‘Puerto Rico will play a defining role in the 2020 nominating contest…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Former Vice President Joe Biden may have failed to secure the endorsement of his former boss, Barack Obama, but he has gained in quantity what he lacks in quality—including the recent support of 25 officials from notoriously corrupt Puerto Rico, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The island territory saw its then-governor, Ricardo Rossello resign in disgrace last July after dual scandals revealed him to have presided over the misuse and embezzlement of funds, and a series of leaked text messages revealed him to have made derogatory comments about homosexuals.
Rossello faced impeachment for the former, while angry citizens took to the streets and swarmed the governor’s mansion to protest the latter.
Prior to Rossello’s departure, at least a dozen officials already had resigned as a result of the investigation into the embezzlement of funds that it received from the U.S. federal government to support Hurricane Maria disaster relief.
The probe continued to ensnare the country’s corrupt leaders as recently as November, when the FBI arrested Sen. Abel Nazario and seven others, including municipal employees, in connection with the scandal.
Nazario was accused of using the federal funds to support his election campaign.
Biden’s campaign called the recent endorsements, which included that of former Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, “the largest bipartisan slate of Puerto Rican endorsements in a primary election.”
Although its residents are not able to vote in the U.S. elections, the territory is able to sway politics in other ways, such as lobbying, and threw considerable patronage to Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.
In addition, many Puerto Ricans have fled the country for places like Florida due to the unlivable conditions—and some have now become full-fledged American citizens.
“Puerto Rico will play a defining role in the 2020 nominating contest,” said the Biden campaign, noting that many of the endorsements came from left-wing parties that affiliated with Democrats in the mainland U.S.
It is unclear whether any of those throwing their support to the Democratic front-runner may be implicated in the funding scandal or other violations, but Puerto Rico’s coziness with the Left has, uncoincidentally, been as well established as its ethically challenged stewardship.
Both Rossello (prior to his disgrace) and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz were trotted out in the media as vocal critics of President Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 2017 hurricane.
When Trump refused to provide further aid, insisting that millions of dollars he released had gone unaccounted for, Rossello publicly threatened to punch the president.
And the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was sharply criticized in January after sponsoring a junket for Democrats like Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey to the resort city of San Juan during the federal government shutdown in January.
Biden’s embrace of the spoils system has come to light during the latest impeachment attack on Trump.
At the heart of the matter is Trump’s call for Ukraine to investigate Biden’s corrupt dealings as vice president, which included pressuring Ukraine to drop a corruption investigation into the company that was paying his son a lucrative consulting fee.
Biden later bragged about having threatened to withhold a billion-dollar loan if the investigating prosecutor wasn’t fired.
The Bidens also blurred the lines between their personal and private interests in China, when Hunter Biden flew aboard the vice president’s official plane and met with influential Chinese leaders just before inking a joint investment venture for an estimated $1.5 billion.