Politifact analyzes the following statement about Joe Biden to assess whether it is true or false:
When Joe Biden’s son Hunter was serving as "a director to Ukraine’s largest private gas producer," the elder Biden "threatened to withhold $1 BILLION in U.S. aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire a prosecutor looking into" the gas company.
Politifact wrongly rates the above statement as “half-true”, which is absurd. The statements contains two true factoids, namely “Hunter was serving as "a director to Ukraine’s largest private gas producer” and “the elder Biden "threatened to withhold $1 BILLION in U.S. aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire a prosecutor looking into" the gas company.”
The way the statement is framed, the statement is totally true, because both factoids are true.
But, and this should be litigated with Politifact, the above statement is — hugely, terribly — improperly framed. It should have included the crucial fact that these two factoids, when combined together, are being used by opponents of Joe Biden to imply that he was corruptly using his position as Vice-President to protect his son.
The Politifact article should be revised to include a properly framed statement. Something along the following lines:
Opponents of Joe Biden are claiming that he corruptly used his position as Vice President to protect a company of which his son was a director. This claim is based on two facts, namely that when Joe Biden’s son Hunter was serving as "a director to Ukraine’s largest private gas producer," the elder Biden "threatened to withhold $1 BILLION in U.S. aid to Ukraine if they didn’t fire a prosecutor looking into" the gas company.
Politifact’s own article clearly shows beyond reasonable doubt that it is wrong to infer corruption from these two facts because on close examination they are clearly unrelated, and it is clear that Biden WAS NOT using his position as VP to protect his son, and that the answer to this correctly framed question is “Untrue”.
Not only should Politifact revise the conclusion from “Half true” to “False” it should also refrain from smearing Joe Biden by devoting a lot of space to moralizing about Hunter Biden’s questionable judgment in accepting a directorship of a foreign company that was no doubt attracted by his family connections. Nothing at all like Ivanka Trump’s blatant use of her father’s position as U.S. President to gain actual special favors from the Chinese government.
I should add that I personally support Elizabeth Warren for President. But I hate to see a good man like Joe Biden smeared by a sloppy mass media, and now by a carelessly formulated Politifact article.