payments https://freebeacon.com/parody/hunter-biden-painting-scandal/ Mon, 17 Jul 2023 21:00:28 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1767864 What happened: Hunter Biden, the wayward adult son of President Joe Biden, agreed to give his out-of-wedlock daughter several paintings in lieu of the child support payments he claims to be unable to afford.

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What happened: Hunter Biden, the wayward adult son of President Joe Biden, agreed to give his out-of-wedlock daughter several paintings in lieu of the child support payments he claims to be unable to afford.

• Despite being an artist of underwhelming talent, Hunter has sold paintings for as much as $500,000 to anonymous buyers.

• President Biden refuses to acknowledge his granddaughter's existence and has reportedly instructed White House staff to do the same.

Rogue gallery: These are the paintings Hunter's daughter will receive in lieu of cash, according to documents recovered from an iPad the Washington Free Beacon exclusively found on the floor of the men's bathroom at Archibald's Gentleman's Club in Washington, D.C., several blocks from the White House. Enjoy!

1)

Context: An email recovered from Hunter's abandoned laptop said the "big guy" was to receive a 10 percent stake in a sketchy investment deal involving a Chinese energy firm in 2017.

2)

Context: Hunter has claimed to have "no recollection" of his sexual encounter with his daughter's mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts, but admits to cavorting with dozens if not hundreds (thousands?) of women who were "hardly the dating type."

3)

Context: Hunter Biden smoked copious amounts of crack cocaine.

4)

Context: Hunter wrote eloquently about how good it feels to get high from crack cocaine in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things. "The sensation is one of utter, almost otherworldly well-being," he explained. "You are at once energetic, focused, and calm. Blood rushes to every extremity; your skin ripples with what feels like bumblebees ... the sensation of being transported—at something like warp speed, as if riding bareback on a rocket ship—to some far-off, beautiful place."

5)

Context: Hunter once described his stepmother, Dr. Jill Biden, as a "selfish silly entitled c—t" who "wouldn't survive one class in a ivy [sic] graduate program."

6)

Context: The Secret Service still can't figure out who left a bag of cocaine in one of the most secure locations in the White House earlier this month.

7)

Context: Located a short walk from the White House, Archibald's is Hunter's happy place. He spent enormous sums of money at the gentleman's entertainment club over the years and wrote it off as a business expense on his taxes. Hunter was once admonished for smoking crack in one of the VIP rooms. Good times.

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Poll: Two-Thirds Support Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Decision https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/poll-two-thirds-support-supreme-courts-affirmative-action-decision/ Mon, 17 Jul 2023 18:10:03 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1767888 Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down racial preferences in college admissions was correctly decided.

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Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down racial preferences in college admissions was correctly decided.

According to a Rasmussen poll released Monday, 65 percent of likely U.S. voters approve of the Court’s decision, including 49 percent who "strongly approve." Even as President Joe Biden denounced the Court’s ruling, 52 percent of Democrats said they supported the decision, with only 39 percent opposed.

Only 28 percent of likely voters expressed disapproval, with 16 percent saying they "strongly disapproved."

Less than one-fifth of respondents said that they thought affirmative action policies had been successful.

The newly released survey is hardly an outlier. An Economist/YouGov survey published earlier this month found that 59 percent of Americans agreed with the Court’s decision. While the media were quick to portray the decision as racist, this survey also found that pluralities of blacks and Hispanics supported the decision.

Prior to the Court’s decision, the vast majority of Americans, including most Democrats, believed that universities should not consider race as a factor in college admissions.

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Drew's Receipts: Media Failures of the Week, July 15 https://freebeacon.com/media/drews-receipts-media-failures-of-the-week-july-15/ Sat, 15 Jul 2023 09:00:50 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1766361 Florida is the worst state, facts be damned. We'll never know who brought cocaine into Hunter Biden's White House. Asians are the newest non-white face of white supremacy. And stop saying the economy isn't great!

