What’s the worth of the ‘word as a Biden’?
President Joe Biden seems sure that his family name is as good as gold. He repeatedly tells the American people that they should trust him because, well, he’s a Biden!
‘I give you my word as a Biden: When I’m president, I will lead with science, listen to the experts and heed their advice, and always tell you the truth,’ Biden tweeted back in March 2020.
He used the line again after taking office, tweeting, ‘I gave you my word as a Biden — and I kept that word.’
But what’s the actual value of a Biden word? The American people still haven’t received an additional $1,400 to bring the total of their recent stimulus check to $2,000. President-elect Joe promised those would go out ‘immediately’ if Democrats took the Senate. He managed to simultaneously promise to protect small businesses while supporting a massive minimum wage increase that would surely bankrupt many of them. And of course there’s the matter of Biden and his press secretary cynically invoking his Catholic faith to dismiss the concerns of pro-life Americans as he increases access to abortion.
The ‘word as a Biden’ of course also implies some sort of family legacy of honor and honesty. The phrase fails here too, and quite miserably. Joe’s son Hunter was discharged from the military after testing positive for cocaine. He became romantically involved with his brother’s widow after a ‘week-long crack binge’ in LA, but got a stripper pregnant in Washington DC while they were dating. Hunter initially tried to deny paternity of this baby. On the business side of life, Hunter managed to snag a position on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, making $50,000 a month. Recently reported emails suggest he was trading influence because of his father’s position in government. He still has a 10 percent stake in Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners, even though President Joe promised no one in his family would be involved in foreign business when he took office. There is currently a federal investigation into Hunter’s tax dealings.
The trend continues — a law firm ad that ran on Inauguration Day cited Frank Biden’s relationship with his older brother, the President:
‘The two Biden brothers have long held a commitment to pushing environmental issues to the forefront; the president-elect has vowed to rejoin the Paris Agreement and wants to set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, for example,’ the ad said.
Frank Biden is quoted in the ad as saying, ‘My brother is a model for how to go about doing this work.’
After the ad received backlash, Frank claimed he has never used his brother’s name to ‘obtain clients’.
But in 2009, the year older brother Joe took office as VP, Frank was open about how he viewed his last name as a ‘tremendous asset’ when landing a contract in Florida to build charter schools. Those schools were later accused of mismanagement.
Then there’s James Biden, who dabbled in the financial business with young Hunter. The pair purchased Paradigm Global Advisors in 2006. According to a former executive of the company, James was very clear that he viewed the firm as a way for foreign investors to give money to the Biden family without illegally donating to Joe’s campaign. The Bidens also allegedly sought to use Joe’s relationship with union leaders to get them to invest in the company.
The public-facing members of the Biden family seem to have serious credibility issues. Is that the ‘word as a Biden’? Why does Joe Biden keep repeating this line when his family problems have been the source of so many political headaches? It seems poor Joe may be in denial about his family’s true legacy.
