Joe Biden’s Ukraine defense falls apart
By Jonathan Turley
August 22, 2023 6:24pm
President Barack Obama famously warned fellow Democrats in 2020, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f–k things up.”
The warning was ignored by many as an almost brotherly reference to Biden’s habit of making false claims (like being arrested when seeking to see Nelson Mandela) or his continual verbal gaffes.
Biden has always had a certain penchant for bragging, whether it’s claiming a dead man told him he reached a million miles on Amtrak, being a cross-country trucker or fighting off some “bad dude” named Corn Pop.
But one of those bravado moments may have revealed more than vanity.
Ironically, it’s the one controversial story that appears entirely true.
In a 2018 interview at the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden bragged that he unilaterally withheld a billion dollars in US aid from the Ukrainians to force them to fire prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
The Ukrainians balked, but Biden gave them an ultimatum: “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”
The response from the Washington elite was rapturous, though the story was not only impolitic but embarrassing for an ally.
The Ukrainians were Joe’s new Corn Pop, and he recounted how he stared them down in a “High Noon” diplomatic moment.
A State Department memo is shedding disturbing light on that account and shredding aspects of Biden’s justification for the action.
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https://nypost.com/2023/08/22/joe-bidens-ukraine-defense-falls-apart/
