Opinion: the Biden Legacy

The first line of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." And it seems the unhappy Bidens are no different, joining the likes of the Bushes and the Roosevelts as a special case of political celebrity. Joe Biden, the family patriarch, was America’s sweetheart for numerous decades, praised by mainstream media throughout his war-ridden presidency despite his obvious senility, only to be abruptly cast aside in June, with the likes of WSJ and CNN suddenly discovering the absence of his faculties. Used by the same system he profited off for decades, Joe Biden has fulfilled his duties, and thus we now finally have the free reign to criticize him, allegations regarding his sordid past as Senator and Obama VP out in the open. It is useless to analyze his notorious gaffes which birthed thousands of memes on Instagram and X, like the famous moments when he called President Zelensky Putin or wandered off into the Amazon, but rather important to look at the corrupt practices he had been involved in before stepping up as president.

The first time Biden had been accused of corrupt practices was 49 years ago when he arranged an unsecured loan for his brother’s nightclub business (Schreckinger 2024). After all, his later corruption was also conducted both in the interest of and through his family. There is a common practice of American politicians using their children for their own corrupt practices while in office in order to keep some sense of plausible deniability. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s most infamous child, faces legal action not only because of his drug use, illegal gun possession, and tax evasion but also because of his involvement in numerous corrupt business transactions across Eastern Europe, the area of the world his father was in charge of throughout his VP term (Cabral 2024; Perez et al. 2023). Joe Biden, of course, famously denies any role in Hunter's sketchy business dealings, an improbable story given the numerous calls between the Biden father-son duo and Hunter’s business partners (Perez et al. 2023; Tuccille 2023).

Looking at solid evidence such as bank statements and public meetings, The United States House Committee for Oversight and Accountability (2020) has found that the Biden family has received over $20 million in payments from foreign entities in Romania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, and China. In Romania, the Biden family received $3 million from a Romanian businessman prosecuted for corruption in return for help with his case (Hall 2024; Richer 2024). In Ukraine, the Bidens received $6.5 million for helping the energy company Burisma (on whose board both Joe and Hunter Biden served, receiving a $1 million salary per year each) avoid an investigation into its practices. Joe Biden even leveraged $1 billion in American aid to persuade Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor while he was investigating Burisma, all in the name of “ridding Ukraine of corruption” (Cabral 2024; Caldera 2020; Lawler 2019; Schreckinger 2024). From Kazakhstani, Russian, and Chinese figures, Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca received further millions in order to broker deals between them and Burisma (Cabral 2024; Schreckinger 2024). From every country where Biden was the main point of contact in Washington during the Obama administration, the family seems to have made millions. And who knows how many unprovable millions have also been gained in the process? 

In a move to make his presidency truly significant and transcend common legacies such as corruption allegations and public blunders, Biden recently decided that Ukraine will be allowed to use American long-range missiles in attacks against Russian territory (Entous et al. 2024). The move has been dubbed by various analysts and public figures as ‘the beginning of WWIII’, considering President Putin has previously declared that any such permission would signify the US’ direct entry into war with Russia and the warranting of the use of nuclear weapons (Caroll 2024; ET 2024; Hjelmgaard 2024). Biden has since shown no remorse for the ensured higher number of deaths, no worries regarding the growing possibility of a nuclear war, and in fact gave no impression that he is even aware of the decision allegedly taken by him, refusing to even confirm its veracity despite the fact the weapons have already been used (Stepansky 2024). While there is a probability that Russia is just ‘bluffing’, as the Biden administration believes, and this might not be the literal end of the world, the mere possibility that this decision directly entered the US and NATO into a renewed war with Russia should bring chills down the back of every Western citizen (Caroll 2024; ET 2024; Zakheim 2024). In addition to the renewed attention to his proven corrupt practices, Biden shall end his term with the knowledge that through his anti-peace militancy, he leaves the world in a much less safe state than when he took over as ‘leader of the free world’.

Sources

Cabral, Sam. 2024. “Hunter Biden: The Struggles and Scandals of the US President’s Son.” BBC News, June 11, 2024, sec. US & Canada. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55805698.

