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Ranger,
One thing for sure, is that your post, above, is itself, an absolute lie, according to Snopes.
âA C-SPAN video (which you failed to include) shows former Vice President Joe Biden confessing that he "bribed" Ukraine to drop the Burisma investigation.A C-SPAN video shows former Vice President Joe Biden confessing that he "bribed" Ukraine to drop the Burisma investigation.
âRating: False
âOrigin
âAs an impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trumpâs actions commenced in October 2019, so did partisan invocations of whataboutism â a logical fallacy that involves âa reversal of accusation, arguing that an opponent is guilty of an offense just as egregious or worse than what the original party was accused of doing, however unconnected the offenses may be.â
âOne example of such was a video clip posted to C-SPANâs website on Sept. 21, 2019 under the title âJoe Biden Confesses to Bribery.â The video was accompanied by a caption reading âFormer Vice President Joe Biden confesses to being in charge of Ukraine for the Obama Administration, and withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees from the USA to force Ukraine to fire prosecutor who was looking into the company that Hunter Biden was receiving $83,000+ PER MONTH fromâ:
âThe user-created clip fostered a false impression by pairing a misleading caption with an excerpt from a much longer video with no context. (The video carries a statement from C-SPAN noting that âThis clip, title, and description were not created by C-SPAN.â)
âPresident Trump has been accused by a whistleblower, and is under a House-led impeachment inquiry, for allegedly attempting to coerce Ukraine into provide damaging information on Trump political rival Joe Biden by withholding crucial military aid from that country. The video on C-SPANâs website attempted to show Biden, a potential political rival for the presidency in 2020, admitting to a parallel wrongdoing during a trip to Ukraine in 2016:
âIn the original video clip, VP Biden said, âAnd I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didnât.
âSo they said they had â they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, Iâm not going to â or, weâre not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. Youâre not the president. The president said â I said, call him. I said, Iâm telling you, youâre not getting the billion dollars. I said, youâre not getting the billion. Iâm going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: Iâm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, youâre not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.â
The billion dollars Biden was threatening to withhold was $1BILLION in LOAN GUARANTEES, NOT any military aide. I understand thst you donât have the mental capacity to think for yourself, but this time, really try hard.
The video clip was taken from a portion of a talk Biden gave in January, 2018, at a âCouncil on Foreign Relationsâ meeting in Washington, D.C., which was held in conjunction with the publication of the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. Biden had co-authored an article for that monthâs issue with former White House official Michael Carpenter, titled âHow to Stand Up to the Kremlin: Defending Democracy Against Its Enemies.â
In the âexcerptedâ portion of the clip, Biden was discussing his efforts on behalf of the Obama administration to pressure Ukraine into to prosecuting corruption and firing Viktor Shokin, an ineffective (and corrupt) prosecutor.
That effort by Biden has been used by Trump supporters to argue, inaccurately, that Biden single-handedly had Shokin fired because Shokin was investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian group of energy exploration and production companies of which Bidenâs son Hunter was a board member.
However, Shokin was NOT fired for investigating Burisma, but for his failure to pursue corruption investigations â including investigations connected to Burisma, INSIDE Ukraine. And Biden wasnât alone in the effort to push Shokin out, but rather was spearheading the Obama administrationâs policy, which represented a consensus among diplomats, officials from additional, various European countries, AND the International Monetary Fund that Shokin was an impediment to rooting out corruption in his country, according to Bloomberg Magazine:
Shokin became prosecutor general in February 2015. Over the next year, the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund criticized officials for not doing enough to fight corruption in Ukraine âŠ
The U.S. plan to push for Shokinâs dismissal did NOT, initially, come from Biden, but rather filtered up from officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Embassy personnel had called for U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine to be tied to broader anti-corruption efforts, including Shokinâs dismissal, this person said.
Bidenâs threat to withhold $1 billion [in U.S. loan guarantees] if Ukraine didnât crack down on corruption reportedly came in March [2016]. That same month, hundreds of Ukrainians demonstrated outside President Petro Poroshenkoâs office demanding Shokinâs resignation, and he was dismissed. (After Ikrainsâs presidential election, Poroshenko fled to Moscow and Putin, where he still is.
Moreover, among the reasons the U.S. and other countries, sought Shokinâs ouster was his failure to assist with or pursue an investigation of Burisma Holdingsâ owner, NOT Bidenâs son.
