Does Joe Biden Have a Corruption Problem?
Deconstructed
The Intercept
4.8 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
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Summary
On January 20th, The Guardian published an op-ed by New York attorney and law professor Zephyr Teachout entitled “‘Middle Class’ Joe Biden has a corruption problem – it makes him a weak candidate”. In it, Teachout argues that Biden’s history of taking big donations from the credit card, healthcare, and fossil fuel industries and then voting on their behalf makes him a poor choice against Trump in the Fall: “a lot of the voters we need,” wrote Teachout, “independents and people who might stay home – will look at Biden and Trump and say: “They’re all dirty.”” Teachout is a public supporter of Bernie Sanders and when the Biden camp took umbrage at the piece, Sanders publicly apologized for it. “It is absolutely not my view that Joe is corrupt in any way,” said the Vermont Senator. “And I'm sorry that that op-ed appeared.” But was that really the right reply from a candidate who has made the fight against big money in politics one of the cornerstones of his campaign? Zephyr Teachout joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss Joe Biden and the culture of corruption in Washington.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Joe Biden has a long history of taking money from big donors and doing them favors as a senator |
| 0:12.8 | Welcome to deconstructed. I'm Mehdi Hassan on the show today does Joe Biden long-standing friend of Wall Street one time |
| 0:20.0 | Surrogate for the credit card industry and they favor it of big donors in this democratic presidential campaign |
| 0:26.0 | Does he have a corruption problem and if so is Biden a symptom of a broader corrupt culture in Washington DC |
| 0:34.0 | Dominated as it is by big money and big business |
| 0:37.1 | We absolutely need to change the way campaigns are funded |
| 0:39.6 | We need to make it so that when somebody is running for Congress the first question that is asked is not |
| 0:45.3 | How many of the richest people in the world do you know and can you call them all up? |
| 0:49.1 | That's my guest today the academic activist and corruption expert |
| 0:53.6 | Zephyr teacher who caused controversy last week when she wrote a piece slamming Joe Biden as a weak candidate to take on Donald Trump |
| 1:01.3 | Because of his own big corruption problem. So is she right? |
| 1:08.0 | Let's be clear Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in modern American history |
| 1:12.7 | He was impeached and is now on trial for abuse of power and for obstruction of Congress |
| 1:17.6 | But as you've heard me say on this show for the past year |
| 1:20.4 | He should have been impeached for much much more |
| 1:23.5 | More than 110 officials from nearly 64 in governments have been spotted at Trump hotels |
| 1:29.2 | Golf courses and other properties since 2017. This is about as direct and profound a violation of the |
| 1:36.8 | Minimates clause as one could create Jared Kushner's appointment as a senior advisor to the president is also drawing |
| 1:43.2 | Controversy Ivanka Jared and the nepotism crisis that is |
| 1:46.7 | Blossoming in Trump's White House |
| 1:48.3 | Trump backing down from a controversial decision that next year's g-7 summit of world leaders would take place at Trump's property in Doral, Florida |
| 1:57.6 | Ethics advocates warned foreign leaders could be booking stays at Trump properties to curry favor with the president |
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