If there was anything to the right-wing reports about the Bidens – former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden – being corrupt, I’d be right there with U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne demanding an investigation.
But see, there isn’t anything, because President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and their cronies are simply repeating conspiracy theories. Any question about the Bidens was answered years ago, when Biden was still vice president.
Indeed, now it’s Giuliani and his associates being investigated. Four of them have already been arrested, two trying to flee back to Ukraine.
None of that stops Trump, though. He loves conspiracy theories, especially if they hurt one of his opponents, but he’s not fond at all of facts. To Trump and his gullible, deplorable followers, throw out a fact and they act like water being poured over the Wicked Witch of the West.
“Oh, what a world! What a world!”
Facts bounce right off Byrne as well. In a vote in Congress this week, Byrne (and Rep. Mo Brooks) were the only two Alabama Republicans who all but said they support the massacre of Kurdish women and children in Syria when they opposed a resolution aimed at Trump for withdrawing U.S. troops and leaving the Kurds, U.S. allies, exposed to Turkish attacks.
Of course, Byrne is right there proposing three congressional committees investigate the Bidens.
But has Byrne, a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Doug Jones, likewise proposed an investigation into the corrupt Trump children, especially Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric, who are using either their positions in the White House or their dad’s name to make millions of dollars?
Byrne is only a shell of who he once was: at one time seemingly a principled politician who helped expose corruption in the Alabama community college system and a little later a viable candidate for governor.
Byrne’s Biden investigation is unlikely to get the votes needed in the House.
And, fortunately for Alabama, Byrne is likely to lose his bid for the Senate. Then maybe we’ll be rid of Byrne once and for all.
How Byrne can propose an investigation of the Bidens, but not propose one for the Trump kids isn’t really hard to understand, though.
Byrne is a complete and total hypocrite. He doesn’t think voters will notice his double and triple and quadruple standards. He thinks Alabama voters who support Trump will likely vote for the man trying as hard as he can to be Trump’s Mini Me. Byrne will sway some voters, sure, but most won’t be drawn to Byrne’sflagrant, blind toadying up to America’s worst president ever.
There are other Trump sycophants running for Senate slightly less obvious in their fawning over the Don that voters can choose. One leads voter suppression in Alabama. One is a former Auburn football coach. One was thrown out of the Alabama chief justice’s office twice and has had a well-documented thing for teeny-boppers.
Those are some great choices right there, and one of them may very well be the next U.S. Senator from Alabama.
Oh, what a world! What a world!
Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column each week for Alabama Political Reporter. Email: jkennedy@alreporter.com.
