If your son allegedly writes to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management, and alleges that he was with you, trying allegedly to put pressure on him to fulfill a commitment, and if you are the alleged father, shouldn’t you have more than a mere “No” to say when asked if you were with your son?
If your son, my son or anybody’s son writes to his friend, “I am sitting here with my father,” you or I or any other “regular Joe” wouldn’t mind if he is telling the truth! But if you are not a regular Joe, but U.S. President Joe Biden and that son of yours are allegedly doing this to extort money from a Chinese energy firm, aren’t you supposed to utter at least a complete sentence?
The House Ways and Means Committee last week released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who claimed that the president’s son invoked his father to pressure a Chinese business partner and added the elder Biden was in the room while he was making deals:
“I am sitting here with my father, and we want to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled. Tell the director I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, which now means tonight.”
Not only that, Hunter Biden was so highly determined to get that alleged $10 million that he further wrote, “And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to hold forever a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”
Now, if a House committee has released these documents, naturally, reporters would ask the person if he was really in that room, sitting next to his son:
Reporter: “How involved were you in your son’s Chinese shake-down text message? Were you sitting there? Were you involved?”
The president of the Free World responds: “No, I wasn’t.”
You “wasn’t” what?
So, the reporter insists: “Were you in that room?”
At this point, Mr. President gets angry and starts yelling: “No!”
So, if he reacted like that, he deserved what he got. The Spectator contributor Stephen Miller’s comment was nice. He joked, “Temper!”
But Republican Party media strategist Alex Sears was not that nice in his social media message: “So, either Biden did know, and he’s lying here, or he actually didn’t know BUT he’s generally fine with Hunter using his name essentially as a threat + bargaining chip.”
In the meantime, another media inventor and consultant, Tom Elliot, was even harsher: “Everything he has said thus far about Hunter is a lie. Even though his earlier lies were not a lie was a lie. If he now says he wasn’t in on this Chinese bribe, you can be sure he’s still lying.”
“Right on Crime” Corp. Executive Director Brett Tolman buried the president even deeper: “Joe Biden is perhaps the most substantiated liar over the past 50 years of anyone in public service. I witnessed it firsthand in the Senate. There is no subject too small he isn’t willing to lie about. How likely is he willing to lie about something so colossal?”
President Biden and White House communication spokesperson have long maintained the president did not know about Hunter Biden’s international business dealings. But messages have surfaced showing that the president discussed Hunter Biden’s business. But the Daily Mail and Fox News obtained images and a voicemail from dad to son:
“Hey pal, it’s Dad. It’s 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you have a chance, give me a call. Nothing urgent – I just wanted to talk with you. I thought the article released online, it's going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you’re clear.”
It is from 2018, and almost all commentators said that as soon as the Republicans get their hands on the House committees, there will be more evidence that the president was involved in Hunter’s business deals. The White House again last Tuesday refused to answer questions about the voicemail President Biden purportedly left for his son Hunter Biden about his overseas business dealings. The Communication Office said any materials allegedly originating from Hunter’s now-infamous laptop would not be discussed. But there are so many questions about the said “article”: Who had it published? How that article “cleared” Hunter Biden?
The Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) calls the Biden’s “The Biden Crime Family” and claims what is being done is a “Biden Family Cover-Up.”
“The Biden’s are the best I know at doing exactly what the Chairperson wants from this (partnership),” Hunter Biden tells CEFC associate Gongwen Dong, aka Kevin, in a WhatsApp exchange dated March 8, 2017.
“Did you lie about never speaking with Hunter about his business deals?” Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asks.
“No,” Biden replied.
Well! As a veteran instructor in several journalism schools, I have a tip for our colleagues over there:
Don’t ask "yes/no" questions as they are grammatically formed through the use of an auxiliary verb like “to be,” “to do” or “to have.”
If I were to give an example, the question “Does that taste okay?” can only bring about an answer like “Yes, it does” or “No, it does not” – but what we really aim to achieve in asking that question is whether the recipient could articulate on the properties of the taste.
So, we can rephrase those questions so that the respondents are more likely to answer them with detailed descriptions. “How do you describe the taste of the ice cream?” would be more appropriate in that scenario.
All that said, it would be wiser for a journalist to determine what flavor of ice cream Joe Biden and his son really choose to enjoy.
