{"id":1025892,"date":"2023-09-26T00:36:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T00:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1025892"},"modified":"2024-05-16T17:40:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T17:40:02","slug":"icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"341\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1031397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png 1500w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?resize=300,100 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?resize=768,256 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?resize=1024,341 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Point:<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cThe news here is that Fox, which has been an essential platform for every unfounded allegation from Comer and his allies, accidentally stepped on its own messaging. \u2026 The channel ran countless segments on a baseless bribery allegation \u2014 that itself centers on Biden\u2019s relationship to Burisma. Fox News and House Republicans will either ignore Poroshenko (as they ignored Hunter Biden\u2019s business partner\u2019s testimony that Joe Biden wasn\u2019t involved in their business) or they will treat Poroshenko as less reliable than Shokin. This is the problem with the narrative constructed by right-wing elites and media: it\u2019s too far down the path for all of them to admit that they were wrong. They just now have to figure out how they were right in some other way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2023\/09\/25\/biden-ukraine-impeachment-fox-news\/\">The Washington Post<\/a>: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News<\/strong><br>By Philip Bump<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There are two central arguments in the Republican effort to impeach President Biden, neither validated.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The first is that Joe Biden benefited financially from his son Hunter\u2019s business efforts \u2014 that Hunter Biden\u2019s leveraging of his last name to generate consulting contracts trickled up to his father. Investigations by House Republicans, particularly the Oversight Committee led by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) have failed to show any such connection, despite months of looking. Instead, this assertion relies on insinuations about Joe Biden making phone calls to his son \u2014 and depends on ignoring exculpatory evidence from Hunter Biden\u2019s former business partner.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The other central attack on the president involves Hunter Biden\u2019s work for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. This relationship was adjudicated robustly during the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, a probe that centered on Trump\u2019s desire to have the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announce an investigation into the Bidens before the 2020 election.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trumpworld\u2019s belief that Joe Biden had sought the ouster of Ukraine\u2019s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, to benefit Burisma and Hunter Biden was debunked in 2019. Perhaps in part because Fox News did its best to ignore the evidence in that impeachment inquiry, claims about the now-president trying to get Shokin fired back in 2015 and 2016 have been elevated again as though they retain validity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They don\u2019t \u2014 as Fox News unintentionally made clear over the weekend.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Last month, the network interviewed Shokin, during which he once again claimed that his firing was solely a function of then-Vice President Biden pressuring then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in defense of Burisma. Given what\u2019s known about the situation \u2014 that Shokin failed to target corruption in the country, that there was a resulting multinational push for his ouster, that there was no active probe into Burisma (and, in fact, that he\u2019d shielded the company) \u2014 these were noncredible claims coming from a noncredible actor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fox News host Brian Kilmeade\u2019s interview with Poroshenko on Sunday, shared on social media by journalist Aaron Rupar, highlighted that challenge.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kilmeade began by speaking with the former Ukrainian president \u2014 defeated by Zelensky in the country\u2019s 2019 election \u2014 about the war in Russia. He then transitioned to the interview with Shokin, who\u2019d referred to Poroshenko as his friend.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>He played a clip from the Shokin interview in which the former prosecutor claimed that \u201cPoroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then-vice-president Biden because I was investigating Burisma. \u2026 There were no complaints whatsoever, no problems with how I was performing at my job. But because pressure was repeatedly put on President Poroshenko, that is what ended up in him firing me.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This is patently untrue, as has been established repeatedly. But Kilmeade presented it to Poroshenko as possible, asking if that is, in fact, why Shokin was fired.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cFirst of all, this is the completely crazy person,\u201d Poroshenko began. \u201cThis is something wrong with him.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cSecond,\u201d the nonnative English speaker continued, \u201cthere is no one single word of truth. And third, I hate the idea to make any comments and to make any intervention in the American election.\u201d He asked that Kilmeade \u201cnot use such person like Shokin to undermine the trust between bipartisan support and Ukraine.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cHe\u2019s not your friend?\u201d Kilmeade asked.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cI don\u2019t see him \u2014 maybe four years or something,\u201d Poroshenko replied. \u201cAt all. And I hate the idea to have him because he play very dirty game, unfortunately.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cOkay, so that is not true,\u201d Kilmeade continued. \u201cHe didn\u2019t get fired because of Joe Biden.\u201d Poroshenko confirmed that he did not, saying that Shokin was fired \u201cfor his own statement.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This isn\u2019t news, as such. It\u2019s been known for some time that there was no Burisma probe, that Shokin was seen as too lenient on corruption and that it wasn\u2019t simply Biden who was pressuring Poroshenko to remove him. There were protests in the streets and resignations from within Shokin\u2019s office that contributed to the pressure at stake. Once Trump was president, though, Shokin found sympathetic ears in the Republican\u2019s orbit and convinced both right-wing writers and Trump himself that his ouster was a function of Democratic maneuvering.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The news here is that Fox, which has been an essential platform for every unfounded allegation from Comer and his allies, accidentally stepped on its own messaging. Sure, Poroshenko is not the most reliable narrator himself. But his disparagement of the credibility of Shokin joins a hefty amount of other evidence on the lower side of a lopsided scale.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One should not assume that Fox News and its guests will now transition into skepticism about Shokin\u2019s claims. They are too heavily invested in the idea that Biden\u2019s withholding of a loan guarantee as an American manifestation of the international effort was, instead, proof-positive of Biden\u2019s corruption. The channel ran countless segments on a baseless bribery allegation \u2014 that itself centers on Biden\u2019s relationship to Burisma. Fox News and House Republicans will either ignore Poroshenko (as they ignored Hunter Biden\u2019s business partner\u2019s testimony that Joe Biden wasn\u2019t involved in their business) or they will treat Poroshenko as less reliable than Shokin.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This is the problem with the narrative constructed by right-wing elites and media: it\u2019s too far down the path for all of them to admit that they were wrong. They just now have to figure out how they were right in some other way.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Luckily for them, they\u2019re very practiced at such transitions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Point:&nbsp;\u201cThe news here is that Fox, which has been an essential platform for every unfounded allegation from Comer and his allies, accidentally stepped on its own messaging. \u2026 The channel ran countless segments on a baseless bribery allegation \u2014 that itself centers on Biden\u2019s relationship to Burisma. Fox News and House Republicans will either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1025892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-26T00:36:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-16T17:40:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/\",\"name\":\"ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News - Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?w=1024\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-26T00:36:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-16T17:40:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png\",\"width\":1500,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/\",\"name\":\"Democrats\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564\",\"name\":\"Claire DePree\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Claire DePree\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/depreec\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News - Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_site_name":"Democrats","article_published_time":"2023-09-26T00:36:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-16T17:40:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?w=1024","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Claire DePree","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Claire DePree","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/","name":"ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News - Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?w=1024","datePublished":"2023-09-26T00:36:09+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-16T17:40:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png","width":1500,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-washington-post-the-republican-case-against-biden-takes-a-body-blow-from-fox-news\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ICYMI: The Washington Post: The Republican case against Biden takes a body blow \u2026 from Fox News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/","name":"Democrats","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/c31239f43161314a03057960c56c0564","name":"Claire DePree","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/262c0b3f1914330fe3241c699fd21798ee92a8504fc6296028e8fa17334d1151?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Claire DePree"},"url":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/author\/depreec\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025892"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031905,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025892\/revisions\/1031905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}