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Florida is the worst state, facts be damned. We'll never know who brought cocaine into Hunter Biden's White House. Asians are the newest non-white face of white supremacy. And stop saying the economy isn't great!

Those were mainstream media narratives in the last week or so. As usual, I’ve got the receipts.

"We got it wrong."

"More People Actually Moved Out of Florida than New York or California in 2021" was briefly a headline on a prominent news site.

https://twitter.com/desantiswarroom/status/1678824963095031823

Then, Insider, formerly Business Insider, was forced to admit it had the numbers exactly backwards. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis's freedom-loving approach to the COVID-19 pandemic actually helped make Florida the fastest growing U.S. state for the past two years.

"We Got it Wrong," read the corrected headline.

Give credit to Insider. CBS's 60 Minutes still won't acknowledge it was wrong about DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/BrentHBaker/status/1381404388690960387

"The leading theory remains that it was left by one of the hundreds of visitors"

After the Secret Service closed its investigation into who left a bag of cocaine in the White House, CNN scooped that it totally wasn't President Joe Biden's recovering crack addict son.

According to the report, which relied on two anonymous sources, "the leading theory remains that [the cocaine] was left by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours."

Not convinced? As the media have already explained: Back off!

"Militant co-conspirators with white conservatives."

"As the death of affirmative action showed, Asian American conservatives are active, militant co-conspirators with white conservatives," writer Promise Li argued in the Nation.

But we must be clear about one thing: Asian American anti–affirmative action activists have not been simply "used" by white activists and duped into this white supremacist policy. They are active, militant co-conspirators with white conservatives. They are building a key flank for the right wing across the nation, and the left must urgently recognize that right-wing politics precisely gain power by recruiting conservative ideologies among communities of color that overlap with, but retain distinct aspects from, white supremacy. ...

These Asian Americans are those who feel most at ease with the paradigm that Claire Jean Kim observes in her theory of "racial triangulation," which characterizes how Asian Americans have long been recruited into functioning as a "model minority" to reinforce the structural oppression of Black people and the privilege of white people. Despite the fact that they cannot fully assimilate into whiteness, certain Asian Americans do enjoy privileges in Kim’s framework. Indeed, as she wrote in The Nation, "It is the convergence of this nascent, conservative Chinese immigrant nationalism with an older, conservative white nationalism that is driving anti–affirmative action politics today."

The media's big tent of white supremacy just keeps getting bigger.

"White House Takes a Victory Lap"

Joe Biden gloated after getting some of the best inflation numbers of his inflation-plagued presidency, and the media were here for it.

Adding context to the coverage would have just been a downer. So what if almost 7 in 10 Americans are unsatisfied with the economy and Biden's handling of it?

That’s enough media for now. See you next week.

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WATCH: Joe Biden's Senior Moment of the Week (Vol. 51) https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/watch-joe-bidens-senior-moment-of-the-week-vol-51/ Fri, 14 Jul 2023 22:50:16 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1767474 President Joe Biden went to Europe this week, where he pretended to be in charge of the world's most powerful country. It did not go according to plan.

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President Joe Biden went to Europe this week, where he pretended to be in charge of the world's most powerful country. It did not go according to plan.

Biden, 80, might have accidentally wandered off to join the riots in Paris had his numerous handlers and nursemaids not repeatedly told him where to go. Efforts to control the president's public statements were often thwarted by his cognitively impaired brain.

For example, Biden praised NATO as "the 30-second free standing, have free 30 free," whatever the hell that means. He fell down some stairs, bumbled around London with King Charles III, a.k.a. "Sausage Fingers," and took off his shirt to soak up some rays on the beach. It was disturbing.

Have a great weekend!

