Republicans launch Biden impeachment
A shameful farce.
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Thursday 14 December 2023
· 3 feedback
AP (“The Home approves an impeachment inquiry into President Biden as Republicans rally behind the investigation“):
The Home on Wednesday permitted the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, with all Republicans rallying behind the politically charged course of regardless of lingering considerations amongst some within the get together that the probe has but to provide proof of wrongdoing by the president.
The 221-212 party-line vote put all the Republican Convention on document in assist of an impeachment course of that may result in the final word punishment for a president: punishment for what the Structure describes as “excessive crimes and misdemeanors” that may result in impeachment from workplace if convicted in a Senate trial.
Biden, in a uncommon assertion in regards to the impeachment effort, questioned Republican priorities in pursuing an investigation into him and his household.
“As an alternative of doing something to assist make the lives of Individuals higher, they’re targeted on attacking me with lies,” the president stated after the vote. “As an alternative of doing their job with the pressing work that must be completed, they’re selecting to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit just isn’t supported by the info.”
Approval of the month-long investigation ensures that the impeachment inquiry extends nicely into 2024, when Biden will run for re-election and appears set to tackle former President Donald Trump – who was impeached twice throughout his time in The White Home. Trump has pushed his GOP allies in Congress to maneuver shortly to question Biden, a part of his broader requires revenge and retaliation in opposition to his political enemies.
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Some Home Republicans, significantly these from politically divided districts, had been hesitant in latest weeks to take any vote on Biden’s impeachment, fearing a major political value. However GOP leaders have argued in latest weeks that the choice is only one step within the course of, not a call to question Biden. That message appears to have gained over skeptics.
“As we have stated quite a few instances earlier than, voting for impeachment just isn’t the identical as impeachment,” stated Rep. Tom Emmer, a member of the GOP management workforce, at a information convention Tuesday.
Emmer stated Republicans “will proceed to comply with the info wherever they lead, and in the event that they uncover proof of treason, bribery or different excessive crimes and misdemeanors, the subsequent steps towards impeachment can be thought of.”
A lot of the Republicans who’re reluctant to again impeachment have additionally been swayed by the administration’s latest argument that authorizing the investigation will give them a greater authorized standing, because the White Home has questioned its authorized and constitutional foundation for his or her requests for data.
A letter final month from a prime White Home lawyer to Republican committee leaders portrayed the GOP probe as overzealous and illegitimate as a result of the chamber had not but permitted formal impeachment in a full Home vote. Richard Sauber, particular counsel to the president, additionally wrote that when Trump confronted the prospect of impeachment by a Democratic-led Home in 2019, Johnson had stated on the time that any investigation with no Home vote could be a “sham” .
Rep. Dusty Johnson, RS.D., stated this week that whereas there was no proof to question the president, “that is additionally not what the vote this week could be about.”
“We have had sufficient political impeachments on this nation,” he stated. “I do not just like the stonewalling that the administration has completed, however look, if we do not have the receipts, that ought to restrict what the Home does in the long run.”
It is all weird. The premise of the investigation is that, regardless of months of investigation, Home Republicans have been unable to uncover proof of any wrongdoing by President Biden relating to the varied actions of his son Hunter. However as a result of the White Home is pushing again on the fishing expedition, are they utilizing the impeachment course of as justification for extra fishing?
Sigh.
And naturally we’ve this:
AP (“The Republican main the investigation into Hunter Biden has his personal shell firm and sophisticated buddies“):
Rep. James Comer, a multimillionaire farmer, boasts of being one of many largest landowners close to his rural Kentucky hometown, and he has meticulously documented practically all of his land holdings on congressional monetary disclosure paperwork — about 1,600 acres in all.
However there are six acres he purchased in 2015 and co-owns with a longtime marketing campaign contributor that he has handled in another way, transferring possession to Farm Workforce Properties, a shell firm he owns along with his spouse.
Interviews and information reviewed by The Related Press provide new perception into the monetary deal, which dangers undermining a few of Comer’s central arguments in his impeachment of President Joe Biden. For months, the chairman of the Home Oversight Committee and his Republican colleagues have hammered Biden about how his kin used their well-known identify to safe enterprise offers.
Particularly, Comer has attacked some Biden members of the family, together with the president’s son Hunter, over their use of “shell corporations” that seem to hide hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in earnings they acquired from shady middlemen and international pursuits.
Such corporations sometimes exist solely on paper and are fashioned to carry an asset, similar to actual property. Their opaque buildings are sometimes designed to assist disguise possession of actual property and different property.
The businesses utilized by the Bidens already play a central position within the impeachment inquiry, which is anticipated to realize momentum after Republicans voted Wednesday to formally authorize the investigation. The vote follows the federal indictment final week of Biden’s son Hunter on expenses that he participated in a scheme to keep away from paying taxes on his earnings by way of the businesses.
However as Comer works to “ship the transparency and accountability that the American folks demand” by way of the GOP’s investigation, his personal funds and relationships have additionally begun to focus on his ties to outstanding native figures with sophisticated pasts that do not is so completely different. to a few of these caught up in his Biden probe.
Comer declined to remark by way of a spokesman, however has aggressively denied any wrongdoing in establishing a shell firm.
After Democrats blasted him for being a hypocrite following the Day by day Beast’s exposé of the corporate final month, Comer countered by calling a Democratic lawmaker a “smurf” and saying the criticism was the form of factor “solely silly, financially illiterate folks vote for up on.”
The AP discovered that Farm Workforce Properties operates in a equally opaque method to the businesses utilized by the Bidens, masking his stake within the land he co-owns with the donor from being disclosed on his monetary disclosure types. These information describe Farm Workforce Properties as his spouse’s “land administration and actual property hypothesis” firm, with out offering additional particulars.
That is the primary I’ve heard of Comer’s shell firm and I’ve no robust opinion about it. With out additional proof, my preliminary guess is that it is completely authorized and nearly actually a bit shady. Regardless, it makes his participation on this farce all of the extra absurd.
As for Hunter Biden, I am fairly certain he is a felony. Actually, Home Democrats just about admit that:
Hunter Biden is at the moment dealing with felony expenses in two states from the particular counsel investigation. He faces firearms expenses in Delaware and claims he violated anti-drug legal guidelines with a gun in 2018, a interval throughout which he has admitted to combating habit. Particular counsel David Weiss filed further expenses final week, alleging he didn’t pay about $1.4 million in taxes over a three-year interval.
Democrats have conceded that whereas the president’s son just isn’t good, he’s a non-public citizen who’s already being held accountable by the justice system.
“I imply, there’s numerous proof that Hunter Biden did numerous inappropriate issues. He is been indicted, he’ll stand trial,” Nadler stated. “There isn’t a proof in any way that the president has completed something improper.”
The youthful Biden’s varied actions have been below media and political scrutiny for years now, leading to an entire host of individuals looking for to uncover wrongdoing on the a part of his highly effective father. Nobody has turned up. Utilizing the extraordinary energy of impeachment for political grandstanding is solely shameful.