If Only The MAGAts Could Impeach Hunter Biden!
Just in the last 2 months, various House Republicans— primarily named Marjorie Traitor Greene— have introduced 11 impeachment resolutions against members of the Biden Administration they don’t like, including Biden, of course, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Ray, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves. Georgia crackpot Traitor-Greene alone introduced impeachment resolutions against 5 in the past 2 months. And she was overheard arguing with a staffer about introducing impeachment articles against Lauren Boebert as well as Melissa Merida, Sandra Fortier, Ashley Martin and Amanda Harris, the librarians as the Rome-Floyd County Library.
The incredibly weak speaker has tried to keep the extremists and fanatics in his conference from forcing impeachment votes on their whims after watching something incendiary (and baseless) on Newsmax or Fox the night before. He keeps trying to explain to members who flunked out of high school or wound up in Buy-Bull “colleges” that impeachments have to grow out of cartefully conducted committee investigations, not out of two-day benders and that efforts have “got to reach the constitutional level of impeachment.” But now— under pressure from the House “Freedom” Caucus and from Trump— he’s given up and is ready to let them impeach whoever they want. Last November he warned that “If Secretary Mayorkas does not resign, House Republicans will investigate; every order, every action and every failure will determine whether we can begin impeachment inquiry.”
“But,” The Hill reported yesterday, “he’s facing impatience from far-right members of the conference, many with hopes of playing a central role in any impeachment efforts, which would quickly devour the political oxygen in Washington and command the national media spotlight.” Although they’re not all calling each other “little bitches” and threatening to beat each other up the way Traitor Greene and Boebert have, they’re all arguing about whose name gets on the impeachment resolutions.
Rep Andy Biggs (R-AZ) who introduced the first Mayorkas impeachment resolution last year but trailed another such bill this year, said it’s not clear when such a measure would move forward or whose name would be on it.
“I introduced mine first— and then I introduced it forth again… I’ve probably ticked off the leadership too much for them to allow mine to be the one, to be the vehicle. But I still think mine is most comprehensive,” he said.
“I don’t know if we’ll introduce a new one or just try to amend this one as it moves forward. But I just think that more and more people are starting to come around to the necessity to impeach the guy.”
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX), who introduced the first Mayorkas impeachment articles this year, would also like to be involved.
“I was the first one out of the gate, but I don’t really care. You know, success has 1,000 fathers,” he said.
“I’d like to lead the effort, but even if I could just be a lieutenant of someone who does if it’s not me, I’m perfectly content with that as well. Because we are a team— we’re supposed to be, the 222 of us— and I definitely think he needs to be replaced.”
The Mayorkas bills have been complicated by Boebert’s resolution, which House Republicans voted to refer to the House Homeland Security Committee, as well as House Judiciary, for consideration.
[Homeland Security Committee chair Mark] Green (R-TN) has been steadfastly focused on Mayorkas, earlier this month laying out a five-phase plan for an investigation into the secretary. Those findings would be turned over to leaders of the Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who would then decide how to move forward.
Though Boebert’s resolution, like those focused on Mayorkas, deems impeachment a fitting response for what Republicans see as a mishandling the border, Democrats have dismissed the plan as trying to boot someone from office over a policy disagreement rather than high crimes and misdemeanors.
CNN reported yesterday that McCarthy is so incredible weak that he’s going to allow the push for impeachment by the nuts and crackpots in his conference to dominate the the House agenda over the next few months. And that includes all the little crazy MAGAts who want to take a run at Biden to make Trump proud. CNN posits that this “underscores how Republicans are quickly shifting their focus to red-meat issues that could fire up their base, even as some in their conference are nervous about voter backlash over the more aggressive approach.
Now that Traitor Greene saw her nemesis Lauren Boebert nearly get away with it, she “has also signaled she intends to force floor votes on her resolutions, meaning the issue is sure to take center stage for the House GOP in the weeks and months ahead. ‘I’ve talked to everyone here until I’m blue in the face for a long time about impeachment,’ Greene told CNN.”
