On the Take: From Chinese Donations to 'Biden Center' to Schumer's Russian Pipeline Cash, It Never Ends
Foreign influence-peddling and the Democrat Party. They go together like cheese and crackers, Oreos and milk, beer and pizza, and Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer: you can’t have one without the other.
More specifically, for today’s story, Chinese and Russian influence-peddling.
Investigative journalist Peter Schweitzer’s new book, Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, outlines the extensiveness of Chinese Communist Party efforts to influence Biden.
Per the synopsis:
That the Chinese government seeks to infiltrate American institutions is hardly surprising. What is wholly new, however, are the number of American elites who are eager to help the Chinese dictatorship in its quest for global hegemony.
Presidential families, Silicon Valley gurus, Wall Street high rollers, Ivy League universities, even professional athletes—all willing to sacrifice American strength and security on the altar of personal enrichment.
In Red-Handed, six-time New York Times bestselling investigator Peter Schweizer presents his most alarming findings to date by revealing the secret deals wealthy Americans have cut to help China build its military, technological, and economic might. Equally as astonishing, many of these elites quietly believe the Chinese dictatorial regime is superior to American democracy.
Schweizer and his team of forensic investigators spent over a year scouring a massive trove of global corporate records and legal filings to expose the hidden transactions China’s enablers hoped would never see the light of day. And as Schweizer’s past bombshells like Profiles in Corruption, Secret Empires, and Clinton Cash all made clear, there are bad actors on both ends of the political spectrum.
Exhaustively researched, crisply told, and chilling, Red-Handed will expose the nexus of power between the Chinese government and the American elites who do its bidding.
The hapless president of the United States has been a Washington politician for nearly 50 years, yet has managed to accumulate an estimated net worth of at least $9 million. How?
I’m not trying to connect any dots, here, but I am just sayin’.
According to Schweitzer, as reported by Breitbart, Chinese Communist Party donations to the University of Pennsylvania almost tripled after the university established a “Biden Center” in 2017 and gave the then-vice president a professorship. [ROFL emoji]
Nothing to see here, simply a “coincidence.”
Sweitzer lays out a compelling case, detailing the Biden family’s “very extensive business relationship” with Chinese Communist Party elites — Can you spell “Hunter“? — and how those elites were not shy about celebrating Biden’s election in 2020 as a golden opportunity to further develop their influence over U.S. government agencies and institutions. Noted Breitbart, this included sponsoring a Chinese conference in November 2020, which was so fired up about Biden’s win that Beijing decided to “nuke its video off the Internet just as it began to go viral.”
Oh — I almost forgot.
Guess who was the managing director of the Penn Biden Center in 2019? (Hint: Antony Blinken.)
According to Breitbart, the “Biden Center” was established in part to promote Corn Pop’s pal’s vision of “global leadership” [ROFL emoji] — a vision, Schweizer notes, that viewed Russia as the great looming threat to world peace but had absolutely zero negative to say about China. Hey, and why should it? Joe told us himself, remember? “China’s not gonna eat our lunch. C’mon, man!”
Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer
In this episode of “Try to Control Your Shock and Amazement,” it appears that the intrepid Senate Majority Leader — who helped block sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline — received campaign donations from PACs of companies affiliated with two of the European companies that helped block-fund the pipeline, according to a report by Washington Free Beacon.
Via the Free Beacon:
Affiliates of two European companies that fund Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline contributed to the campaign of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who Republicans say has blocked sanctions on the Kremlin-backed project.
ENGIE North America and BASF Corporation each gave $2,500 to Schumer in September through their corporate political action committees, according to newly disclosed Federal Election Commission records.
ENGIE North America’s parent company and a BASF subsidiary are part of a consortium of five companies that finance Nord Stream 2, which will transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. While President Joe Biden has called the pipeline a geopolitical threat to Europe that helps Russian President Vladimir Putin, last year he waived sanctions on the project.
Oops, Chuckie.
Incidentally, as reported by my colleague Andrew Malcolm in July, Biden is just peachy with Nord Stream 2, even though he nuked the Keystone XL Pipeline on Day One of his occupation of the Oval Office, instantly killing more than 10K jobs — current and planned.
Anyway, the contributions to Schumer came during an aggressive lobbying effort in Washington over sanctions on the 764-mile pipeline. The five European companies that back Nord Stream 2, noted the Free Beacon — Wintershall, ENGIE, Uniper, Shell, and OMV — have paid millions of dollars to lobbying firms to block sanctions.
As Axios reported, Vincent Roberti, a former Connecticut state representative, major Democratic donor, and Nord Stream 2 lobbyist made maximum campaign contributions in 2021 to Schumer and vulnerable Senate Democrats, according to campaign finance records. Among those contributions:
- $5,800 to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)
- $5,800 to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
- $5,800 to Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.)
- $2,900to Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) (the maximum primary contribution)
According to lobbying disclosure records, Roberti’s firm, Roberti Global, has been paid $8.5 million for its Nord Stream 2 lobbying work. Somewhat hilariously — in context — the website touts: “One of the country’s Top Performing Lobbying Firms in 2018, 2019, and 2020.”
Ever-present Democrat Hypocrisy
What news item exposing Democrats for what they are would be complete without a yuuge dose of hypocrisy? After all, the hypocrisy of the left knows no bounds.
In December, House Democrats introduced a bill to block foreign-owned corporations from spending company funds to… wait for it… influence U.S. elections. Via The Hill:
The bill would extend the federal ban on political donations from foreign nationals to multinational companies that are at least partially owned by foreign nationals. Following the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence elections, some U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies have made large donations to super PACs.
As transcribed by The Hill, Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a statement — and this is ironically hilarious:
Americans deserve to know who is trying to influence our voices and our votes, and foreign entities should have zero role in determining American elections.
Have you stopped laughing, yet?
The Bottom Line
Foreign lobbyists have used money to influence U.S. policy through a variety of schemes — often hidden — for decades. While foreign lobbying must be reported, by law, as noted by The Washinton Post, that’s only one conduit used by foreign interests to peddle influence in Washington. Dozens of D.C. think tanks and other policy organizations take money from foreign countries and corporations without ever disclosing the details.
Yet, the “holier than thou” Democrat Party continues to pontificate against foreign influence out one side of its mouth while saying “Please and thank you” out of the other side.
The Democrat Party: You can’t beat ’em. Oh, but we are, and we will.
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