BIDEN SENIOR MOMENT ARCHIVE:

WATCH: Biden's Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 1

WATCH: Biden's Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 2

WATCH: Biden's Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 3

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WATCH: Biden's Senior Moment of the Week Vol. 50

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Top Dems Prepare Replacement for Biden https://freebeacon.com/elections/top-dems-prepare-replacement-for-biden/ Fri, 14 Jul 2023 18:05:17 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1767117 In "whispers" and "furtive phone calls," top Democratic donors and officials are saying that "President Joe Biden won't actually be running for reelection," CNN reported Thursday.

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In "whispers" and "furtive phone calls," top Democratic donors and officials are saying that "President Joe Biden won't actually be running for reelection," CNN reported Thursday.

Those Democrats are talking to "possible replacement presidential candidates," according to the report, and urging them to "get ready." They say that "time is already running out" for Biden, who has officially announced his candidacy but hasn't named a campaign finance director, hired any on-the-ground staff in competitive states, or even opened a campaign headquarters.

What CNN called the "persistent sense" that Biden isn't running will likely heighten on Saturday, when the president is required to disclose the fundraising for the first few months of his campaign. It's already clear, the report found, that "multiple big donors aren't locking in," while "grassroots emails are sometimes bringing in just a few thousand dollars."

"Almost two dozen current Biden aides, top Democratic operatives and donors, and alumni of other recent campaigns" are worried about the Biden reelection campaign, CNN reported.

Biden's polling numbers, which have been underwater for two years, in June hit an all-time low of 35 percent. Nearly 60 percent of Democrats say they want the party to run another candidate, a Washington Post poll found in April.

Recent polls have found Biden either running even with or losing to Republican frontrunners Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, according to FiveThirtyEight.

The president's unpopularity has led some Democrats to embrace primary opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has consistently polled at around 20 percent against Biden. Kennedy's candidacy was bolstered last month by an Economist/YouGov poll that showed him with a net 19-point favorability rating. Biden, by contrast, has a net 9-point unfavorability rating.

Democrats' rush to find alternatives to Biden comes as the party seeks to avoid running Vice President Kamala Harris, whose poll numbers are even lower than Biden's. "Kamala Harris can't win" a general election, one Capitol Hill Democrat told New York magazine last year. Another alternative, California governor Gavin Newsom, is dead-set on running if Biden bows out, sources close to Newsom told the Wrap last year. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, have already launched or relaunched super PACs.

The president could also face a challenge from Democratic senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.), who has not ruled out a third-party presidential bid. The centrist group "No Labels" is floating Manchin as its candidate, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

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WATCH: Biden Bites Child https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/watch-biden-bites-child/ Fri, 14 Jul 2023 17:40:30 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1767084 President Joe Biden bit a young child in a now-viral video during a visit to Finland to celebrate the country's entry into NATO.

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President Joe Biden bit a young child in a now-viral video during a visit to Finland to celebrate the country's entry into NATO.

Biden approached the child as he boarded Air Force One to leave the country's capital, Helsinki. In video capturing the encounter, Biden is seen placing his mouth on her shoulder and nibbling as the child squirms and the mother looks on confused.

The audience for Biden's departure was made up of embassy staff members and their families.

Unusual behavior is nothing new for Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history. Reports this week revealed he frequently erupts in anger at staff, and the president often stumbles on stairs and stages.

The majority of voters worry about Biden's mental and physical health. An NBC poll last month found 68 percent of all voters worry about his condition and 55 percent said they have "major" concerns.

Biden faces the lowest support from his own party for a reelection bid in modern history. Just 38 percent of Democrats said the party should nominate Biden for reelection, compared with 57 percent who want to find someone else, according to a polling average published earlier this year.

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'It Was Extraordinary': Government Officials Were Stunned by 'Startling' Spike in Chinese Donations to UPenn After Biden Think Tank Opened https://freebeacon.com/campus/it-was-extraordinary-government-officials-were-stunned-by-startling-spike-in-chinese-donations-to-upenn-after-biden-think-tank-opened/ Fri, 14 Jul 2023 09:00:53 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1766820 The former chief investigator for the Department of Education said the agency noticed a "startling" spike in Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania after President Joe Biden opened his think tank at the school in 2017.