Not all Republicans are in districts with R+45 partisan leans, filled with drooling morons the way Traitor Greene’s is. Don Bacon’s district, for example (Omaha) has an R+3 partisan lean and voted for Biden 52.2% to 45.8%. “Impeachment should be treated in the serious matter it deserves,” he said. “We’ve lowered the bar over the last four years, and it’s not healthy.”
I asked a top GOP staffer on Capitol Hill how impeachment hearings would play out. He began by predicting the Republicans would be kissing their majority goodbye and said that forcing vulnerable Republicans in swing districts to vote would be like shoving them off a cliff. “[G]et ready to say goodbye to Duarte, Valadao, Steel and Garcia in California and D’Esposito, Lawler, Williams and Molinaro is New York— for starters. Lori in Oregon, Kean in New Jersey, Schweikert in Arizona… all gone… [But] it could cut deeper than that. This isn’t what we promised independents and swing voters and it isn’t what they want. Even safe Republican seats could be put in jeopardy. No one thinks the Miami Republicans are in real trouble this year. I spoke to one of the chiefs [of staff] this morning who told me they’re shitting a brick… Bryan Steil and Van Orden, Cory Mills, Ogles, Mike Turner, John James, Tony Gonzales, Ken Calvert, that idiot Boebert and her friend Luna, Richard Hudson, Miller-Meeks, Hinson and Nunn in Iowa— all in needless jeopardy— Laurel Lee. Bye-bye Monica [De La Cruz]. We could lose the western Montana House seat if the Democrats manage to find a decent candidate…”
The CNN team reported that “McCarthy has also faced pressure behind closed doors as members like Greene have met with him to personally make their case for why the House GOP should launch impeachment proceedings. And McCarthy will need every ounce of conservative support he can get as he heads into spending season, where he may be forced to ultimately compromise with Democrats once again and fall short of the demands from the far right.”
Impeaching a Cabinet official has only happened once in US history when William Belknap, the secretary of war, was impeached by the House before being acquitted by the Senate in 1876. But some in the GOP view the idea of charging a Cabinet member with committing a high crime or misdemeanor as an easier sell than impeaching Biden himself.
Yet McCarthy would still have some serious work to do in wrangling the votes for impeachment, with some moderate and vulnerable House Republicans still concerned about the optics of the politically contentious move, which would be dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Some of those Republican holdouts serve on the House Judiciary Committee, whose panel would be responsible for launching any official impeachment proceedings.
“I don’t know why we have members on Judiciary that can’t vote for impeachment,” Greene told CNN.
In the meantime, committees are expected to plug away with their investigative work. The House Oversight panel intends to conduct transcribed interviews with witnesses in the investigations into Biden’s mishandling of classified material and potential Biden family influence peddling, an Oversight Committee aide told CNN, while Weiss faces a deadline of next week to hand over documents related to the Hunter Biden probe.
And in addition to taking aim at Biden, some key Republicans are pushing the House to take up a symbolic effort to clear Trump’s name, in just another example of how Republicans are using their power to run defense for Trump. Last week, Greene and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik introduced a pair of resolutions to expunge both of Trump’s impeachments– something McCarthy also said he supports.
“It is past time to expunge Democrats’ sham smear against not only President Trump’s name, but against millions of patriots across the country,” Stefanik said in a statement.
I wanted to get a reality check from someone in Congress who i know is a straight shooter and who wouldn't duck the question. I called Ted Lieu. "When Democrats had control of Congress we passed the American Rescue plan to help our economy and society recover from the pandemic, a bipartisan infrastructure law to repair our roads and bridges and bring broadband everywhere, the CHIPS and Science Act to invest in America's high tech semiconductor industry, and the Inflation Reduction Act representing the single largest investment to address climate change in our nation's history-- to name a few. There's more we want to do of course, but we had an extremely productive Congress fighting for American families. What are Republicans focused on now that they control the House? Hunter Biden's laptop, gas stoves, and trying to whitewash Trump's shameful coup attempt. The patients are running the asylum in Kevin McCarthy's conference and our nation is paying the price. And Republicans who represent moderate districts are likely to pay a price next year. The MAGA agenda is not popular and by forcing these Members to take tough votes, the Speaker is sealing his party's fate." That's the reality. Check.