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3 weeks before the 2020 us election a
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very big and very strange story broke in
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the papers we've just learned through
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explosive documents published by a very
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fine newspaper the New York Post Donald
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Trump thought that these documents found
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on an apparently abandoned laptop
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belonging to Joe Biden's son Hunter
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proved that Joe Biden was involved in
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corrupt business dealings in Ukraine and
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China these emails show that Biden's
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repeated claim that he has never spoken
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to Hunter about his business dealings
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were a complete lie was a total lie
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Trump had been waiting for this story
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for years and this is a big Smoking Gun
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but this New York Post article seemed
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suspicious the concern is well that it's
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simply bunkum the result of a Russian
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Hack and misinformation campaign the FBI
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now has the laptop and is investigating
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possible links to foreign intelligence
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agencies accusing Western politicians of
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hypocrisy is the central plank of
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Russian disinformation campaigns and
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that's what this story did Joe Biden was
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accusing Donald Trump of corruption and
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being under the influence of foreign
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governments and this story indicated
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that Biden was doing the exact same
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thing Stone Cold crooked most global
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news outlets and social media companies
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were suspicious too the FBI had put
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everyone on high alert for Russian
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disinformation in the frenzy of that
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news cycle I also wrote an article
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expressing skepticism about the
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Providence of those emails it was not my
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best work and right on Q Facebook and
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Twitter have taken the rather
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extraordinary step of blocking any link
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to the New York Post story of course in
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the United States of America land of
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free speech this move was like dynamite
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now big Tech you see what's going on
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with big Tech is censoring these stories
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to try and get Biden out of this
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impossible gem he's in a big Jam Trump's
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team accused the US intelligence
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Community big tech companies and the
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mainstream media of acting like a cabal
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to protect the Biden family from
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criticism and the thing is this time
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they actually did have a point because
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these documents weren't leaked as a
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result of hacking or misinformation in
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fact had nothing to do with Russia at
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all this laptop which was real has put
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Hunter Biden at the center of multiple
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conspiracy theories and criminal
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investigations those investigations led
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to prosecutions which proceeded without
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interference from Hunter's Daddy I mean
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President Biden and have you ruled out a
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pardon for your son yes Biden was making
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an effort to wipe away the conspiracies
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and restore confidence in the American
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judicial system after years of turn on
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but then the outgoing President Joe
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Biden issuing a statement saying he had
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signed a pardon for his son alleging
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Hunter Biden was a victim of political
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persecution it was an extraordinary act
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call it shocking hypocritical
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compassionate or whatever but if your
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aim is to protect the reputation of the
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American justice system this ain't how
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you do it today I want to look at the
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potential ramifications of Joe Biden's
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decision
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and why we should have seen it coming
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all
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along I'm Matt Biven and this is if
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you're
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listening on the 27th of August 2020
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just under 10 weeks before the 2020
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election an email came into Rudy
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giuliani's inbox that looked very
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interesting it was from someone called
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John Paul Mac Isaac and it said for
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almost a year I have been trying to get
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the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop to
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the proper
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authorities now for Rudy Giuliani this
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was extremely interesting
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wow because for years he'd been running
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a quote unquote investigation into
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Democratic party presidential candidate
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Joe Biden's family business dealings who
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knows what they've done I mean it is it
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is a crime family he was particularly
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interested in Joe Biden's son Hunter who
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had made a whole lot of money trading
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off the family name name in Ukraine and
