It’s Time for Joe Biden to Come Up With a New Answer to Old Questions

Then Vice President Joe Biden waves as he walks out of Air Force Two with his granddaughter, Finnegan Biden (C) and son Hunter Biden (R) upon their arrival in Beijing on Dec. 4, 2013. Ng Han Guan/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

A report released in late September by the Senate Homeland Security Committee detailing the many shady foreign dealings of Hunter Biden while his father was vice president had already led to much scrutiny of the Biden family.

Now, an abandoned laptop left at a Delaware repair shop in April 2019 appears to have blown up the entire presidential campaign for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Here is what allegedly happened, according to public record:

• Hunter Biden took three damaged computers to John Paul Mac Isaac’s repair store in Delaware on April 12, 2019. According to Mac Isaac, only one MacBook laptop was salvageable.
• After the laptop was successfully repaired, the store notified Hunter numerous times that his item was ready to be picked up. Mac Isaac said Hunter never responded.
• The repair contract Hunter signed, if real, clearly states that if an item is left with the store for 90 days, it is deemed abandoned by Delaware law and becomes store property.
• Upon viewing the contents of the laptop he now owned, Mac Isaac noticed several items that compelled him to contact both state and federal law enforcement.
• The FBI and the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, issued a federal subpoena to Mac Isaac and took possession of the laptop in December 2019, to presumably launch their own investigations.

I suspect due to what has subsequently been divulged regarding the laptop’s contents that multiple investigations are currently underway.

The Contents of the Laptop

Calling the contents of this laptop explosive would be a massive understatement. Not only do the emails released from it thus far, if real, show blatant influence-peddling schemes, financial corruption, and the selling of access to Joe Biden, it goes much further than that. Massive amounts of money were allegedly changing hands between the Bidens, their business associates, and foreign governments in China, Ukraine, Russia, and elsewhere. To believe this kind of money was changing hands with no strings attached would defy belief.

Hunter Biden has a long history of drug abuse, and images published on Oct. 14 by the New York Post allegedly from his laptop show him using drugs. In one image, he appears to be passed out with a crack pipe next to his face.

After a week of this story dominating the news media (despite attempts by some social media platforms to censor it), it should be noted that neither Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, any member of the Biden family, or Biden’s campaign has issued a statement claiming that the emails or images published are not authentic.

While plenty of Democrats in Congress and members of the media have labeled the laptop disclosures as “Russian disinformation,” the people in the best position to verify or refute the authenticity of these emails and images have remained silent. That is very revealing.

The Biden Team Responds by Hiding

A week has gone by without any denials from the Biden camp. On Oct. 18, following a small event, the Biden campaign announced that the presidential candidate would not be making any public appearances until the Oct. 22 debate with President Donald Trump.

At this stage of a presidential race, for one of the candidates to essentially disappear from the campaign trail for four days is simply unheard of.

The stated reason for Biden’s disappearance is “debate preparation.” I suspect the real reason is that Team Biden expects more explosive revelations from the laptop as the week unfolds and is doing its best to limit the candidate’s exposure to questions about them.

How Did the Bidens Get Away With It for So Long?

Even back in 2014, when Hunter Biden took the much-publicized job on the corporate board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, there were news reports and commentary about it.

But that’s all—a few media reports. The Bidens simply coasted for years inside the D.C. Swamp with little pushback or accountability.

Of course, every now and then a reporter would ask a question about the blatant conflicts of interest and the “troubling appearances.” When that happened, Joe Biden would angrily reject the question, call it a lie, or declare he had never talked to his family members about their business deals. The issue would be dropped and everyone would move on.

This angry denial strategy has always served Joe Biden well … until now.

Now, in the face of this new evidence, a simple angry denial that he never discussed his family member’s business dealings in foreign countries where he was the Obama administration’s designated point man is not going to get the same mileage.

And that’s a good thing. It’s far past time Joe Biden came up with new answers to these old questions.

Brian Cates is a writer based in South Texas and the author of “Nobody Asked For My Opinion … But Here It Is Anyway!” He can be reached on Twitter @drawandstrike.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.