Hunter Biden joined [Burismaâs] board in April 2014, two months after U.K. authorities requested information from Ukraine as part of a probe against [Burisma Holdings owner Mykola] Zlochevsky related to money laundering allegations. Zlochevsky had been minister of environmental protection under then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in February 2014 after mass protests.
After the U.K. request, Ukrainian prosecutors opened their own case, accusing Zlochevsky of embezzling public funds. Burisma and Zlochevsky have denied the allegations.
The case against Zlochevsky and his Burisma Holdings was assigned to Shokin, then a deputy prosecutor. But Shokin and others werenât pursuing it, according to the internal reports from the Ukrainian prosecutorâs office reviewed by Bloomberg.
In a December 2014 letter, U.S. officials warned Ukrainian prosecutors of negative consequences for Ukraine over its failure to assist the U.K., which had seized Zlochevskyâs assets, according to the documents.
Shokin took no action to pursue cases against Zlochevsky throughout 2015, said [Vitaliy] Kasko, who was Shokinâs deputy overseeing international cooperation and helping in asset-recovery investigations. Kasko said he had urged Shokin to pursue the investigations.
âThere was no pressure from anyone from the U.S. to close cases against Zlochevsky,â Kasko said in an interview. âIt was shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2014 and through 2015.â
Thatâs not to say the former vice presidentâs 2018 commentary at the Council on Foreign Relations meeting was worded well. Before his remarks morphed into âevidenceâ for claims that Biden ordered Ukraine to fire Shokin for investigating Burisma, they were picked up by Russian government-controlled outlets such as RT and Sputnik to levy accusations that the Obama administration was engaged in heavy-handed meddling in Ukraineâs affairs.â
A link to the FULL video is below.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/c-span-video-joe-biden-ukraine/So, âMr Canât-tell-the-truth-from-the-lies-heâs-been-feeding-you-for-way-too-long,â try to dispute the following. Oh, I know youâll probably say that Snopes.com is just another left-wing propaganda source. But then, thatâll be another BIG lie you told.
You and your fellow wrong-wingers canât defend the facts that have come out of these CONSTITUTIONAL and LEGALLY SANCTIONED oversight investigations, p,us Muellerâs investigation. So, in your many mindless attempts to try to justify the multiple multitudes of illegal actions committed by your new âsavior,â you use one of his own tactics and lie, lie, lie and lie some more, ad nausium. When you tire of lying, you deflect away from the subject, again, ad nausium. When you tire of that, you resort to âwhataboutism.â When that doesnât work, you go to insults and innuendo, again, ad nausium. And, to anyone who has ever debated, when you resort to insults and innuendo is when everyone knows youâve nothing of substance to provide and are a LOSER, to use one of Trumpâs favorite self-descriptive words.
That you and your fellow Trump cultists continue to refuse to leave Trumpâs sinking Titanic is proof that your last independent thought died of loneliness many years ago. Enjoy your ride down and try to hold your breath. Youâd better begin looking for a life preserver now. Trumpâs typical play in these situations (remember, he bankrupted 6 businesses, plea-dealed his way out of 2 federal law suits, has refused to pay many of his contractors, has refused to pay the several cities heâs held political rallies at, beginning since his campaign first began.)
Given these very factual examples, you might want to check for life jackets before too much longer. Iâd be very afraid that Trump re-appropriated them for his family only. (You know that heâs real good at re-appropriating things.) That would leave you looking for wooden boards to hang onto. FYI: The Potomac River gets very cold in January.
Again, âBefore his remarks morphed into âevidenceâ for claims that Biden ordered Ukraine to fire Shokin for investigating Burisma, they were picked up by Russian government-controlled outlets such as RT and Sputnik to levy accusations that the Obama administration was engaged in heavy-handed meddling in Ukraineâs affairs.â
Now, I must ask, did you get this pile of crap you posted from RT or Sputnic? Either one is a Russian controlled ânews outletâ used by many of the alt-right outlets in the U.S. In the future, when you post your pile of lies, please consider where they came from by investigating the info in your post. (Finding where your OP originated wasn't hard and only took less than a second.
If you trust any info that originated in Russia, I must question which country has your patriotic loyalty, the US or Russia. Of course, yoir OP shows us that youâre following Trumpâs lead and example. In Helsinki, he took Putinâs word regarding their part in subverting our 2016 election over our own intelligence agencies. I question Trumpâs patriotism, too; even far more than yourâs. Youâre just one of his mindless cult followers who hangs on his every word. Heâs the cult leader.
ââââââââ- br br Ranger, br One thing for sure, is... (