Evidence

Major League baseball (actually, only the American League) instituted the "designated hitter" rule in 1973. Almost 50 years later, the national league followed.

It's time to institute a political position called "designated liar." During the Trump era, the Democratic party had their Designated Liar, Congressman Adam Schiff from CA. His ability to shamelessly lie about everything was impressive. In fact, his 'lying average' wasn't a measly .300, but probably approached something like .700 — Hall of Fame caliber.

But the current number one designated liar, drafted by the Biden Administration as their spokesperson, is Karen Jean-Pierre (KJP). Impressive because she has virtually no command of the facts, imposing because she can't seem to answer any question without reading a response from prepared notes, and adored by the vast majority of White House reporters who ask only softball questions (pun intended) and never, ever follow-up or dispute KJP's dishonest responses.

Just today, KJP was asked to comment on the House Impeachment Inquiry. Like any good designated liar, KJP feigning outrage and responded:

"Even House Republicans have said the evidence does not exist. House Republicans have said that to my friend in the back who just yelled at, which is incredibly inappropriate."

"But House Republicans have said that there doesn't — there doesn't — it doesn't exist. Their own investigations have actually debunked their ridiculous attacks. And the only reason Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy is doing this — is doing this political stunt — and we have seen it, you all have reported, is because Marjorie Taylor Greene has said — she threatened to shut down the government." 

In the long and impressive tradition of Adam Schiff, KJP is just doing the job of a designated liar. But there's a problem—you have to characterize your lies so that they can't be instantly vetted and dismissed. Apparently, KJP is too inept to accomplish that.

No evidence, huh?

Maybe it's just that KJP doesn't understand what the word "evidence" means. After all, when you have copies of texts, emails, reports, and forms written by the people under investigation; when you have corporate records indicating the creation of shell companies that served no purpose other than a pipeline for illicit money; when you have bank records that indicate that members of Joe Biden's family were enriched via transfers from those companies; when you have admissions that Joe Biden participated in business phone calls made by his son; when you have Biden on videotape admitting he threatened Ukraine with the withholding of aid unless they fired a prosecutor who was investigated Burisma—his son was a paid Board Member of that company; when you have not one or two by many whistleblowers who indicated that Biden's DoJ has slow walked the investigation of his son and limited any investigation of Biden himself—you.have.evidence. It may not be conclusive as yet, but it is evidence. 

BTW, KJP conveniently omitted any discussion of why the GOP initiated an impeachment inquiry if they believed there is no "evidence."

UPDATE-1:

On the subject of evidence:

Something is going on and it's not good for Joe Biden and the anonymous cabal that runs the country. This from CNN:

Wow ... when even CNN is beginning to imply wrongdoing, it's a clear sign that the Dem elites want Biden gone. In fact, privately, I suspect they're more than a little happy that the GOP is doing their dirty work for them.

And with regard to their "Facts First" comment. That's a lot like saying that millions made by a Drug Kingpin are passed through off-shore companies and that the Kingpin knew nothing about them; that the Ferrari and Rolls Royce owned by the Drug Kingpin's otherwise unemployed brother are innocent gifts, that the 15-room mansion owned by his daughter-in-law have nothing whatsoever to do with the "family business." The Kingpin is the reason the family business exists. And, the "big guy" is the kingpin for the Biden family business.

UPDATE-2 (09-14-2023):

I have on numerous occasions noted that leftist Democrats embrace fantasy thinking as their go-to position when their narrative is threatened. In May, I defined fantasy thinking this way:

Fantasy thinkers reject facts that conflict with a leftist narrative that they fervently believe, seeing the world through a distorted lens. That lens transforms obvious failures into successes (think: Afghanistan); converts objectively bad decisions into good ones (think: COVID policy in 2021 and 2022); recasts profligate spending into "investments" (think: Biden's massive inflationary spending); questions the morality, integrity and intelligence of those who point out the fantasy, and most important, leads to authoritarian tendencies and censorship as necessary actions to "save democracy."

In the case of Joe Biden's corrupt actions while V.P. under Barack Obama, their current fantasy narrative (established only after they denied that Hunter Biden did anything wrong for over five years) is this: 

"Yeah, Hunter did some shady stuff and made a lot of money from some shady people, but Joe Biden, bless him, was a dupe in all of it. He knew nothing about Hunter's business or the people his son was working with. He  had no idea that Hunter was selling influence using Joe's access and influence, and god forbid (!!) never did anything approaching using his influence to justify Hunter's 'fees' "

Okay then. It truly does take fantasy thinking to believe all of that, but entire articles have been written with the "no evidence" premise. For example, Dan Friedman in left-wing Mother Jones discusses the eyewitness accounts of Joe Biden's meeting with Hunter's clients and then writes:

[House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy also cited claims by “eyewitnesses” that Hunter Biden arranged brief interactions with his father for some clients and allowed a few to listen in when Joe Biden called to chat. McCarthy claimed those interactions “resulted in cars and millions of dollars that went to his [son] and his son’s business partners.”

