House Republicans vote to formalize their baseless impeachment inquiry against Biden

With a heavy dose of blus­ter, and no evi­dence despite months of inves­ti­ga­tion, House Repub­li­cans have launched a for­mal impeach­ment inquiry against Pres­i­dent Joe Biden. The launch came on a 221–212 par­ty-line vote after self-styled rea­son­able Repub­li­cans, rep­re­sent­ing dis­tricts car­ried by Biden and Har­ris in 2020, were press ganged to go along.

Repub­li­cans lead­ers will face a new chal­lenge, like­ly late in Jan­u­ary, when time comes — what­ev­er the evi­dence — to draw up arti­cles of impeach­ment. Speak­er Mike John­son has only a three-seat major­i­ty in “the peo­ples’ house”, like­ly to shrink fur­ther with the res­ig­na­tion of deposed ex-Speak­er Kevin McCarthy.

The Wednes­day vote took place against a back­drop of divi­sion, inter­nal intrigue. , and fail­ure by the House to address issues of the day.

The inquiry was pressed by Don­ald Trump’s clos­est allies in Con­gress, House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee Chair­man Jim Jor­dan, R‑Ohio, and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Com­er, R‑Kentucky, who chairs the House Over­sight Committee.

They’ve spent months exam­in­ing the trou­bled life of Hunter Biden, a recov­er­ing addict. As Rep. Jamie Raskin, Oversight’s rank­ing Demo­c­rat, not­ed: “A moun­tain of evi­dence and del­uge of inde­pen­dent report­ing — includ­ing from numer­ous con­ser­v­a­tive out­lets — has dis­cred­it­ed every sin­gle alle­ga­tion lev­eled by Repub­li­cans against Pres­i­dent Biden in their painstak­ing and fruit­less inquiry.”

The inquiry pos­es dan­gers — for Republicans.

The Bill Clin­ton impeach­ment saga actu­al­ly pro­duced gains for Democ­rats in the 1998 midterm elec­tions. House Speak­er Newt Gin­grich, nowa­days a font of par­ti­san vit­ri­ol on Fox News, was deposed by his own caucus.

Joe Biden was for years the “poor­est” U.S. Sen­a­tor in annu­al dis­clo­sure reports. He has been acclaimed as a par­ent, sud­den­ly wid­owed with two young boys soon after being elect­ed to the Sen­ate, deal­ing late in life with death of his son Beau and Hunter’s strug­gle with addiction.

Jim Jor­dan told the House Wednes­day that for­mal impeach­ment inquiry will allow enforce­ment of a sub­poe­na for Hunter to appear at a closed door hear­ing. In short, Repub­li­cans can cher­ry-pick from tes­ti­mo­ny giv­en only to them and reveal it in the closed, poi­so­nous atmos­phere of right wing media.

Hunter Biden showed up at the Unit­ed States Capi­tol on Wednes­day, offer­ing to tes­ti­fy in pub­lic before the Amer­i­can people.

Of Jor­dan, Com­er & Co., he said: “They ridiculed my strug­gle with addic­tion, they belit­tled my recov­ery; and they have tried to dehu­man­ize me — all to embar­rass my father who has devot­ed his entire pub­lic life to service.”

Sev­en­ty years have passed, but the ques­tion put by U.S. Army coun­sel Joseph Welch to red-baiter Sen­a­tor Joe McCarthy still res­onates: “Have you no sense of decen­cy?” It should be asked of Jim Jordan.

As Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Schiff, D‑California, has said of the Trump impeach­ments, the evi­dence was out there for all to see. The 45th pres­i­dent, by with­hold­ing arms deliv­er­ies, tried to black­mail Ukraine into launch­ing a sham Biden investigation.

A mob of insur­rec­tion­ists stormed the Capi­tol on Jan­u­ary 6th, 2021, with some chant­i­ng “Hang Pence.” Want evi­dence? There it is.

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim McGov­ern, D‑Massachusetts, the rank­ing Demo­c­rat on the House Rules Com­mit­tee, kicked off floor debate Wednes­day, say­ing: “We are here for one rea­son and one rea­son alone: Don­ald Trump demand­ed that Repub­li­cans impeach and they are going to impeach.”

Trump wants the House inquiry. It will enable him to seduce mass media with a “moral equiv­a­lence” argu­ment. The lack of evi­dence will allow right-wing com­men­ta­tors to tell their audi­ence that the “deep state” is sup­press­ing the hid­den truth. Trump can con­tin­ue to call an hon­est man “crooked Joe.”

Dis­trac­tion is also in play. The coun­try has sta­bi­lized its post-pan­dem­ic recov­ery and is doing pret­ty well. Infla­tion is down from 9.1 per­cent in mid-2022 to 3.1 per­cent. The econ­o­my sup­plied 199,000 new jobs last month.

It’s sign of a “soft land­ing” in which infla­tion is tamed with no reces­sion. The Fed­er­al Reserve Board talks of cut­ting the prime inter­est rate next year.

Mon­ey from achieve­ments of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Con­gress is work­ing its way into the nation’s econ­o­my, late­ly in dis­tricts of two Wash­ing­ton mem­bers of Con­gress who vot­ed for the impeach­ment inquiry. Pull­man, Wash­ing­ton, is get­ting a major air­port expan­sion, no thanks to Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers.

Two noto­ri­ous col­li­sion gen­er­at­ing arte­ri­als in Rich­land — George Wash­ing­ton Way and Jad­win Way, which fun­nel Han­ford-bound traf­fic — are get­ting major upgrades. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan New­house is busy pan­der­ing to the right to recov­er stand­ing after he stood for Trump’s sec­ond impeachment.

Well, such was the last Con­gress. Of the cur­rent House Repub­li­cans, Joe Biden was blunt on Wednes­day: “Instead of doing any­thing to help make Amer­i­cans’ lives bet­ter, they are focused on trash­ing me with lies.”

Inquir­ing minds will watch if the inquiry pro­duces any evi­dence, and whether the so-called rea­son­able Repub­li­cans show any back­bone. In the words of Adam Schiff: “They’re always there for you when you don’t need them.”