I shan't believe such a thing. I simply shannot.
JusttheNews:
The final report of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden upends a narrative promoted during the first impeachment of former President Trump, showing that in fact Biden changed official U.S. policy in a way that benefited Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company where his son served on the board. Biden and his surrogates vehemently have repeatedly denied those allegations.
After more than a year of investigation, the evidence shows then-Vice President Joe Biden changed official policy by calling an "audible" on a flight to Kyiv, linking a $1 billion loan guarantee for the struggling country to its firing of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma's founder, Mykola Zlochevsky. This finding confirms several Just the News reports.
During the 2019 impeachment of President Trump, government witnesses and Congressional Democrats widely repeated the same claim: that Joe Biden did not change U.S. policy and that the Ukrainian prosecutors were not investigating Burisma.
Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified that calling for Shokin's firing was "official U.S. policy," former Trump envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volkert said the firing "was widely understood internationally to be the right policy," and another former diplomat, David Holmes, testified that Shokin "was not at that time pursuing investigations of Burisma or the Bidens."
Last year, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member, Jamie Raskin, D-M.D., also said the theories that Joe Biden changed official U.S. policy or that Burisma was under investigation by Shokin were "debunked."
USA Today, FactCheck.org, and CNN, among dozens of other media outlets called the allegations "debunked" and The Washington Post opined that "This is smoke without a fire."
Just a month before Thanksgiving in 2015, a task force of top State, Treasury and Justice Department officials had decided that Ukraine and its new top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, had made enough progress on anti-corruption reforms for the country to receive a new $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee, Just the News previously reported.
They drafted a term sheet for the delivery of the new aid to then-Ukrainian President Pedro Poroshenko during Biden's December 2015 trip to Ukraine, and were making plans to invite Shokin's top staff to Washington in January for a high-level meeting. Shokin himself even got a letter from the State Department declaring it was "impressed" with his reform efforts.
Two Nov. 22, 2015, memos--while demanding Shokin's ouster--urged the vice president to offer the $1 billion loan guarantee during his trip, according to the documents reviewed by Just the News.
By the time Biden got to Kyiv on Dec. 8-9, 2015, he had altered the plan, deciding to threaten withholding the loan guarantees until Poroshenko fired Shokin, something he would brag about in a 2018 broadcast on C-SPAN.
The reporting on these memos by Just the News spurred the Washington Post fact-checkers to revise the central narrative around Biden's December 2015 visit to Kyiv, now reporting through interviews with former Obama administration officials that then-Vice President Biden "called an audible"--or changed the plan--to link Viktor Shokin's firing with the $1 billion loan guarantee.
Before this change in policy, the report notes, there was no indication that Joe Biden would link Shokin's firing with the loan guarantee. Instead, the committees argue that a December 2015 phone call Hunter Biden made to his father on behalf of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, may have "sparked" the change.
In his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Devon Archer--the longtime business associate of Hunter Biden and fellow Burisma board member--told Congress that Burisma Holdings was pressuring the Biden to deal with the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.
Despite the Marxist Media constantly lying for the Democrats, the Democrats have done the one thing to them that status-conscious "progressive" social climbers cannot abide: They have reduced them in status.
The Marxist Media is complaining that Democrats have reduced the amenities available to "journalists" to instead bequeath them on... TikTok influencers.
Traditional media voiced frustration as the DNC prioritizes TikTok influencers with prime seating at the Democratic National Convention, reducing workspace for legacy outlets.
Key Details:
The DNC assigned 200 seats to social media influencers, constructing a special platform for them at the convention floor.
Traditional media were left with only 47 press stand seats, far fewer than in past conventions.
The decision has led to criticism from veteran journalists, citing a shift in focus from established press to influencer-driven coverage.
LOL. "Journalists" are just online influencers without good looks or charisma. They're online influencers, too -- just not very influential influencers.
According to the Washington Examiner, legacy media outlets are expressing growing frustration with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after discovering that their traditional workspace at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago has been significantly reduced in favor of TikTok influencers. The DNC's decision to prioritize social media personalities over established journalists has sparked backlash, highlighting tensions between the old and new media landscapes.
At the United Center, where Vice President Kamala Harris is set to accept her nomination, the DNC has credentialed 200 social media influencers, granting them front-row access through a newly constructed "creator platform." Meanwhile, traditional print and wire service media were allocated just 47 seats, a stark reduction compared to past conventions. By contrast, at the Republican National Convention last month, over 360 workspaces were made available to traditional press at the smaller Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
This move marks a significant departure from previous DNC conventions, where the media had ample space to work. Jonathan Salant, deputy managing editor for politics at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who is covering his 20th convention, noted, "Never has the press been given the type of seating that they have now. There's always been plenty of space."
Journalists on the ground have voiced their displeasure, suggesting that the DNC's decision reflects a broader shift toward prioritizing social media reach over traditional news coverage. One veteran journalist remarked, "Basically, what they're saying is, we think we can reach more people through influencers than we think through the traditional press."
Taylor Lorenz approves, one imagines.
So do I.
Why let these venal mediocrities continue to pretend they are still high-status individuals with a great deal of influence over the public owing to their credibility?
Let them know how far they've fallen. Rub their pig noses in the shit.