Caldera, Camille. 2020. “Fact Check: Biden Leveraged $1B in Aid to Ukraine to Oust Corrupt Prosecutor, Not to Help His Son.” USA TODAY. October 21, 2020. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/21/fact-check-joe-biden-leveraged-ukraine-aid-oust-corrupt-prosecutor/5991434002/.

Caroll, Chris. 2024. “Putin Lowered Threshold on Use of Nuclear Weapons. Is He Bluffing?” Maryland Today. November 20, 2024. https://today.umd.edu/putin-lowered-threshold-on-use-of-nuclear-weapons-is-he-bluffing.

Entous, Adam, Eric Schmitt, and Julian E Barnes. 2024. “Biden Allows Ukraine to Strike Russia with Long-Range U.S. Missiles.” The New York Times, November 17, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/us/politics/biden-ukraine-russia-atacms-missiles.html.

ET. 2024. “Nuke Talk: Is Vladimir Putin Bluffing, or Does He Mean It?” The Economic Times. Economic Times. November 22, 2024. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/nuke-talk-is-vladimir-putin-bluffing-or-does-he-mean-it/articleshow/115570689.cms?from=mdr.

Hall, Kevin G. 2024. “US Prosecutors to Feature Corrupt Romanian Businessman in Hunter Biden Trial.” OCCRP. 2024. https://occrp.org/en/news/us-prosecutors-to-feature-corrupt-romanian-businessman-in-hunter-biden-trial.

Hjelmgaard, Kim. 2024. “Putin, Ukraine, Long-Range Missiles and Why There’s Talk about WWIII.” USA TODAY. November 21, 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/11/21/putin-russia-ukraine-ww3/76476640007/.

Lawler, Dave. 2019. “Fact Check: What Joe and Hunter Biden Actually Did in Ukraine.” Axios. October 2, 2019. https://www.axios.com/2019/10/02/joe-hunter-biden-ukraine-corruption-trump.

Perez Evan, Lybrand Holmes, Paula Reid Marshall Cohen, and Hannah Rabinowitz. 2023. “Hunter Biden Faces Nine Criminal Charges in Federal Tax Case | CNN Politics.” CNN. December 8, 2023. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/07/politics/hunter-biden-criminal-case/index.html.

Richer, Alanna Durkin. 2024. “Hunter Biden Was Hired by Romanian Businessman Trying to ‘Influence’ US Agencies, Prosecutors Say.” AP News. August 8, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-taxes-special-counsel-romanian-businessman-9c1b15a548df02935e2bfa856e485ada.

Schreckinger, Ben. 2024. “Biden Insists He’s Not Involved in His Family’s Business Dealings. But His Aides Are a Different Story.” POLITICO. Politico. June 8, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/08/joe-biden-aides-family-business-dealings-00161476.

Stack, Graham. 2024. “Hunter Biden Partner Secured Millions for Fund from Businessman with Reputed Organized Crime Ties.” OCCRP. 2024. https://www.occrp.org/en/project/the-fincen-files/hunter-biden-partner-secured-millions-for-fund-from-businessman-with-reputed-organized-crime-ties.

Stepansky, Joseph. 2024. “Biden Has Pivoted to Allow Ukraine to Use US Missiles in Russia. Why Now?” Al Jazeera. November 20, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/20/biden-has-pivoted-to-allow-ukraine-to-use-us-missiles-in-russia-why-now.

Tuccille, J.D. 2023. “There’s Plenty of Evidence of Corruption around Biden.” Reason.com. September 18, 2023. https://reason.com/2023/09/18/theres-plenty-of-evidence-of-corruption-around-biden/.

United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. 2020. “The Bidens’ Influence Peddling Timeline.” 2020. https://oversight.house.gov/the-bidens-influence-peddling-timeline/.

Zakheim, Dov S. 2024. “Biden Finally Shows Backbone in the Face of Putin’s Threats.” The Hill. November 22, 2024. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5002338-biden-finally-shows-backbone-in-the-face-of-putins-threats/.

Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jill,_Joe_and_Hunter_Biden_during_the_59th_presidential_inauguration.jpg