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The former chief investigator for the Department of Education said the agency noticed a "startling" spike in Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania after President Joe Biden opened his think tank at the school in 2017.

"It was extraordinary," said Paul Moore, who served as the agency's chief investigative counsel during the Trump administration, in congressional testimony on Thursday. UPenn raked in over $100 million from China-based contributors between 2017 and 2022, the Washington Free Beacon reported earlier this year. This was a substantial increase from the four years prior to 2017, when the school received a total of $19 million.

Moore's testimony comes as UPenn and the Penn Biden Center face scrutiny over the surge in foreign donations, many of them anonymous, that coincided with the think tank's opening and President Joe Biden's election. Watchdog groups have said the funding raises concerns about foreign influence-buying.

UPenn has said that no foreign donations were earmarked for the Penn Biden Center and that the think tank is supported by the school's general budget. But Moore said that foreign contributions to UPenn's general fund could have made their way to the Penn Biden Center indirectly.

"Those funds were co-mingled, and certainly went to the general operations, and may have gone to the Biden Center," he said.

Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) asked Moore if other universities saw similar increases in Chinese funding. Under federal law, schools that receive government support are required to disclose their overseas donations to the Department of Education.

"Not in that time frame. Absolutely not," said Moore, adding that while other schools saw an uptick in China donations, none saw an increase to the same extent as UPenn.

"It was particularly startling to see with UPenn what they had received. That was very notable," he said.

The former Education Department official told the committee that his office declined to investigate the donations because there was no evidence that UPenn was violating any of the agency's laws by accepting the funding.

"Members of Congress wrote to us, urging us to open an investigation," he said. "It would have been a very political thing, inappropriate, frankly, for the office of general counsel."

Several high-profile Biden officials worked at the think tank before joining the administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who served as the Penn Biden Center's director.

The National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group, has said the donations raise concerns about foreign influence-buying and called on the Department of Education to release the names of the anonymous funders.

"The Department of Education's policy of hiding the identities of foreign entities showering our universities with billions of dollars is promoting a toxic brew of dark money and corruption," Tom Anderson, the director of the center's Government Integrity Project, told the Free Beacon in January.

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Prosecutors of Biden Family Corruption Witness Gal Luft Donated to Joe Biden, Other Dems https://freebeacon.com/democrats/prosecutors-handling-hunter-biden-corruption-witness-gal-luft-donated-to-biden-and-other-dems/ Wed, 12 Jul 2023 22:29:44 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1766067 The prosecutors leading the charge against Gal Luft, who claims to have damning information about the Biden family's ties to China, have donated to President Joe Biden and other Democrats, campaign finance records show.

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The prosecutors leading the charge against Gal Luft, who claims to have damning information about the Biden family's ties to China, have donated to President Joe Biden and other Democrats, campaign finance records show.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan unsealed charges this week against Luft, who claims to have given the FBI information in 2019 about the Biden family's Chinese business dealings. Assistant U.S. attorneys Catherine Ghosh and Daniel Richenthal, who conducted the interview with Luft in 2019, are the two lead prosecutors on his case, court records show. Both have contributed exclusively to Democrats. Ghosh made 35 contributions in the 2020 election cycle to Biden's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance records. Richenthal contributed to the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign when he served in private practice, the records show.

The revelations come as IRS whistleblowers and Republicans question whether federal prosecutors, for political reasons, stymied investigations into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings. IRS whistleblowers have alleged that Biden-appointed federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., blocked requests to file tax charges against Hunter Biden in their jurisdictions. The whistleblowers also claim that investigators were prohibited from fully investigating the Biden family's foreign business ventures, including with CEFC China Energy.

The charges against Luft have already sparked allegations of a double standard in how the administration investigates the first family.

"The amazing thing is we don't prosecute foreign corruption and failure to register as a foreign agent when it's Hunter Biden. We do when it's somebody who specifically is accusing and says they have information about the wrongdoing of the Biden family," Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said this week after Luft's indictment was unsealed.

