Okay. We have to deal today with what is unfortunately
an increasingly repeated conspiracy theory
about Joe Biden and Ukraine that spreading
as a result of the recent new Trump collusion
allegation, which is that Donald Trump is
withholding hundreds of millions of dollars
in aid from Ukraine until such time that Ukraine
decides to help Trump smear Joe Biden in order
to help him win Trump.
That is in the 2020 election. And the reason
that I have to do this is in part because
some of the mainstream outlets that have reported
this, like the New York times and the Washington
post didn't properly debunk the conspiracy
theory and it's getting even more oxygen.
Now, the other important thing to know is
that the new conspiracy theory about Joe Biden
is not new. This is something that far right
websites have been pushing for a while now,
but it has recently exploded. So let's get
into it. The idea is Joe Biden, in a completely
corrupt cronies stick act, went to Kiev, Ukraine,
and threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan
guarantees because a company that his son,
Hunter Biden is associated with was being
investigated by the Ukrainian chief product
prosecutor, Victor Shoken. Now, if you don't
look beyond that one line conspiracy theory,
it is very easy to fall for it because it's
true that Joe Biden went to Kiev in 2015.
It's true that Joe Biden was involved in discussions
related to the actions of the chief prosecutor.
It's true that Joe Biden was one of the people
that threatened to withhold loan guarantees,
but unfortunately, or fortunately, depending
on who you are and what your priorities are,
this lacks incredibly important context. Let's
start by looking at this video that many of
the conspiracy theorists are claiming is proof
of everything that I just told you. Check
it out. A smoking gun of sorts. They say about
this video.
Well, I, I was not, I, I, but it just happened
to be, that was the assignment I got. I, I,
I got all the good ones. Uh, and, uh, so I
got Ukraine and uh, um, I remember going over
convincing our team or others to convincing
us that we should be providing for loan guarantees.
And I went over I guess the 12th, 13th time
to Kieve and uh, and I was going, supposed
to announce that there was another billion
dollar loan guarantee and I had gotten a commitment
from Poroshenko and from, uh, yachtsman yuck
that they would take action against the state
prosecutor and they didn't, so they said they
had, they were walking out to press. Congress
said, naw, I said, I'm not going to w w or
we're not going to give you the billion dollars.
They said, you have no authority. You're not
the president. The president said, I said,
call him. I said, I'm telling you you're not
getting $1 billion. I said, you're not getting
the billion. I'm going to be leaving here.
And I think it was what, six hours I looked
at, I said, I'm leaving at six hours. If the
prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting
the money. Oh, son of a bitch. I got fired.
And they put in place someone who was solid,
that is their smoking gun or smoking gun to
use the vocabulary of the current president.
So let me talk about context. We often hear
from people who are like caught doing something
wrong or saying something wrong and they have
to apologize. They will sometimes say, Oh
no, no, no. What I said was taken out of context.
And often it makes no sense. Like in a lot
of these situations, there is no possible
context that would change the meaning of what
was said unless the context was they said
right before, what I'm about to say is a total
joke, and I don't mean it right, like the
whole context argument falls very flat. In
this case, Joe Biden was one of many people
involved in an international coalition that
was investigating corruption and embezzlement
and misconduct in Ukraine involving the chief
prosecutor Joe Biden ended up as a point man
for this multinational effort.
And many countries had already been asking
for the dismissal of the Ukrainian chief prosecutor
months before Joe Biden even became the point
man. And again, this got some pickup and rightwing
media, but it had never really taken off.
And now we find out that Rudy Giuliani is
Donald Trump's henchman. He's going to Ukraine
and pushing them to get this Biden smear going.
And as time goes, the allegations about Joe
Biden become even more outrageous. For example,
there's a version of this conspiracy that
Biden personally was blackmailing Ukrainian
leadership into getting rid of the chief prosecutor
merely to derail the investigation into this
company, uh, with which, uh, Joe Biden's son
is associated a, um, a Ukrainian gas company,
only the most myopic, limited understanding
of what happened could even possibly get you
to that conclusion. And of course, when Donald
Trump has an actual new scandal on his hands
involving Ukraine, that he's withholding $250
million in aid unless Ukraine smears Biden.
It's an environment that is ripe for counter
conspiracies like this one about Joe Biden.
Now I want to be really clear, this is not
a defense of Joe Biden's a policy. This is
not a, an endorsement of Joe Biden's presidential
candidacy. This is not a denial that Joe Biden
as vice president of the United States for
eight years was part of the status quo center
left establishment that we're trying to replace
with something more progressive in 2020 this
is not a defense of any particular campaign
position of Joe Biden. I'm merely telling
you that the conspiracy theory that Donald
Trump and Rudy Giuliani and right wing media
is alleging exists is flat out false and it's
quite frankly ridiculous and actually it's
so ridiculous that even Fox news hosts are
challenging it on Fox news broadcasts. I will
tell you about that later on in the program.
We'll take a quick break, make sure you're
following the show on Instagram,
Graham at David Pakman show, and while you're
there, follow me on Instagram at David dot
cocky,
