By Leah Barkoukis|Townhall.Com
Source: AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu
The Trump campaign released an online ad Thursday that
portrays Joe Biden as being soft on China, hitting the former vice president
for protecting “China’s feelings.”
“During America’s crisis, Biden protected China’s
feelings,” the ad states, showing a montage of Biden with President Xi Jinping
and news reports about how he was against President Trump’s coronavirus travel
restrictions.
“Or perhaps China’s investment?” then flashes across the
screen along with news segments about Hunter Biden’s dealings with China. A
line is also used from a Peter Schweizer and Jacob McLeod story in the New York
Post about how “Joe Biden met with Hunter’s Chinese partners,” during a 2013
trip to Beijing.
Despite his relative lack of private equity experience,
Hunter landed a prominent role with the new company. Under the terms of the
original deal, Rosemont Seneca, Hunter’s firm, shared a 30% stake in BHR with
the Thornton Group, which was run by James Bulger, the son of longtime
Massachusetts state Senate President Billy Bulger. Hunter and Bulger joined the
board, along with Devon Archer, Hunter’s longtime business partner.
Archer
would also serve as vice chairman of the fund’s investment committee.
The value of these partnerships to BHR is clear.
Its own website boasts: “BHR, with its unique mixed ownership,
combines the resources and platforms of China’s largest financial institutions
… and the networks and know-how of our U.S.-based investment fund and advisory
firm shareholders.”
Hunter Biden claimed to the New Yorker that he and his
partners have not seen any money from the BHR deal. But even if true, the
potential payouts are significant. (New
York Post)
The ad then shows Biden standing up for China even as the
country “cripples America” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s in our self interest that China continue to
prosper,” Biden says in one clip from a 2011 event when
he spoke at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.
The last portion of the ad highlights praise for President
Trump’s decision to put in place travel restrictions early on in the pandemic,
which Biden had called “hysterical xenophobia” and “fearmongering.”
But then it appears Biden had forgotten about these
criticisms of Trump, ending with Biden telling supporters, "I'm not going
nuts."
Liberal media outlets are focusing on one part of the ad
where Biden appears on stage with former Gov. Gary Locke of Washington, an
Asian-American, claiming the ad falsely
suggests he is Chinese.
But the Trump campaign defended the clip because it was
from the vice president’s 2013 trip to the country with Hunter.
Conservatives praised the ad, saying Biden is "going
to get crushed."
