Geraldo Rivera has been a joke now for more years than he was a journalist, so it might be a surprise that he gave the country a scoop on Wednesday.

But when the Fox News contributor went on Twitter to try to deflate the ballooning story about the FBI potentially sitting on evidence that now-President Joe Biden was on the take during his days as vice president, Rivera offered a glimpse of what is likely to be the Democrats' biggest defense.

And Americans shouldn't be buying it for a second.

Rivera's post was published just after news broke that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer had issued a subpoena demanding FBI Director Christopher Wray turn over information about allegations that Biden had "engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.”

Joining Comer in writing the FBI was Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Oversight Committee and a respected veteran of the Senate with a reputation for working across partisan lines.

(In fact, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Grassley was probably gracious to a fault when it came to the obscene depths Democrats sank to try to sandbag the appointment. But in retrospect, Grassley probably kept the attempted character assassination on a national stage from getting even worse.)

Rivera's response boiled down to: "Not Uncle Joe!"

"Does anybody really believe President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme?" he wrote. "Dollars to donuts it's another bogus, blowhard, pretend whistleblower.

"Hint: If the person announcing a would-be criminal scheme is a partisan politician, it's a partisan political event."

Does anybody really believe President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme? Dollars to donuts it's another bogus, blowhard, pretend whistleblower.
Hint: If the person announcing a would-be criminal scheme is a partisan politician, it's a partisan political event.

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) May 3, 2023

It would probably come as a shock to Rivera and his fellow travelers on the American left today, but anyone who's followed the Biden family with anything other than blind partisan support would have no problem believing it's entirely possible that the man who's now president was feathering his nest with money from foreign sources in return for favorable treatment by the United States government.

In March, Comer revealed that basically the entire Biden family was raking in cash from the Chinese energy giant CEFC thanks to the Biden name -- including Hallie Biden, widow of Biden's late first son, Beau, and former paramour of the notorious Hunter Biden.

Before his new career as an "artist" selling his work more for the name in the signature than any intrinsic or aesthetic value, Hunter Biden made a career of various grifts, including famously holding a seat on board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma despite having no background in energy or knowledge of the Ukrainian language.

Then there's Joe himself, the suspected "big guy" in line for a 10 percent cut of a deal Hunter was arranging with CEFC in 2017.

And those are just a few examples out of countless that have been documented over the years -- much of it thanks to the evidence on the Hunter Biden laptop that was so successfully concealed from the American people by the establishment media and the lords of social media in the run-up to the presidential election in 2020.

And that cover-up, which continues to this day, is what Democrats and their establishment media allies are going to be banking on, judging by the Geraldo tweet.

It appeals to emotion, not logic, and it's grounded in the fact that liberal media outlets, celebrities and other influential figures have spent years trying to build the doddering, almost certainly corrupt Joe Biden into some kind of avuncular figure Americans can trust to take care of their interests and their country.

[firefly_poll]

Basically, Rivera asked, who's going to believe Joe Biden is a criminal after so many people spent so much time and money to convince Americans he's just scrappy Joey from Scranton who made good?

It turns out, of course, there are plenty of Americans who already believe it -- and the outpouring of responses to Geraldo's tweet showed it. They're also getting increasingly angry at the obvious differences in the administration of "justice" depending on party affiliation, the kinds of differences that make a subpoena like the one Comer issued on Wednesday necessary.

As one Twitter user put it, "This will not end well":

I think you’re the only one who doesn’t believe it.

— Silence Dogood (@ScottishKilt) May 4, 2023

Hell yes. It's beyond reasonable dispute at this point.

Plus, we've been reliably told that whistleblowers are never to be questioned. They are so important we don't get to cross examine them, or even know their names.

— Mingie Bret (@MingieBret) May 4, 2023

Hell yes. It's beyond reasonable dispute at this point.

Plus, we've been reliably told that whistleblowers are never to be questioned. They are so important we don't get to cross examine them, or even know their names.

— Mingie Bret (@MingieBret) May 4, 2023

100% Yes, I do. They have witnesses, emails, wire transfers, and more. The only thing missing is equal and fair judicial and law enforcement agencies.
This is clearly yet another example of unequal justice under the law by political affiliation. This will not end well.
When one…

— Matthew Bendett (@matthewbendett) May 4, 2023

What product does this family sell? They are multi millionaires and dont have a product to sell other than influence. They didnt get money from others for nothing.

— Rhonda S (@HappyGirlNoni) May 3, 2023

At this point, of course, it's almost tiresome to keep pointing it out, but former President Donald Trump was hounded relentlessly by the establishment on far, far less reason than this.

The Democratic-Hillary Clinton-financed "Russia collusion" hoax dogged Trump's presidency from before it started to the ignominious end of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

He was impeached by the Democratic-run House of Representatives over a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy -- which was revealed by a "whistleblower," as Democrats might now recall.

But the blatant double standard applied to politicians the establishment media favor (almost invariably Democrats) versus those they oppose (Republicans and especially Republicans named Donald Trump) has been too exposed to be believable, even by the most gullible.

Rivera himself might believe Joe Biden is innocent -- there's no way of knowing what's in any man's heart -- but there's no doubt he accidentally tipped the Democrats' hand when it comes to Biden's defense.

The effort isn't so much to convince Americans Biden is innocent but to force Americans to force themselves to believe in Biden's innocence, based solely on the idea that they don't want to believe that the man they've been duped into believing is honest -- a man millions of them voted for -- could be a crook on an almost unimaginable scale.

In a fair court of argument, liberals aren't going to win. The evidence that has been coming out -- and being regularly suppressed -- can't be gainsaid by an honest, logical evaluation.

But Democrats and their establishment media allies can keep appealing to Americans to trust Joe Biden. After all, he's the man, in their telling, who saved the country from the evil Donald Trump. The reality -- as usual, when it comes to Democrats -- is exactly the opposite.

So, to Rivera's question: "Does anybody really believe President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme?"

The answer is already "yes -- millions do."

And it's a good chance that before the election of 2024 roles around, there will be millions and millions more joining them.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.