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China giuliani's investigation had not
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gone well at all it actually triggered
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Donald Trump's first impeachment which
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we talked about at length in season
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three of this podcast I think but the
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email was very enticing even though the
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story behind it was odd well I mean it
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all started when it Hunter didn't pay
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his $85 Bill the guy who sent that email
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John Paul ma ISAC is a trump supporting
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conspiracy theorist who owns a computer
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shop in inton Delaware home of the Biden
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family the world is a blur to him he is
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legally blind but with the help of
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magnification he is able to operate and
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repair computers on the 20th of April
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2019 a Friday just before closing time a
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man that Isaac thought was drunk entered
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the shop he came in he was a mess he had
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three laptops one of them said Bo Biden
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Foundation oh by the way this is from a
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conversation with Isaac on giuliani's
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Common Sense podcast last year I just
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thought he was trying to get his dead
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brother's memories off the laptop I felt
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bad for the guy that's why I only
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charged him 85 bucks due to his vision
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impairment Isaac couldn't definitively
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say that the man dropping off the
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laptops was Hunter Biden but the man did
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sign the invoice with a scribbly
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signature that looks remarkably similar
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to the scribbly signature that Hunter
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Biden uses on other official documents
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so this apparently drunk man with Hunter
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Biden's exact signature
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dropped these broken laptops off but
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then never came back to get them he
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never paid his bill and he never
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answered Isaac's calls oops at the
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bottom of the receipt he signed it says
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equipment left with the Mac shop after
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90 days of notification of completed
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service will be treated as
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abandoned so Isaac treated the laptops
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as abandoned and started snooping
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through them what he found was 2117 GB
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of hunt by deepest darkest Secrets bank
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statements emails texts photos videos
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thousands of
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them you've probably seen some of the
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stuff that's on this laptop the photos
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of Hunter Biden smoking crack cocaine
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naked in motel
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rooms but that's really just the tip of
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the
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iceberg this is the daughter of a man
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who decided inexplicably to meticulously
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docu me his
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self-destruction you look at it all and
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go jeez a lot of this has got to be
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illegal I've read about this stuff a lot
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before but it's one thing reading about
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it and another thing seeing the pictures
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the emails the texts and it's honestly
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way worse than I imagined it's clearly
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genuine
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too this wasn't some AI generated stuff
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cooked up in a a Russian troll Farm
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unless the reanimated corpse of dooi or
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COV is in there calling the shots I
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don't think the Russian cyber squads are
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capable of coming up with something this
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desperately
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sad the first memory I have is of lying
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in a hospital bed next to my
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brother I was almost 3 years old this is
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Hunter Biden speaking at his brother Bo
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Biden's funeral funeral in 2015 I
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remember my brother who was one year and
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one day older than
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me holding my
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hand staring into my
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eyes
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saying I love you I love you I love you
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over and over and over
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again they were in the hospital because
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they had been in a terrible car accident
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that killed their mother and their baby
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sister it was
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1972 And in the 42 years
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since he never stopped holding my
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hand he never stopped telling me just
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how much he loves
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me just before the accident their father
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Joe Biden had been elected as a US
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senator but at their bedside in the
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hospital he promised he would resign if
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necessary uh if in 6 months or so
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there's a conflict between my being a
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good father and being a good Senator
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which I hope will not occur I thought
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would but I hope it won't uh I promise
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you that I will uh will contact Governor
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El tribet as I had earlier and uh tell
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him that uh we can always get another
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Senator but they can't get another
