Politico Praises Joe Biden’s European Wardrobe While Ignoring Allegations of Bribery 

MONACA, PA - NOVEMBER 02: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden takes off his sunglass
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

President Joe Biden’s European wardrobe was the focus of Politico Playbook’s Thursday evening edition as it and other establishment media outlets ignored allegations against the president of receiving a $5 million bribe.

Politico, which frequently tries to protect the Bidens from political liabilities, such as with its infamous reporting on the “Laptop from Hell” in 2020, focused its lead story in Politico Playbook’s evening newsletter on a 724-word piece about Joe Biden’s wardrobe during his latest tour in Europe.

Nowhere in the newsletter was the biggest story of the month: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released an FBI information record that alleged Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each received $5 million from Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, after Joe Biden threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine until President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.

Instead, Playbook’s in-depth reporters — Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan, and Lawrence Ukenye — featured a fashion blogger to analyze Joe Biden’s suit pant length in Lithuania:

It would probably come as a shock to many that an American president was more sharply dressed than his European counterparts. But when President JOE BIDEN stood on a stage at last week’s NATO summit in Lithuania, he was the only one whose suit pants were an appropriate length.

That was the opinion of the Menswear Guy — that dude who’s become ubiquitous on Twitter ever since ELON MUSK messed with the algorithm. “With the exception of Biden, all of these trousers are too long, and more than some are too slim to hang cleanly when the wearers are standing still,” Menswear Guy tweeted.

DEREK GUY, which is his actual name, is a longtime fashion blogger who launched his website, Put This On, 12 years ago. We asked him this week to assess the president’s style in greater detail. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

A few of the questions Playbook asked the blogger were:

Were people surprised that you had anointed Biden as best dressed among the world leaders last week?

And they’re the right length and all of that?

So just getting the fit right distinguishes him from other world leaders, including a lot of those who are younger than him?

We’ve seen the president in swim trunks and sneakers this summer. What do you think of his casual wear?

So, last question: where would you put Biden on the historical continuum of presidential fashion?

View the allure that is US President Joe Biden’s so-called “drip” as he stands next to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (L) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) on the first day of the 2023 NATO Summit on July 11, 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. (Photo by Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, many hours before Politico released its newsletter, news broke that the FBI knew about Joe Biden’s Ukraine business dealings before the “Laptop from Hell” reporting, according to an FBI informant document released by Grassley.

The form shows Joe Biden mentioned as the “big guy,” matching reporting by the New York Post’s October 15, 2020, reporting and additional allegations levied by whistleblowers.

Playbook was not the only publication ignoring the revelations. Co-Founder and President of RealClearPolitics Tom Bevan tweeted that CNN completely ignored the FBI informant story. In addition, Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of the Federalist, tweeted that no results were showing on the New York Times search tool for FD-1023, the precise name of the FBI’s informant form:

The media’s lack of reporting on the allegations against Joe Biden is one more fact in a pattern. On June 23, ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “CBS Evening News” ignored bombshell IRS whistleblower allegations that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment from the Justice Department regarding probes into tax violations.

Moreover, among the news sites that refused to post a story about the scandal on the main front pages of their websites were the Washington Post, Politico, New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC. Most published an article about the bombshell.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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