Prosecutors charged Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act through his work for CEFC China Energy. He is accused of recruiting former CIA director James Woolsey on behalf of CEFC China Energy to write articles touting pro-Beijing policies. According to the indictment, Luft failed to register with the Justice Department for his work for a "Chinese foreign principal."

Hunter Biden has avoided similar charges, even though CEFC China Energy paid him nearly $6 million for business and legal consulting in 2017 and 2018. Joe Biden was also allegedly involved in his son's work for CEFC China Energy. Longtime Biden family friend Rob Walker told the FBI in December 2020 that Joe Biden and his son took part in a meeting with CEFC China Energy executives at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C. That contradicts Joe Biden's claims to have no involvement in his son's business ventures.

Richenthal and Ghosh have investigated CEFC China Energy since at least 2017 when they handled the prosecution of Patrick Ho, a CEFC China Energy executive with ties to both Hunter Biden and Luft. Ho was indicted in November 2017 for attempting to bribe two African officials on behalf of CEFC China Energy. CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden $1 million to represent Ho in the case.

Richenthal asked the judge presiding over the Ho case to redact Biden’s name from emails introduced as evidence at trial, according to court transcripts.

"Our view is that the name of that individual is not relevant and could introduce a political dimension to this case that we don't think is worth dealing with," Richenthal said at Ho’s trial, referring to a December 2015 email in which Hunter Biden was invited to a dinner with CEFC China Energy chairman Ye Jianming.

Luft met with Richenthal, Ghosh, and four FBI agents in Brussels in March 2019, shortly after Ho was convicted at his bribery trial. Luft has said he told the prosecutors that CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden to use the Biden family’s connections to the FBI in order to find out whether CEFC China Energy and its chairman, Ye Jianming, were under investigation. Luft also said he told prosecutors that CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese government’s infrastructure investment initiative.

Prosecutors charged Luft with lying during the interviews in Brussels, which occurred on March 28 and 29, 2019, regarding his attempts to broker weapons sales on behalf of CEFC China Energy.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan did not respond to a request for comment.

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Manchin to Headline No Labels Event as Democrats Race to Stop Third-Party Bid https://freebeacon.com/elections/manchin-to-headline-no-labels-event-as-democrats-race-to-stop-third-party-bid/ Wed, 12 Jul 2023 20:15:35 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1766001 Senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.) will headline a No Labels event in New Hampshire this weekend as his fellow Democrats work to stop the self-described centrist group from running a third-party presidential candidate in 2024. The event, first reported by the Daily Mail, will take place on July 17 at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, a […]

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Senator Joe Manchin (W.Va.) will headline a No Labels event in New Hampshire this weekend as his fellow Democrats work to stop the self-described centrist group from running a third-party presidential candidate in 2024.

The event, first reported by the Daily Mail, will take place on July 17 at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, a popular spot for presidential primary candidates. Former Republican governor John Huntsman will also attend what was described as a "townhall meeting." The moderate Manchin has been floated by senior No Labels staff as a top contender for the group’s presidential gambit for months.

It is unclear whether No Labels is capable of mounting a serious political operation in 2024. The Washington Free Beacon reported that No Labels controlled just $10 million in assets at the end of 2021, a far cry from the $70 million it says it is prepared to spend on a presidential candidate. The group has not even committed to running a candidate, saying only that it is "preparing for the possibility of nominating a candidate" should "proper environmental conditions" arise.

Still, Democrats are anxious to keep those proper conditions at bay. A group of Democratic operatives and former White House staffers, including former chief of staff Ron Klain, convened in June to discuss No Labels. During that meeting, according to the Washington Post, Democrats implored No Labels to ditch their presidential ambitions, pointing to polls that show a moderate candidate jumping into the race would heavily favor Republicans as Biden faces historically low approval ratings. A coalition led by former House minority leader Dick Gephardt (D., Mo.) and former senator Doug Jones (D., Ala.) is also working to stop the bipartisan group from entering the race, the Washington Post reported.

