Norman Ornstein deletes tweet after critics accuse him of suggesting Biden to commit open corruption as POTUS
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American Enterprise Institute resident scholar and Atlantic contributing editor Norman Ornstein raised eyebrows on Friday after he appeared to suggest that Joe Biden commit corruption as president.
According to the Fox News Decision Desk, Biden currently has 264 electoral votes, just six votes short of the magic number needed to win the White House.
However, Ornstein floated the idea of a way Biden can pick up a crucial Democrat in the Senate, though not very ethical.
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"Just brainstorming here; what if Biden went to Richard Burr, told him that there would be no further action on the insider trading charges, and offers him CIA?" Ornstein asked. "The vacancy in the Senate would be filled by Roy Cooper. Democrat Roy Cooper."
Burr has been under intense scrutiny after he was accused of selling stock while knowing the severity of the coronavirus outbreak before the market crashed.
The Democratic scholar was blasted on social media.
"I never knew before that a President could, or should, guarantee that the DOJ would cease investigating a politician in exchange for that politician doing a political favor that would benefit the President and his party," journalist Glenn Greenwald reacted.
"Just an Atlantic writer and think tank scholar spitballing about some brazen corruption, NBD," RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway tweeted.
“'All of that stuff we said about open corruption? We didn’t mean any of it,'" Daily Wire senior editor Emily Zanotti quipped.
"Just brainstorming a blatant quid pro quo here," Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross said.
The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis pointed out that "Not only is this blatantly illegal, it’s not even how North Carolina law works. The governor must appoint a senator from the same party vacating the seat, and he can only choose from a slate offered by that party."
"Why is AEI funding this corrupt moron?" Davis asked.
Amid the flurry of backlash, Ornstein acknowledged that he was being "facetious" and knew the illegality of his so-called "brainstorming."
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"I was being facetious. Which was a mistake to do! First, of course, trading a non prosecution for an office would be illegal. Second, NC requires a replacement from the same party– and the choice has to come from a party list– until the next general election.
Ornstein later deleted the tweet.
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