2024 Headaches
A couple of weeks ago, Joe Biden announced that he is running for a second term. Likely opponent is Donald Trump. It is remarkable that neither party can find other candidates. RFK Junior will not threaten Biden and has no linkage to the core of the democratic party, the minority voters and in particular black voters. And Ron DeSantis will not be able to threaten Trump, who is still immensely popular with the masses, in particular the white working class and uneducated men. Not only are both Biden and Trump way beyond retirement age, but both are poor choices to unify the country and to promote bipartisanship. On the contrary, they are both radical and extreme, and unwilling to compromise and find common solutions.
The establishment and the deep state might try to find a way to get rid of both by court cases and thereby disqualify the candidates. Trump is as usual in trouble, this time in the deeply radical jurisdiction of New York, both on rape charges and corruption charges that could land him in jail for years to come and potentially derail his candidacy. Media has turned against Trump, most notably the Murdoch empire, and he is getting less airtime as well, which might impact his campaign negatively. Despite all the legal problems, Trump will likely prevail and become the republican’s presidential election candidate.
Joe Biden is also in trouble. He is already 80 but seems even older and often rather confused. He does not have legal court cases against him at this point, and much of his troubles are connected to his son Hunter Biden. Prosecutors are close to a final decision on whether to charge Hunter Biden with tax and gun crimes after a four year long investigation. There are also investigations into Hunter Biden’s oversees business affairs, in particular in Ukraine and China, which involves a potential criminal scheme involving money for policy decisions, linking Joe Biden to his son’s affairs. Hunter and Joe’s brother James reaped millions of dollars from business relationships in countries where Joe Biden held sway during and after his vice-presidency. That is a fact, but does that necessarily mean anything corrupt was going on? Many are making millions in commissions and fees from business deals globally.
One could argue that it is all about politics and democrats are trying to get Trump in New York, and republicans in the house of representatives are trying to get Biden in Washington DC. To some degree this is correct, but there also seem to be forces behind the scenes who genuinely want to prevent both Trump and Biden from running in 2024. It would likely be a good outcome and the country could move on from two so divisive presidents.
At this point though, both Biden and Trump are in the 2024 run, and they are by far frontrunners in respective party. Maybe we are so used to Trump’s legal problems that the assumption is that he will survive and move on. Or Trump is becoming less interesting as there is a credible backup in DeSantis. In the case of Biden, the accusations seem more intriguing and complex. Is he or has he, like Trump, more or less been running a borderline mafia-style criminal family business? There are documented business dealings by Hunter Biden in Ukraine, Mexico, Romania, Russia and China. The charges are quite serious as Joe Biden basically has leveraged his political power to gain business deals for his son and other family members. During his vice presidency, it seems unlikely that Biden would ever become president. There were other candidates like Hillary Clinton, and he already seemed too old back then.
One could argue that both candidates for the 2024 presidency are being attacked by political opponents, but to some degree, both candidates seem to have made questionable decisions in the past and seem to think they are above the law. The main observation is that neither candidate should run in 2024. The U.S. should get back to normal but is heading in the wrong direction and at this point, it might take until 2028 for a course reversal. Until then, sit tight.