The speaker failed to mention that these eyewitness accounts did not establish that Joe Biden knew he was meeting with people who were paying Hunter Biden. A key witness who testified about the phone calls referenced by McCarthy said that as far as he knew, President Biden was likely unaware his son was allowing others to listen in on their calls.

What House Republicans have uncovered looks like a pattern of Hunter Biden pretending that he could corruptly influence his father as Hunter extracted large payments from foreign clients. But Hunter was apparently lying. Empty promises of corruption are, arguably, a form of corruption. But they are not the kind of corruption—Joe Biden actually altering US policy in exchange for bribes—that Republicans allege. 

The only person "pretending" here is Dan Friedman, who is doing the bidding of his Democrat overlords [satirical link, but worth reading] who are themselves faux-pretending that Joe is pure as the wind-driven snow.

In a way, it's comical to watch the Dems try so hard to spin such obvious corruption by suggesting that there's no evidence to link Joe to Hunter's influence peddling. If that truly were the case, Joe Biden was so clueless during that period, he should haven been impeached for rank stupidity.

UPDATE-3 (09-15-2023):

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals effectively ruled that the Biden Administration violated the constitution by coercing social media organizations into censoring opinions that did not conform to the White House narrative on Covid during the hysteria of 2020 and 2021. 

 

As if that ruling meant nothing, the White House Counsel's office sent an email to its trained hamsters in the propaganda media, urging them to investigate those who are about to conduct an impeachment inquiry. Part of the memo again echoes the refrain that there is no evidence connecting then-VP Biden and the obvious influence peddling scheme (and its tens of millions of dollars in revenue/bribes) that was Hunter Biden's business. The trained hamsters quickly complied with dozens of "no evidence" stories and opinion pieces.

 

Don Surber offers this snarky comment:

Every time someone in the media says there’s no evidence, they mean the allegation is true, you just haven’t proved it to them because their eyes are shut.

As the evidence mounts, prosecutors finally indicted Sonny Biden — Hunter — not for corruption, but rather it is for owning a gun. It is a way to pretend that no man is above the law without throwing him in prison for 7 years for touching a cop for three seconds.

Connecting Biden to his corruption is verboten because if the feds start going after actual corruption, the District of Columbia would collapse.

But the hamsters have another master. The Dem elites are really worried that Biden might lose, given his abysmal poll numbers (and his catastrophic record as a president). They need to replace Biden and jettison Harris, so the hamsters have begun writing pieces that suggest (gently) that Biden is "too old." No mention of his obvious cognitive decline or the stench of corruption—just too old. Heh.

UPDATE-4 (09-17-2023):

It truly is remarkable that Democrat politicians and their spokespeople (e.g., KJP) can use blatant gaslighting—"There is no evidence!"—and their trained hamsters in the propaganda media allow them to get away with it. 

It's a bit of a rehash, but it's worth noting what Jeremy Carl writes about their claim of a lack of "evidence":

As I’ve said before of the evidence in the case, it’s a smoking gun next to a bloody corpse. If I could get in the face of any of these CNN propagandists, I’d destroy them with a single question: Why did these “shell companies” exist? The only answer an honest person can give is, “To conceal the bribery money.” If the millions of dollars received from foreigners by Hunter Biden and his associates had any legitimate purpose — if it were something other than bribery — they would have no need to hide it. And what was it that Hunter Biden and his associates were selling? What service did they have to offer, except the influence of the then-Vice President? Isn’t the nature of this arrangement self-evident in the fact that Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Hunter’s client Burisma for corruption, was fired in 2016 on the demand of Joe Biden? Joe Biden publicly bragged about this.

As the Dems say, "Joe Biden's only crime is being a loving father. He knew nothing about his son's business." 

Given that BIden's current cognitive ability is so diminished, that might actually be true today. But not 10 years ago. Then, he was just stupid and corrupt, lurking on Hunter's business calls to provide credence to his son's influence peddling schemes and meeting with shady foreigners to (one would surmise) better understand their needs and identify the terms of their business relationship.