Yesterday, in a shameful display, MAGA House Republicans voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. To no one’s surprise, this inquiry is all at Donald Trump’s direction to help him return to the White House in 2024. MAGA House Republicans have chosen to stand with Donald Trump, the disgraced former president facing 91 criminal indictments, instead of with the American people and issues like access to health care and the cost of living. Instead, they are pushing ahead with this desperate political stunt, despite the fact that James Comer and Jim Jordan’s year-long investigation has not produced a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing by the President, let alone any high crime or misdemeanor warranting impeachment. But don’t just take our word for it:
The New York Times: Urged on by Trump, House Republicans Embrace Biden Impeachment Inquiry. “When the House votes on Wednesday to authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, it will be the culmination of a slow but decisive political shift among Republicans — urged on by former President Donald J. Trump and his closest allies in Congress — from a place of resisting such an inquiry to fully embracing it.” [The New York Times, 12/12/23]
The Independent: House Republicans Do Trump’s Bidding In Vote To Open Impeachment Inquiry Into Joe Biden. “The Republican-led House of Representatives on Wednesday voted on party lines to authorise an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, fulfilling a wish articulated by former president Donald Trump and many of his allies who would like Mr Biden to be tainted by the GOP-led probe as he seeks re-election next year. […] The vote fulfilled a demand made by Mr Trump, who had been pushing that the House begin proceedings against Mr Biden because he had been the subject of two impeachments himself during his term. In an August social media post on his Truth Social platform, he wrote: ‘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!’ And in an interview with right-wing radio host Megyn Kelly the next month, the disgraced ex-president explicitly stated that the GOP impeachment push is a matter of tit-for-tat. ‘I think had they not done it to me, and I’m very popular, they like me and I like them, the Republican Party, perhaps you wouldn’t have it being done to them,’ he said.” [The Independent, 12/13/23]
Rolling Stone: GOP Rep. Explains Impeachment Push: ‘Donald J. Trump 2024, Baby!’ “The party has struggled to gin up a legitimate rationale for moving forward with the inquiry, which has yet to produce any credible evidence of wrongdoing, but one Republican is saying the quiet part out loud. When Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) was asked Tuesday on Capitol Hill what he’s hoping to gain from an impeachment inquiry, Nehls responded: ‘All I can say is: Donald J. Trump 2024, baby!’” [Rolling Stone, 12/13/23]
ABC News: House Republicans Formalize Impeachment Inquiry Into President Biden. “‘We are here today on the House floor, wasting time and taxpayer dollars on an illegitimate impeachment inquiry, because Donald Trump, the puppet master, has directed the extreme MAGA Republicans to launch a political hit job against Joe Biden,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said as he displayed a sign with the hashtag ‘Do-Nothing Republican Congress.’” [ABC News, 12/13/23]
Roll Call: House GOP Adds Biden To List Of Presidents To Face Formal Impeachment Probe. “‘What are you scared of? The facts?’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., rhetorically asked Democrats on the floor Wednesday. Democrats have stuck by Biden, contending he is innocent and arguing House Republicans are trying to weaken the president and his party heading into a likely rematch against former President Donald Trump, who was impeached twice and now faces four criminal indictments. ‘This is Donald Trump’s quote, ‘Either impeach the bum or fade into oblivion,’ Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said Tuesday as the panel debated the resolution, quoting from an Aug. 27 social media post by the former president and 2024 GOP presidential front-runner. ‘And, unfortunately, my Republican colleagues are so fearful of him, or so afraid of him, that they do whatever he asks them to do. That is why we are here. We are here because of Donald Trump.’” [Roll Call, 12/13/23]
Vanity Fair: Republicans Can’t Believe Fox News Keeps Calling Them Out on Their Impeachment Bulls–t. “That Republicans will likely vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden on Wednesday should not come as a surprise to anyone given the GOP’s history of (1) being obsessed with the unproven claim that the president sits at the top of a sprawling family crime ring (2) doing everything Donald Trump tells it to do, and (3) having no shame.” [Vanity Fair, 12/13/23]
Spectrum News 1: House Votes To Formalize GOP-Led Biden Impeachment Inquiry. “Democrats defended Biden and accused Republicans of only doing the bidding of former President Donald Trump.” [Spectrum News 1, 12/13/23]
The Los Angeles Times (Opinion): House GOP Can’t Govern, But Keeps Trying To Impeach Biden. “Can you imagine them simply closing up the investigatory shop without an impeachment vote in election year 2024, thereby enraging their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump, along with the party’s MAGA base? As Trump warned on his social media site in August, ‘Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION.’ Should the House indeed impeach Biden, the Senate then would have to conduct a trial — amid the presidential campaign. That, of course, is the real point: Weaken Biden and create a political parallel to Trump’s criminal trials.” [Los Angeles Times, 12/14/23]