I will begin today by talking about corruption, especially political corruption. It takes many forms, and we will identify some of them. But by the end of this commentary, I will tighten our focus on the uniquely clever corruption practiced by the Biden family.
For the definition and examples of corruption, I will use what is generally regarded as the left-leaning Transparency International organization and its website, transparency.org.
Their definition is pretty simple: “ … the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” Note that it says “private gain” not “personal gain.” “Personal gain” is most often interpreted as referring to the corrupt person’s own gain, but it doesn’t need to be his or her own gain to be corrupt. It can and often does apply to the person who has the public trust abusing power by steering the private gain to another individual, such as a donor, and associate or a family member. So let’s go over our definition again: “corruption is defined as the abuse of public trust or power for private gain.”
“Corruption can involve anyone: politicians, government officials, public servants, business people or members of the public.
“Corruption happens in the shadows …
“Corruption adapts to different contexts and changing circumstances. It can evolve in response to changes in rules, legislation and even technology.”
There are at least two lessons to be drawn from this: the first is that an elected official may be thoroughly corrupt without ever personally receiving private benefits from corrupt acts. The second is that things that occur in the shadows are easily ignored. What is meant by “shadows?” It simply means not in the bright glare of public awareness. In many cases, the corrupt acts may be easily discovered and documented, but they never make it into broad public awareness simply because the mainstream media chooses not to cover them.
Both of these lessons may be directly applied to the actions of Joe Biden when he was Vice President. One of the courageous investigators willing to go where the mainstream media turns a blind eye is Peter Schweizer of the Government Accountability Institute. Earlier this year, he released a book titled Profiles in Corruption.
The book meticulously details and documents corruption of several heroes of the modern progressive movement, including Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, but the most damning revelations are those clearly identifying how five members of the Biden family benefitted from the actions of the then-Vice President. That Former Vice President Biden himself received relatively few of the private benefits is no exoneration It is using public office to create private gain that lies at the heart of the definition of corruption. Not benefitting himself directly does not absolve him of the charge of corruption that the mainstream media and the left-leaning commentariat so willfully dismiss.
Now Schweizer is working on a kind of sequel to his work that will soon be released as a movie, which may earn a wider audience for his research than his books. The trailer for the movie is expected to be released as soon as next week, and the full version, which is expected to be about 40 minutes in length, in a few weeks. I urge all American Radio Journal listeners to be on the lookout for both the trailer and the final film. The working title is “Riding the Dragon,” and it zeroes in on how five members of the Biden family received benefits, some of them quite lucrative, from the Vice President’s corrupt acts regarding China. Don’t fall for the media’s eager dismissal of Schweizer’s charges on the basis that the VP himself didn’t put cash in his own pocket. Focus instead on how his actions perfectly fit the definition of corruption. Is this a man whom the American public should trust to conduct foreign affairs with our largest and richest adversary?
(Colin Hanna is President of Let Freedom Ring, USA)