Impeaching President Joe Biden on phony charges built on falsified evidence is generally understood, by both the Beltway press and even by Republican leadership, to be bad news for the GOP's political future. And yet, it also seems true that House Republicans, under the, uh, "leadership" of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, are barreling towards impeachment, even as Republican members in competitive districts beg him not to go there. McCarthy has gone as far as to circumvent his own party members who would stop him, by directly ordering an impeachment inquiry without a congressional vote, violating his own previous stance and Justice Department directives.
The supposed accusations against Biden aren't really relevant, as everyone involved knows it's made-up nonsense. (Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., admitted as much to the New York Times in March.) It's pure political theater, unmoored from facts. But usually one expects political theater to benefit its producers politically. And yet, like a sentient moth flying knowingly into the flame, McCarthy is forging ahead anyway.
by Alex Henderson | September 15, 2023 - 7:42am | permalink
After toying with possible impeachment for months, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) has formally announced that he is pursuing an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.
Democrats have been quick to slam McCarthy, stressing that House Republican probes of Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, have yet to offer proof that the president did anything illegal or corrupt in Ukraine. But Democrats aren't the only ones speaking out.
A minority of House Republicans, according to the Daily Beast's Sam Brodey, fear that an impeachment inquiry will seriously hurt the GOP in the months ahead.
In a report published on September 14, Brodey notes that Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado) is being especially outspoken.
Kevin McCarthy Secures Trump’s Payback — But at What Cost?
by Heather Digby Parton | September 14, 2023 - 6:51am | permalink
On August 28th, Donald Trump had had enough of his House Republicans dilly-dallying around. So he took to his social media platform, Truth Social, and issued an order:
The Republicans in Congress, though well meaning, keep talking about an Impeachment 'Inquiry' on Crooked Joe Biden.Look, the guy got bribed, he paid people off, and he wouldn't give One Billion Dollars to Ukraine unless they 'got rid of the Prosecutor.' Biden is a Stone Cold Crook-You don't need a long INQUIRY to prove it, it's already proven. These lowlifes Impeached me TWICE (I WON!), and Indicted me FOUR TIMES - For NOTHING!Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy heard him loud and clear.
On Tuesday, McCarthy announced that he was unilaterally ordering an impeachment inquiry into the president for his term as vice president nearly a decade ago. No one was surprised that McCarthy went back on his stated principle that an impeachment inquiry can only be launched with a full vote of the House or the still binding determination by Trump's Department of Justice which came to the same conclusion. He doesn't have the votes to launch a legitimate inquiry so this was the only thing he could do to stave off a temper tantrum from Trump and the Freedom Caucus. He was, as he has been since the day he took the speaker's gavel, just trying to get through the day.
by Joan McCarter | September 14, 2023 - 6:26am | permalink
Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been “leading” the House on borrowed time. The Freedom Caucus and allied members have made it clear that he serves at their pleasure. This week, chaos agent and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz tried to shorten McCarthy’s leash, threatening to force a vote on ousting him.
Now Axios poses the question of “How Democrats could save Kevin McCarthy.” The better question for Democrats is, “Why would you bother?” The assumption—always—is that Democrats will step up to try to make things work, to help clean up messes, and to prop McCarthy up in this fight. That they’ll help save his bacon.
So why would Democrats help him and vote against Gaetz’s motion to oust McCarthy? Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee gives one justification: “If we vacated the chair, I don’t see a better speaker. So I don’t foresee that happening.” That’s a given. There isn’t a better speaker option.
by Thom Hartmann | September 14, 2023 - 6:17am | permalink
House Republicans have revived the infamous Swiftboat lie strategy that helped defeat John Kerry in 2004. In essence, it involves relentlessly lying about a candidate and smearing his or her name and reputation in the hopes it’ll shave a few points off their popularity with independent voters.
While virtually 100 percent of the men who served with Kerry in Vietnam spoke glowingly of his service, a group who did not serve with him made up lies and exaggerations. And the Swiftboat effort was well funded: Clarence Thomas’ sugar daddy Harlan Crow threw big bucks into it in 2004.
Kerry and those who served with him tried to get the truth out, but, as Mark Twain is often credited as saying, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
While Democrats prefer to win elections based on facts and policy positions, Republicans — not having anything to offer average Americans — instead default to slander and lies. Like with Obama’s birth certificate. Or Hillary’s email and Benghazi.
by Maya Boddie | September 13, 2023 - 7:57am | permalink
Ex-President Donald Trump's administration made a move that gives President Joe Biden the upper hand, according to Politico, amid House Republicans' impeachment inquiry against him, which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) officially opened Tuesday.
Per Politico, the United States Department of Justice legal counsel issued an opinion in January 2020 that "formally declared that impeachment inquiries by the House are invalid unless the chamber takes formal votes to authorize them."
United States Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel Steve Engel said, "[W]e conclude that the House must expressly authorize a committee to conduct an impeachment investigation and to use compulsory process in that investigation before the committee may compel the production of documents or testimony. The House had not authorized such an investigation in connection with the impeachment-related subpoenas issued before October 31, 2019, and the subpoenas therefore had no compulsory effect."
The Washington Post reports that also on Tuesday, the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) official over House GOP members' investigation into Biden's son, Hunter Biden, "disputed whistleblower claims that the prosecutor in charge of the probe was stymied by the" United State's Department of Justice.
The dispute was found in a transcript obtained by The Post "of an interview with lawmakers that took place last week."
The Post reports:
The interview transcript obtained by The Post pushed back on some of those claims, specifically that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss told investigators he did not have authority to bring certain criminal chargesagainst the president's son. But Thomas Sobocinski, who manages the FBI team involved in the investigation, agreed with the IRS whistleblowers that Weiss had moved slowly in making a charging decision.
Politico's full report is available at this link. The Washington Post's report is here (subscription required).
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Kevin McCarthy dares hard-right Republicans to try to oust him as speaker
How the ‘MAGA doom loop’ is already threatening Trump’s 2024 chances
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy strode to a lectern in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, called for
an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, brandished the word “corruption”
the way a dominatrix does a whip, and then slipped away, having once again done
what he felt was necessary, no matter how senseless, to hold on to his lofty
position….
The impeachment inquiry is chum for approaching sharks, meant to distract and divert them, at least partly. It’s a desperate attempt by an unscrupulous man to keep their teeth from sinking too deep into his torso.
Good luck with that, Mr. Speaker. (Already, it’s not working.) And congratulations on the consistency of your inconsistency, the reliability of your willingness to tailor all your talk and all your decisions to what’s necessary to keep this job of yours, a miserable one by any rational standards.
En route to it, you had to pretend that Trump wasn’t telling lies about the 2020 election before you had to denounce his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, before you had to reverse yourself once again and beg his forgiveness. You have eaten so much crow that you’re still coughing up the feathers.
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