By Haddon Libby
Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is the latest politician to allegedly get caught with his full hand in the cookie jar. Charges of corruption brought against Menendez and his wife are part of a raid of Menendez’ home last year where FBI investigators found $480,000 in cash, $100,000 in gold bars, a Mercedes paid for by someone else, a no/low show job for his wife and other things of value that were given to him or his wife by Wael Hana, Jose Uribe or Fred Daides. Of course, Menendez denies that anything untoward happened and that his political opponents were trying to smear him.
A similar thing happened to him in 2015 when Dr. Solomon Melgen gave gifts to Menendez in exchange for his help on matters of financial interest. That case which was brought by then US attorney Chris Christie ended in a mistrial. Menendez was found not guilty although most believed that he was far from innocent.
Democrats are calling on Menendez to resign – which he will not. “I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent.”
How many times have we heard those lines of persecution by a guilty politician? The two leading candidates to be our next President have more and larger corruption issues hounding them and seem to sing from the same choir book as Menendez.
President Biden is currently facing heat from Republicans for what appear to be corrupt actions involving his oft troubled son, Hunter. Somehow Hunter served as a consultant on the board of Burisma, an Ukrainian gas company from 2013-2018 where he earned $11 million. During this time, the Ukrainian federal prosecutor was prosecuting the head of Burisma on corruption – Mykola Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky testified that Joe Biden was directly involved in Hunter Biden’s business dealings. As the prosecutor moved toward formal filing charges, he was dismissed by then Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko.
Glenn Kessler of The Washington post was able to trace $7 million in various payments from foreign sources to Biden family members although they could not connect it to the elder Biden. Kessler found $10 million in payments from Chinese sources, $6.5 million from Burisma, $3.5 million from a Russian billionaire and $3 million from Romania.
Republicans have their own Biden problem, and he is named Donald J. Trump.
Over Trump’s career, he has been involved in, on average, in a new lawsuit every five days for nearly 50 years. To think he was the aggrieved party on all of these is laughable. He has weaponized the legal system better than anyone else in American history.
Politico reporter David Johnston has covered Trump for most of his life and says this about him: No other candidate for the White House has anything close to Trump’s record of repeated social and business dealings with mobsters, swindlers, and other crooks.”
Then there is the $2 billion investment by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a hedge fund of Jared Kusher, son-in-law to the former President only six months after the end of the Trump presidency. Many believe that Kushner delivered specifics on Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi that eventually led to his murder within the walls of the Saudi Consulate in Turkey. Sounds similar to Hunter except for the murder part.
Then there is that little thing about all the Donald’s seditious activities following the loss to Biden in 2020.
The bottom line is that neither Biden nor Trump have the trustworthiness to be the leader of the free world and leader of the United States. If either the Democratic or Republican parties stand for what is in our nation’s best interest, they should loudly support anyone but these men.
That the political parties support standard bearers like Biden and Trump is one of the reasons why most Americans dread our next election in 2024.
Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, please stop supporting folks who we know to be corrupt. It is time that we shun those looking to enrich themselves and their family and friends at our expense.
Enough is enough. It is time to kick these grifters to the curb and pray that the next group of leaders stand for America first.
