VP Biden threatened to withhold $$ from Ukraine until they removed a corrupt prosecutor
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the General Discussion forum).
People need to know what the facts are when Trump tried to make a false equivalency.
VP Biden *did* threaten to withhold support.
Trump is trying to make it seem as though what they did was identical, the only difference being that they disagree on which side is corrupt.
If we've learned anything from the 2016 election, it should be to face the lies and throw the facts back at them just as loudly. They win when we assume everyone knows what the truth is.
The grain of truth in the lie is what gives power to the lie. We must confront it.
So, in this case, get familiar with how the two stories differ. The corrupt prosecutor (Viktor Shokin) is key to the story.
Here's the best link I've seen so far. Please add more.
https://www.justsecurity.org/66101/trump-and-giulianis-quest-for-fake-ukraine-dirt-on-biden-an-explainer/
= new reply since forum marked as read
“The corrupt prosecutor was going after a company that paid his son large amounts of money. There's no way to avoid the appearance of impropriety there.”
That’s not the full truth, there are several articles linked in this thread that debunk Giuliani and Trump’s dishonest framing.
Here’s a good one if you missed it (it is linked below)::
How Giuliani Is Conning The World Into Buying A False Biden-Ukraine Narrative
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/how-giuliani-is-conning-the-world-into-buying-a-false-biden-ukraine-narrative
Take care and have a good afternoon 
There’s no need for you and me to fight about this, we’re all in this together. we all need to push back on trumps lies.
Another good article, from the Intercept back in May. I don’t think this one has been posted in this thread.
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/10/rumors-joe-biden-scandal-ukraine-absolute-nonsense-reformer-says/
A Republican Conspiracy Theory About a Biden-in-Ukraine Scandal Has Gone Mainstream. But It Is Not True.
Robert Mackey
May 10 2019, 4:52 p.m.
In an interview with The Intercept, Daria Kaleniuk, an American-educated lawyer who founded Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, expressed frustration that two recent front-page stories in the New York Times, on how the conspiracy theory is being used to attack Biden, failed to properly debunk the false accusation. According to Kaleniuk, and a former anti-corruption prosecutor, there is simply no truth to the rumor now spreading like wildfire across the internet.
The accusation is that Biden blackmailed Ukraine’s new leaders into firing the country’s chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to derail an investigation he was leading into a Ukrainian gas company that the vice president’s son, Hunter, was paid to advise.
The truth, Kaleniuk said, is that Shokin was forced from office at Biden’s urging because he had failed to conduct thorough investigations of corruption, and had stifled efforts to investigate embezzlement and misconduct by public officials following the 2014 uprising.
Properly debunking this particular conspiracy theory is easier said than done, though, since it is set in Ukraine, a country with byzantine political intrigue at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. The rivalries between political factions in Kiev are so intense that even the country’s new anti-corruption agencies are at each other’s throats.
<more at link>
