No, they were from after he was VP, when he was a private citizen, prior to being elected POTUS. At least that’s my understanding, who knows if they’re inventing new things to blame him for.
Fair enough, but still nothing after Jan 20th, 2021.
As impeachment is entirely a political process, divorced from facts, I believe that if Republicans had the votes, they could impeach a judge for saying that Trump lost the 2020 election.
Yes and no. The facts or at least evidence itself (or lack of it) can hold very strong political implications and affect the results impeachment. It’s true that it’s nothing more than a bunch of politicians voting on something, but even politicians are less likely to vote on something that has zero factual basis. That could potentially hurt them in the next election.
(It’s sad that I have to say it “could potentially hurt them” rather than saying it would absolutely damage their career.)
If I were Biden, I would take a play from their playbook and double-down. “You got some evidence of my wrongdoing to the level of impeachment? Bring it! Let’s see what you got!” And, of course, it will be a giant nothingburger, so the Democrats and Biden can go ahead and smear it in their faces, with mock and humiliation, from now until election day. And then compare their “evidence” and “crimes” of Biden with that witnessed by Americans with their own eyes and ears on Jan 6 (and throughout 45s Presidency). Go ahead, Republicans - you got nothing, and you know it, and you know what will happen! Your move!
I’m sure they’re hoping for a Biden version of “Clinton’s email server”. Endless Benghazi investigations gave them the opportunity to dig up everything about Clinton. Eventually, they uncovered the unrelated private email server. The email server likely tilted things enough into Trump’s favor that he won. This impeachment will give them the opportunity to look under every rock and in every corner for something similar against Biden. I doubt they think the impeachment itself will be successful, but it will dig up a lot of stuff can that be used for their benefit in the election.
That’s not a play from the Republican playbook. The Republican playbook is to make up accusations, offer no evidence, and claim that the lack of evidence is itself evidence that the Democrats are up to no good, they are so insidious that they’re able to hide everything they do. It’s absolutely pathetic that the tactic works. They’ve been doing it for almost 3 years now to pound the drum about the election being stolen in 2020.
Fortunately, I think that only works on people who always vote Republican anyway.
It’s sad that I will go further, and say it’s unlikely to hurt them at all. Their voters do not have access to any factual information, and are, in fact, more likely to vote for the Republican rep if they hurl fact-free accusations and insults.
It looks like McCarthy has changed his mind about a floor vote, and instead will just direct that an inquiry will take place.
From a CNN article:
According to a GOP source, McCarthy’s announcement that he’s “directing committees” to open a formal inquiry means there will be no floor vote to formally authorize the effort – marking a reversal for the House speaker from comments he previously made.
IOW: he only intended for the story to make the news and has no plans to actually do anything.
That is so McCarthy of him to do that.
Indeed.
I think the tipping point was when Ken Buck, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said he was opposed. The other Republicans who spoke up against it were from districts Biden won in 2020, and therefore vulnerable. But Ken Buck!
Let me quote from an admittedly slanted Daily Kos commentary.
Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day: Ken Buck- 2021 Update
On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for Colorado’s 4th District, Ken Buck, who in his original profile, we noted was forced to resign in disgrace from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado in 2001, and in 2005, while working at the Weld, Colorado District Attorney’s office, he would seize the tax information of five thousand people in a raid on a tax service, getting the office sued by the public for violating their constitutional rights by seizing their personal information. Buck is also noted for being terribly misogynist, not just because he supports Personhood legislation or thinks rape and incest victims should be forced to carry any fetus they might end up pregnant with to term… in a 2010 failed campaign for U.S. Senate he stated his superiority because he didn’t “wear high heels”, and because in 2005, while a prosecutor, he refused to charge a rapist who confessed to forcing himself on his victim while drunk with rape because, as he put it, it was simply “a case of buyer’s remorse” from the victim.
McCarthy is making these noises solely to placate the Freedom Caucus. If the Freedom Caucus itself is recognizing the idiocy, then McCarthy’s only plan is to give the crazies a toy to play with for a while to distract them, and never allowing them any real follow-up.
Even Ken Buck understands how pinched McCarthy is. He offers the best summary of McCarthy’s position right now I’ve seen from the right.
“On the one hand, we’ve got to pass a continuing resolution,” he said. “We also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, Chip Roy, who are concerned about policy issues. They want riders in the appropriations bills, amendments in the appropriations bills that guarantee some type of security on our Southern border.”
“So you take those things put together, and Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, has made promises on each of those issues to different groups. And now it is all coming due at the same time,” he added, noting the difficulty in passing a continuing resolution with only Republican votes. “And so I think if he reaches across the aisle and gets Democrat votes that goes with a higher number than he has promised before, I think that that is the issue really that I think will cause him problems down the road.”
Buck, however, predicted that McCarthy would ultimately hold onto his speakership, despite those challenges, due to the lack of people willing to step up and take his job.
It’s like watching a sitcom where a guy accidentally agreed to two different dates on the same night and is comically trying to bounce back and forth between them, excusing himself each time. “Boy, he sure does have to use the bathroom a lot!”
It’s just as amusing to watch, too.
Or that scene towards the end of Mrs. Doubtfire.
Now I’m picturing McCarthy being confused as to which mask he’s supposed to be wearing.
I was sitting here feeling confused, certain that i remember McCarthy himself say that the only proper way to do things was to hold a vote on whether to hold an impeachment inquiry. I thought, after I heard that, that he was just letting them get it out of their systems because it would never pass, there were enough Republicans publicly stating that they didn’t see the need because there was no evidence. Then i thought, won’t they look foolish when the vote fails!
I guess that is flip flopper came to the same conclusion. “Never mind what i said yesterday, were having an inquiry starting now.”
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
-Emerson
I guess McCarthy has a B-I-G mind, eh?
Impeach him for what, exactly? Something something laptop something?
Jared Kushner took $2 billion from the Saudis. Billion, with a b.
it’s right there in the article:
House Republicans haven’t uncovered any evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden