Reporter: ‘All-in-the-Family’ Biden Biz
President Biden “has repeatedly distanced himself from his family’s business dealings, saying that he has never so much as discussed them with his relatives or with anyone else,” notes Politico’s Ben Schreckinger. “But House impeachment inquiry interviews, public records and emails reviewed by POLITICO show that members of his inner circle were regularly enmeshed in those dealings: Many of the president’s closest staffers and advisers have doubled as his relatives’ business associates, both during and after their stints working for the man at the center of the Biden family orbit.” The “overlaps reflect an all-in-the family approach to business and politicking that dates back a half-century to the president’s first Senate bid” — and that “complicates” the Bidens’ “efforts to distance the president from his family’s ventures.”
Mideast desk: Gaza’s Phony ‘Facts’
“Perhaps the Western press should notice that its supposedly objective sources in Gaza are sometimes the combatants,” thunders Eli Lake at The Free Press. Consider Abdalla al-Jamal, a “journalist” for a pro-Palestine US publication in whose apartment three Hamas captives were held. He was killed in the hostage rescue mission, but his “side hustle as a hostage guard” opens “a window into the slanted coverage of Gaza in the western media” and proves “the definition of ‘journalist’ in a place like Gaza is loose to say the least.” Plus: “Hamas’s most effective weapon is the war’s high body count” yet “very few mainstream journalists have expressed skepticism about the statistics” published by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.
Pollsters: Trump Unhurt by Conviction
Pundits once thought a “guilty verdict would be devastating” to Donald Trump, recall Douglas E. Schoen & Carly Cooperman at The Hill. But polls suggest his conviction in the “hush money” case “will have little to no impact on Trump’s chances.” A June 5 Times/Siena poll found “Biden had gained 2 points on Trump” from the same group polled in April and May. But polling in swing states suggests that “not only will the conviction not hurt Trump, but it may actually help him.” “Ultimately, this election will be decided by kitchen-table issues that impact Americans far more than it will be decided by Donald Trump’s legal issues.”
Conservative: A Clarifying Weekend
One of last weekend’s “clarifying moments,” marvels Commentary’s John Podhoretz, was Saturday’s “full-blown demonstration across the street from the White House that can only be described as a Hamas rally — complete with the desecrations of American statuary.” Footage of it — such as “Park Police standing mute and ineffective as spray cans mottled the statue of the Marquis de Lafayette” — is “a gift that will keep giving to Republicans and Trump as they head to the November elections.” The White House plainly “told the cops to stand down, for reasons likely having to do with the same thought process that led Kamala Harris to mourn the Israeli rescue as she gave a speech in Michiganistan.” Fact is, “the Biden Brainless Trust stinks at running this country in a time of crisis and they stink at managing world events.”
Free speech: Australia Loses Court Battle
“Australia’s government suspended its efforts to censor the planet,” rejoices Reason’s J.D. Tuccille. “The free speech battle stems from the stabbing in April of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Father Isaac Royel at an Orthodox Christian Church” in “what is being treated as an Islamist terrorist incident.” Officials including Australia’s eSafety commissar got the “graphic video footage” blocked in their country but, fearing Australians could use VPN tech to see it anyway, then sought “to suppress access to the video for the whole world.” Elon Musk’s X went to court and an Aussie judge slapped the idea down. Why? “The notice would be ignored or disparaged in other countries,” particularly the United States where X is based. Now eSafety has dropped the case. Moral: “The strongest barrier to international censorship lies in countries — the U.S. in particular — that vigorously protect free speech.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board