From the Left: The Truth About ‘The Bidens’
Lines like, “Hunter Biden’s life is one long accident, and he’s constantly leaving the scene of it,” pepper TK News’ Matt Taibbi’s hilarious writeup of Ben Schreckinger’s “The Bidens.” A key takeaway is that the president’s “insistence that ‘I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses,’ is simply not believable after reading this book, not just because there is witness and documentary evidence directly contradicting him, but because the family does appear to be just as close as it claims.” More: “That Biden participated, and continues to participate, in a shameless scheme to deflect attention and squelch inquiry by characterizing these true stories as Russian disinformation adds to the pile of evidence against him.”
Libertarian: Dems’ Mask Double-Standard
“Democratic political figures whose mask mandates remain in effect in many major cities routinely fail to follow their own rules,” fumes Reason’s Robby Soave after President Biden and the first lady exited a restaurant maskless despite DC’s mandate that restaurants ensure customers wear masks “while walking from the door to the table” or face a $1,000 fine. The prez “probably knows that it’s pointless” since “groups of unmasked people are eating, drinking and talking for hours.” In fact, “the government’s strict mask policies are so stupid that everyone who can get away with ignoring them already does so. They remain “not for safety, or because of the science, but because our elected leaders can’t be bothered to tweak the rules.”
Conservative: GOP Winning Voting-Law Debate
“Republicans themselves don’t all realize it, but they’re winning the political debate over voting laws,” Ramesh Ponnuru notes at Bloomberg Opinion. Dems’ attack on “Republicans as ‘vote suppressors’ who are instituting a ‘new Jim Crow’ does not seem to be inflicting any political damage.” Take voter ID laws: “Democratic politicians and activists hate the idea, but most voters favor it.” A Monmouth poll “found that 82% of the public back photo ID for voters. That supermajority included 62% of Democratic voters.” This reality has led Democrats to “backpedal on voter identification.” Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said in July that “no Democrat has ever been against voter ID.” But “in October 2020, he had called it ‘voter suppression.’ ” Clearly, “this is a debate they’re losing.”
From the right: Sanders Is No Salesman
“If you were a Democrat appealing to the good people of West Virginia, is Bernie Sanders the guy you’d want making your pitch?” asks The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn. Yet on Friday, Sanders “published an op-ed in West Virginia’s largest newspaper” slamming Sen. Joe Manchin for “standing in the way of the $3.5 trillion progressive wish list that is the stalled reconciliation bill.” Manchin’s swift reply: “No op-ed from a self-declared Independent socialist” would end his objection to wasteful spending and a “reckless expansion” of government. McGurn notes that he’s already purging a $150 billion clean-energy program from the bill that “would’ve penalized coal- and gas-fired power plants” that make up “the bulk of West Virginia’s electricity.” If Dems hope to persuade Manchin, they need “a much better ambassador than Bernie Sanders.”
Foreign desk: Huawei Marches On
Chinese tech firm Huawei “has long been regarded with suspicion by western nations for its attempt to dominate” 5G networking, but its progress “is hardly slowing,” warns Peter Schweizer for the Gatestone Institute. Washington deems use of equipment by a firm with “such close ties to China’s government” as “an unacceptable risk.” Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee warns that a “very difficult to detect” cyberattack “could enable the Chinese to intercept covertly or disrupt traffic passing through Huawei-supplied networks.” Yet Team Biden granted Huawei “hundreds of applications to purchase chips for its automotive supply business.” Why? The company has played “both sides of the street in Washington for several years, hiring lobbyists and law firms to plead for its interests.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board