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father Joe Bo and Hunter were very close
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Hunter calls the relationship between
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the three of them the most profound love
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I've ever
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known both B and Hunter got married and
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had kids Hunter got into corporate law
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and Consulting Bo became Attorney
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General of Delaware but then he died of
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brain cancer Bose was the hand everyone
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reached for in their time of
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need Bose was the hand that was reaching
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for yours before you even had to ask
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Bose's death unored hunter
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within months he was separated from his
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wife abusing alcohol and crack cocaine
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and had started a relationship with
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Bose's Widow hiy he would disappear for
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weeks at a time on drug fueled Benders
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some of which produced strange voice
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memos I am
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damos you think that you know
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me but you do
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not you think that you see me but you
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cannot he was living living in motel
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rooms cooking his own crack and smoking
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it every 15 to 20 minutes he was
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partying with sex workers and basically
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didn't sleep you
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think that you love me but you do
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not I am dous he wouldn't answer phone
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calls even from his father dad I called
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to tell you I love you love you more
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than the whole world pal Joe left a
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series of voicemails begging his son to
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get help got to get some help I don't
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know
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what to do I know you don't either
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but I'm here no matter what you
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need really what you need I love you
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despite all this he was being paid
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millions of dollars as a consultant for
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companies in China and Ukraine he also
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wasn't paying tax on that income he
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insists that he was qualified for the
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work he was doing for those companies
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but he also admitted to ABC America that
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his qualifications probably weren't the
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reason he got the gig if your last name
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wasn't Biden do you think you would have
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been asked to be on the board of barisma
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I don't know I don't know probably no 3
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years after Bo's death hunter was asleep
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in hi's house in Delaware Hunter had got
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her into drugs as well but she had been
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sober for a couple of months she decided
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to search his truck to make sure that
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there were no drugs in it but what she
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found was a 38 caliber
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revolver panicking she put the gun in a
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bag and decided to get rid of it say
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CCTV footage from a nearby supermarket
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shows hi Biden arrive get the gun out of
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her car and put it in a dumpster when
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Hunter found out he was Furious hi went
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back to retrieve the gun frantically
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searching through the
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dumpsters but the gun was gone someone
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had found it and handed it in to the
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police basically the only good decision
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anyone in this entire story made now the
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police had the gun and that was a
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problem because when Hunter bought the
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gun 11 days earlier he had signed a
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legally binding form saying that he was
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not a drug user or a drug addict but he
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was he wrote about it in his Memoir
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smoking crack cocaine every 3 days soon
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became smoking every 2 days then every
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other day then every hour of every day
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in March 2019 his family tried to Stage
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an intervention his father the former
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vice president said I don't know what
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else to do
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please tell me what to do as he clutched
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his only living son in the dark driveway
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of his Delaware home anything please Joe
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cried Hunter left promising to get help
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but knowing that he wouldn't the next
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month and a half is a drug befuddled
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blur and then a couple of weeks later a
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man smelling of alcohol who was almost
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certainly Hunter Biden handed in three
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laptops to repair shop owned by John
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Paul Mac Isaac now if you found all this
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stuff on a laptop belonging to the son
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of a major Party candidate for president
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of the United States what would you do I
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mean it's weapons grade highly enriched
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gossip for sure but is it anything other
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than that John Paul ma ISAC was
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convinced that it was it's a lot of the
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sensationalized stuff a lot of the the
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porn and the drugs and whatnot but I
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also saw some financial documents and I
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saw the name barisma come up a lot
