Michael Vick used Ron Mexico. Anthony Weiner went by Carlos Danger.
Joe Biden chose Robert L. Peters as his Chris Gaines, his Paul Ramon even.
Hmmm.
“Attached to this email, and made available on the NARA website, is a document that indicates at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 2016, Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) yesterday wrote the archivist of the United States. “It is concerning to the Committee, however, that this document was sent to ‘Robert L. Peters’ — a pseudonym the Committee has identified as then Vice-President Biden. Additionally, the Committee questions why the then-Vice President’s son, Hunter Biden — and only Hunter Biden — was copied on this email to then-Vice President Biden.” (READ MORE: The Big Guy)
Yes, Pierre Delecto had already been spoken for. But surely imaginative names exist beyond Robert Peters. Philbert Toogins III? Gary Toast? Tonto McQueen? It turns out, like that lady with 14 birthdates using your social security number to set up a credit card, Joe Biden boasts more than one AKA.
Comer requested, “Any document or communication in which a pseudonym for Vice President Joe Biden was included either as a sender, recipient, copied or was included in the contents of the document or communication, including but not limited to Robert Peters, Robin Ware, and JRB Ware.”
Possibly he watched too many Raymond J. Johnson, Jr. beer commercials in the late 1970s. You can call him Joe, or you can call him Bob, or you can call him Robin, or you can call him JRB.
People often called Andrew Jackson “Old Hickory,” Dwight Eisenhower “Ike,” Lyndon Johnson “LBJ,” and Ronald Reagan “the Gipper.” But everyone knew to whom those nicknames referred. Joe Biden uses alternative names — not limited to “the Big Guy” — to hide and not highlight his identity.
Presidents employ a Secret Service. How many presidents employed secret names? Pol Pot, Lenin, Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, and other revolutionaries used noms de guerre. Does Joe Biden hide behind a nom de bribe? If not, he needs to credibly explain the reason for the false name. (READ MORE: A Tale of Two Sweethearts: Hunter Biden’s Plea Bargain Is History Repeating Itself)
The strangeness follows other strangeness. Joe Biden hides his finances as well as his identity.
His 2017 tax return listed $10,192,553 in income, almost all of which came from something called CelticCapri Corp, an S corporation that enabled the president to prevent us from knowing from who and for what did his money derive.
The family, in fact, excels at the creation of companies. What products do those companies manufacture? It’s a secret. We just know Biden family members created more than 20 limited liability companies from which nine Biden family members received money. Their names, which include Skaneateles, LLC, Lion Hall Group, LLC, and Seneca Partners, LLC, provide as much an indication of their purpose as Robert Peters does the identity of the man hiding behind that name. (READ MORE: David Weiss: A Not So Special Counsel)
On the subject of transparency, the countries Biden, Inc., did business with are not exactly Canada, Japan, and Australia. The money came from such places as Russia, Ukraine, China, Romania, and Kazakhstan. Too bad no direct flights exist from Delaware to Turkmenistan or Venezuela.
The pattern of secrecy — fake names, shell companies, suspected offshore accounts — calls for sunlight, not stonewalling. The incurious Frank Drebin “nothing to see here” response from journalists, which often veers into ridiculing James Comer for uncovering what the Bidens went to great lengths to hide, represents misdirected anger at a politician for doing their job for them.
An alias seems a bizarre shield for a president with scores of guards to hide behind. People rarely use one when partaking in aboveboard activities. Why did Joe Biden go by another name then? One need not the assistance of Brett Somers or Charles Nelson Reilly to match the word that most commonly prefaces alias.