In the waning days of World War II, as Soviet armies closed-in on the Nazi capital of Berlin,
Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler holed-up in his Führerbunker exhorting imaginary armies to fight to the death and raging at subordinates for betraying him.
We imagine a similar scene is playing out in Joe Biden’s basement Führerbunker right now, as the Democratic candidate for President has “called a lid” on his campaign until Thursday, scheduling no public events and cutting himself off from the outside world until he is supposed to emerge to engage in one final Götterdämmerung debate with President Donald Trump.
After more than 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2008, I can say with some authority Biden’s retreat to his basement cannot be credibly attributed to debate prep.
Indeed, if he was really doing debate prep there would be a steady stream of advisors and coaches headed for Delaware and media announcements to go along with them.
Back in 2008 Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm flew with back with Biden from a Michigan campaign stop to play his Republican opponent Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in mock debates.
In an interview after she arrived in Delaware Gov. Granholm said, "I want to beat him up a little bit, so he does well."
In 2012 it was announced Biden would spend a week at debate camp in Delaware overseen by President Obama’s top political strategist, David Axelrod.
This year – nada on debate prep.
But there has been a steady stream of discomfiting media about the misdeeds of Joe Biden’s miscreant son Hunter – and a lot of evidence that Joe Biden profited from Hunter’s influence peddling.
And despite being surrounded by handlers who have been known to put his hand in their pocket to keep him from wandering off, Biden got loose long enough to attack a reporter who broke from the pack and asked him about the laptop that revealed Hunter’s influence peddling.
As Prof. Jonathan Turley observed in a commentary on his website, Biden refused to comment and then disparaged CBS News reporter Bo Erickson for even asking him the question.
Erickson simply asked “Mr. Biden, what is your response to the New York Post story about your son, sir?”
Biden responded “I have no response.” Then Biden added “I know you’d ask it. I have no response, it’s another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask.”
Prof. Turley has long denounced Hunter Biden’s work as a classic influence peddling scheme. That does not make it a crime, but it is a common form of corruption in Washington. These emails, if true, observed Prof. Turley, would contradict Joe Biden’s past statements of his lack of knowledge or involvement. Moreover, it would shatter Joe Biden’s repeated assurance that his son did “nothing wrong.” One can argue over whether this is a crime, but few would say that there is nothing wrong with raw influence peddling worth millions with foreign entities.
So, rather than answer questions from the media or do anything else to give legs to the story of Biden family corruption, Joe Biden, like the Führer, is hunkered down in his basement bunker, no doubt raging at Hunter and the others who have failed him as the incoming rounds blast his campaign to rubble.
2020 Election
Joe Biden
basement bunker
COVID-19
third presidential debate
Donald Trump
campaign events
debate practice
Hunter Biden
Bo Ericksen
influence peddling