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related to a lot of money barisma is the
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Ukrainian company which Hunter worked
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for and which Ry Giuliani was convinced
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was connected to Joe Biden in some
00:14:10
corrupt way you start seeing that Joe
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did meet with the
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foreign people from bisma and he was
00:14:18
lying about that you can see that they
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set set up meetings with uh the
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ukrainians with the Chinese the thing is
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though you really have to make a few
00:14:27
logical leaps to get to evidence of Joe
00:14:30
Biden being corrupt you have to really
00:14:32
want to see it in between the lines of
00:14:35
what's actually on the laptop but Isaac
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was exactly the kind of guy who would
00:14:39
see that stuff first he handed the
00:14:41
laptop to the FBI hoping that it would
00:14:43
be used to help Trump and prosecute the
00:14:46
bidens but then when the FBI seemingly
00:14:48
didn't do anything with the laptop at
00:14:50
all he became worried that he was at
00:14:52
risk of being killed if Joe Biden won
00:14:55
the election the FBI knew how long do
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you think the FBI would have Tak taken
00:14:59
to brief in the incoming president hey
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boss what do you want us to do with this
00:15:03
guy yeah yeah I would have been hit by a
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car and nobody would and who knows what
00:15:07
they've done I mean it is it is a crime
00:15:08
family so he became determined to make
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the information public which is why he
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looked up how to send an email to Rudy
00:15:16
Giuliani by the time the story came out
00:15:18
just before the US election Hunter Biden
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was sober he' met a woman in California
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detoxed and married her all within a
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week yes Hunter Biden seemingly got his
00:15:29
entire life back together in less than
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the time it takes to play two Cricket
00:15:32
tests he made a fortune son and he
00:15:35
didn't have a job my son like a lot of
00:15:38
people like a lot of people we know at
00:15:39
home had a drug problem he's overtaken
00:15:42
it he's he's he's fixed it he's worked
00:15:45
on it and I'm proud of him unfortunately
00:15:47
for Hunter getting sober is great but
00:15:50
it's not enough to get you out of
00:15:51
trouble the US president Alex son Hunter
00:15:54
Biden has revealed his tax Affairs are
00:15:56
being investigated just after the 202
00:15:59
election news came out that the tax man
00:16:01
was interested in exactly what the deal
00:16:03
was with all that Ukrainian and Chinese
00:16:06
income it comes at an awkward time for
00:16:08
Joe Biden as he assembles his cabinet
00:16:11
including appointing an attorney general
00:16:13
who could oversee the investigation now
00:16:15
theoretically Joe Biden could have
00:16:17
pardoned his son on the first day of his
00:16:20
presidency in the car on the way home
00:16:22
from the inauguration ceremony but he
00:16:24
didn't and there's a good reason for
00:16:25
that Donald Trump had been the subject
00:16:27
of multiple investigations throughout
00:16:29
his presidency all of which he described
00:16:32
as politically motivated witch hunts
00:16:34
after he left office it was assume that
00:16:37
he would face further investigation and
00:16:40
potentially criminal prosecution by
00:16:42
allowing the parallel investigation and
00:16:45
potential prosecution of his son to
00:16:47
proceed Joe Biden was able to make the
00:16:49
case that the system was fair the
00:16:51
pursuit of trump was legitimate not a
00:16:54
Witch Hunt but this investigation was
00:16:56
hugely damaging for Joe Biden both
00:16:58
personally
00:16:59
and politically there is no evidence to
00:17:01
support the allegations that my father
00:17:03
was financially involved in my business
00:17:06
because it did not happen the contents
00:17:09
of Hunter Biden's laptop were used as
00:17:11
the basis for wild conspiracy theories
00:17:13
about the president cherry picking lines
00:17:15
from a bank statement manipulating texts
00:17:18
I sent editing the testimony of my
00:17:21
friends and former business
00:17:23
partners and misstating personal
00:17:25
information that was stolen from me
00:17:27
eventually these conspiracy theories led
00:17:29
to an impeachment inquiry alleging that
00:17:31
the president's Ukraine and China
00:17:33
policies were shaped by corruption no
00:17:36
matter how many times it is debunked
00:17:38
they continue to insist that my father's
00:17:40
support of Ukraine against Russia is the
00:17:43
result of a non-existent bribe after
00:17:46
years of Investigation by Congress and
00:17:48
the justice department the only person
00:17:50
prosecuted was Hunter for not paying
00:17:52
taxes during his yearslong bender and
00:17:55
lying about being sober while buying the
00:17:58
gun that hiy subsequently chucked in
00:18:00
that dumpster throughout the process Joe
00:18:03
Biden was asked repeatedly if he would
00:18:05
pardon his son he repeatedly ruled it
00:18:07
out and this is something that leftwing
00:18:10
commentators repeatedly praised him for
00:18:12
the justice system that convicted is
00:18:14
only surviving son is the same justice
00:18:17
system he's vowed to protect and if that
00:18:19
doesn't tell you who Joe Biden is I
00:18:22
don't really know what does but Donald
00:18:23
Trump told Fox News that he was
00:18:25
convinced that if push came to shove
00:18:27
Biden would cave and I'll bet you the
00:18:30
father probably pardons him let's see
00:18:32
what happens and he was right on the 1st
00:18:34
of December Joe Biden pardoned his son
00:18:37
and in doing so took a pot shot at the
00:18:39
justice system he had just spent years
00:18:42
trying to defend Joe Biden issuing a
00:18:45
statement saying he had signed a pardon
00:18:47
for his son alleging Hunter Biden was a
00:18:50
victim of political
00:18:52
persecution no reasonable person can
00:18:55
reach any other conclusion than Hunter
00:18:57
was singled out only because he is my
00:19:00
son maybe but hunter also made millions
00:19:03
of dollars from foreign companies
00:19:05
because he is your son he just doesn't
00:19:07
like reaping what he sowed Trump knew
00:19:10
this would happen we probably should
00:19:12
have to I don't know what to do I know
00:19:15
you don't either but I'm here no matter
00:19:19
what you
00:19:21
need no matter what you need I love you
00:19:25
look I've got to be honest I would
00:19:27
probably do the same thing thing for my
00:19:29
son but I thankfully don't have that
00:19:33
kind of power at the tip of my
00:19:35
pen maybe nobody
00:19:37
should this week Joe Biden issued
00:19:40
Pardons and commutations for around 1500
00:19:43
people and is considering preemptive
00:19:45
pardons for the people who were involved
00:19:48
in investigations into Donald Trump but
00:19:51
the hunter pardon is the one that
00:19:53
everyone's going to
00:19:55
remember Joe Biden knew this decision
00:19:58
would fuel
00:19:59
conspiracy theories he knew it would
00:20:02
give Donald Trump the political license
00:20:04
to Pardon whoever he likes and perhaps
00:20:07
most importantly he knew that it would
00:20:09
make people think the system was rigged
00:20:12
to benefit the
00:20:14
powerful I mean imagine
00:20:21
that so we're doing an online survey at
00:20:23
the moment basically to try and help us
00:20:25
to make the show even better in the new
00:20:27
year we've had had more than 3,000
00:20:30
responses which is amazing with some
00:20:32
really great suggestions which we'll try
00:20:34
to implement next year and I'd
00:20:36
appreciate it if you have the time if
00:20:39
you fill out the survey if you haven't
00:20:41
already it's in the show notes below uh
00:20:44
one person has suggested that we could
00:20:46
improve the show by fixing quote Matt's
00:20:48
weird hair I don't know what to tell you
00:20:51
this is just how it comes out of my head
00:20:54
sorry there are also people suggesting
00:20:56
that I should do some close up magic and
00:20:59
I thought I would try that right now so
00:21:01
watch me magically swap the position of
00:21:05
that mug with the mug up there on the
00:21:08
Shelf
00:21:12
[Music]
00:21:23
ready
00:21:25
Tada Mari can you cut that together in
00:21:28
post just from the paper throwing to the
00:21:30
tar that would
00:21:31
be obviously super embarrassing if that
00:21:34
was left in the final edit okay thanks
00:21:37
everybody
