TBORA President John Pudner continued his radio tour across America, recently appearing on WIMA in Lima, Ohio. The heart of Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan's district, John discussed both his early inquiry into the controversy and how House Republicans can utilize their new majority to look into and investigate this scandal.
The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Biden, classified documents, investigate, election, UPenn, irresponsible.
SPEAKERS
Todd Walker and John Pudner.
Todd Walker 00:00
We've heard a lot about classified documents, and top secret documents, and carelessness, and just being irresponsible with such documents, and now it appears that maybe it's more common than we thought. President Biden now involved in one of these kerfuffles. John Pudner is with us this morning, President of Take Back Action Fund, to talk about it, John, good morning.
John Pudner 00:28
Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Todd Walker 00:30
Well, I guess my suspicion is that this idea of top secret documents in somebody's back seat, or in somebody's closet at their apartment in DC, is probably more common than we'd like to believe. What about that?
John Pudner 00:48
Yeah, I think one person disagrees. I just have a quote saying, "How can anyone be that irresponsible? What data is there that may compromise sources and methods?" Of course, that was Joe Biden's cry in September. The bigger concern me and this one is where these documents were at this University of Pennsylvania-Biden center. We asked the Attorney General of Pennsylvania two years ago, formally requested they investigate this relationship between University of Pennsylvania, a job that Joe Biden was given there, a no show job at UPenn, almost a million dollars a year he got between being VP and President, and then the revelations on the tens of millions the Chinese had put into UPenn by the person who gave him that job, Amy Gutmann, who he then tried to point as ambassador to Germany. I'm just concerned they were in this center. I'm much more concerned about that than sitting in a safe at Mar-a-Lago.
Todd Walker 01:50
Come on, man! There's nothing wrong, I mean, this is Joe you're talking about, just Joe! I'm sure somebody else took them and put them there. First of all, combining Biden with the phrase think tank is personally offensive to me, but what in the world does the Penn-Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement even do, John?
John Pudner 02:16
Yeah, their mission is along the lines of involving world leaders and discussions, but there's one country funding UPenn heavily, and that's China, so you really have to look past China on these things and the influence they have. The fact that Biden was getting paid even more by UPenn and Hunter Biden was to work for the Ukrainian energy company. I mean, he was only getting 83,000 a month. So, this is even bigger money for the about to be President.
Todd Walker 02:48
Well, the big guy deserves a bigger paycheck, I guess. We're talking with John Pudner. He is the president of Take Back Action Fund. We're talking about President Biden now caught up in a classified documents imbroglio. John, it often is quite funny in politics. It seems that, especially with the Democrats, what they go around yelling about everybody else doing they've probably been doing in spades for years, right?
John Pudner 03:16
There's just so many hypocritical analysis here. I mean, consider that this was supposedly turned over two days before the election, obviously knowing there'd be no news coverage, and voters wouldn't know about it, but you compare that to just the endless Russian hoax that was intended to shift elections. I'm sure the lawyers are happy technically saying they turn these over two days before an election, but knowing that there was no chance in the world this would affect the midterms or anything else. At Take Back, our concerns have been China potentially funneling money through ActBlue or other systems to influence who wins elections, but I think Americans as a whole may be more concerned about just compromising elected officials once they're in, and that's what this goes to, when you have this kind of money. The documents being where they were is just the overriding concern and difference for me between Mar-A-Lago and this case.
Todd Walker 04:17
Of course, I think Biden defenders are going to point out that as soon as they found them, they turned them over, unlike the recalcitrant Trump, of course, who refuses to hand over anything. Where do we stand with the whole Trump documents, quote and quote, investigation, that's been going on?
John Pudner 04:38
Yeah, I mean, that's a tough one for me. You know, I don't ever want to completely dismiss federal investigators because I don't know the inner workings, what they think they really have. Certainly, it's taken a while, and you're always concerned when feds are involved I'm sure, but I don't know that. I honestly don't know on Mar-A-Lago, if there's peril there for President Trump or not, or if this is just a PR battle right now. So, again, we should look at all these things, could be concerns, but again, these documents seem to have been under lock and key at Mar-A-Lago, not in a center that apparently Joe Biden never actually showed up at that but was his and he was being paid for. I'm just a little more concerned on the ladder on the optics, but I can't say I know the inner workings of what's in these documents.
Todd Walker 05:31
John, on that note, what do you think is going to come of this from the President Biden perspective? Will the Republican House be able to put together any kind of investigation or will this just sort of go away?
John Pudner 05:43
Well, believe it or not, the Democrat Pennsylvania Attorney General declined that request to investigate the whole setup with the center and Biden. I think the House will certainly be a lot more open to investigating. This was the big thing on flipping the House. The January 6 investigation was just way too drawn out, and turned political, and now, the Republicans are gonna feel like they've got more legitimate things to investigate, and that's just democracy at work, so we will see what the House does.
Todd Walker 06:18
That's John Pudner, president of the Take Back Action Fund, talking about the kerfuffle with more classified documents. This time, it's old uncle Joe in trouble. John, we appreciate you taking time for us.
John Pudner 06:32
Have me on anytime!
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