No Labels says its research shows that Democrats are overreacting.

"They are really working overtime to prevent the voters from a choice," No Labels cofounder and former senator Joe Lieberman (D., Conn.) said. "We feel that the voters in this country deserve a third choice, a bipartisan choice. And I will also repeat that we will not be spoilers in this."

Although Manchin has yet to announce a Senate reelection bid, polls routinely find him behind his likely Republican challenger, West Virginia governor Jim Justice. Manchin has been coy about his presidential ambitions, recently dismissing speculation by saying "everybody’s getting so worked up and scared to death and we’re a year and a half away."

"I don’t rule out anything," he said. "There’s tremendous concern about our country and the direction the country is going in. That’s all."

No Labels says it would not announce a candidate until next year. For now, it is working on gaining ballot access in all 50 states.

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WATCH: Joy Behar Says She's 'Turned On' By Joe Biden Screaming at Staffers https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/watch-joy-behar-says-shes-turned-on-by-joe-biden-screaming-at-staffers/ Wed, 12 Jul 2023 18:30:10 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1765893 The View cohost Joy Behar said that she was "turned on" by President Joe Biden’s anger at White House staffers.

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The View cohost Joy Behar said that she was "turned on" by President Joe Biden’s anger at White House staffers.

Axios reported Monday that Biden is prone to unleash his rage on "senior and lower aides alike," in contrast to his public image as a "kindly uncle."

"She’s turned on by Biden’s anger. I am too, I like it," Behar said Tuesday, in response to Fox News host Lisa Kennedy joking Monday that Biden’s reported volatility "turned me on."

"I like that, I mean, he’s such a mild-mannered sweet guy," Behar continued.

Even amid her seeming infatuation, Behar was quick to clarify her anti-racist bona fides: "He just blows off steam, his white male privilege, it’s called. Imagine if it’s a woman or a black guy doing it, not allowed."

Attractive as his foul-mouthed outbursts may be to the 80-year-old Behar, they may be another sign that Biden, also 80, is suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday.

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WATCH: Jake Tapper Takes Shot at Mother of Hunter Biden's Unacknowledged Child https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/watch-jake-tapper-takes-shot-at-mother-of-hunter-bidens-unacknowledged-child/ Wed, 12 Jul 2023 18:20:44 +0000 https://freebeacon.com/?p=1765851 CNN host Jake Tapper accused Lunden Alexis Roberts, the woman whom Hunter Biden impregnated and left alone with their child, of having ties to the "far right."

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CNN host Jake Tapper accused Lunden Alexis Roberts, the woman whom Hunter Biden impregnated and left alone with their child, of having ties to the "far right."

Tapper, who was booted off prime time last year due to poor ratings, justified smearing Roberts because she had retained a former Donald Trump aide as an expert witness in her lawsuit against Biden.

"We should point out, just for the sake of fairness," Tapper said, "that [the child's] mom, who you know had the incident with Hunter … has been caught up in some far-right folks, that Ziegler guy."

Garrett Ziegler, who worked under Trump adviser Peter Navarro, has published a 600-page report on Biden's abandoned laptop. When Roberts was working with Ziegler in May, Biden's legal team appeared concerned about the former Trump aide's testimony and tried to have him disqualified as an expert, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Biden and Roberts have since reached a settlement in the lawsuit.

President Joe Biden has refused to acknowledge Roberts's child as one of his grandchildren, leading even some liberals to criticize the president. In a New York Times column titled "It's Seven Grandkids, Mr. President," Maureen Dowd criticized the president for showing a "cold shoulder—and heart" by not acknowledging his granddaughter.

"Joe Biden's mantra has always been that 'the absolute most important thing is your family,'" Dowd wrote. "Callously scarring [his granddaughter's] life, just as it gets started, undercuts that."

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