They’re making every effort to prove it
First thing this morning, up pops a Kaitlan Collins CNN interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). Collins posts:
Rep. Nancy Mace says she supports a House impeachment inquiry. Asked isn’t it supposed to be the evidence that leads you to pursue an impeachment inquiry, Mace responds, “That’s what the inquiry is for, to get more evidence.”
Marcy Wheeler (@emptywheel from Ireland) responds:
BREAKING: @NancyMace admits, 1) She hasn’t read Biden’s tax releases, which unlike Trump, Biden releases 2) she’s willing to engage in a constitutional abomination of impeaching BECAUSE there’s no evidence of wrongdoing.
Trump wants his retribution NOW
Let’s cut to the chase. Digby summarized what’s behind this nonsense on Monday:
It’s absolutely the case that they are doing this for Trump because he has demanded it. That goes without saying. But since they are all bent on destroying democracy and the constitutional order, de-legitimizing the impeachment process is a no brainer. If they have the power (meaning a 2/3 Senate majority) they will remove any Democratic president for whatever trumped up charges they come up with. If they don’t have the power they will use it as yet another of their patented performance art projects. Impeachment will be devalued so that even if Democrats have the evidence and the power to remove, it will be seen as illegitimate. Win win for the bad guys.
For further proof, it is not just Republicans inside the Beltway pursuing an “if you can’t beat ’em, impeach ’em agenda.” * Wisconsin Republicans, secure in their heavily gerrymandered districts and with a supermajority in the state legislature, intend to engineer the suspension (via impeachus interruptus) of the newly elected state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz. Earlier this year, Jamelle Bouie reminds us, the Milwaukee liberal won her seat on the court by double digits in a special election with record turnout, ending the partisan advantage held by Republicans.
What has Protasiewicz done so soon to merit impeachment? Nothing, yet. So what? (Bouie):
Wisconsin Republicans can’t strip a judicial officer of her power. But they can remove her, which is what they intend to do. “Republicans in Wisconsin are coalescing around the prospect of impeaching a newly seated liberal justice on the state’s Supreme Court,” my newsroom colleague Reid J. Epstein reports. “The push, just five weeks after Justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the court and before she has heard a single case, serves as a last-ditch effort to stop the new 4-to-3 liberal majority from throwing out Republican-drawn state legislative maps and legalizing abortion in Wisconsin.”
Republicans have more than enough votes in the Wisconsin State Assembly to impeach Justice Protasiewicz and just enough votes in the State Senate — a two-thirds majority — to remove her. But removal would allow Governor Evers to appoint another liberal jurist, which is why Republicans don’t plan to convict and remove Protasiewicz. If, instead, the Republican-led State Senate chooses not to act on impeachment, Justice Protasiewicz is suspended but not removed. The court would then revert to a 3-3 deadlock, very likely preserving the Republican gerrymander and keeping a 19th-century abortion law, which bans the procedure, on the books.
If successful, Wisconsin Republicans will have created, in effect, an unbreakable hold on state government. With their gerrymander in place, they have an almost permanent grip on the State Legislature, with supermajorities in both chambers. With these majorities, they can limit the reach and power of any Democrat elected to statewide office and remove — or neutralize — any justice who might rule against the gerrymander.
Or Protasiewicz could rule to overturn the state’s 19th-century abortion law. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow provided a primer Monday night, calling the maneuver “a nice trick”) :
Republicans in this swing state also plan to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that “the Democratic Attorney General and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys concluded earlier this month” that the Senate technically has no power to remove Wolfe. So what?
Evidence not required
Regarding the Republican threat to impeach Biden, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) of Maryland, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, rebuked Chairman James Comer (R) of Kentucky in a letter for promoting debunked claims and second-hand allegations.
In a statement, Raskin denounced the committee’s efforts as:
… a transparent effort to boost Donald Trump’s campaign by establishing a false moral equivalency between Trump—the four time-indicted former president now facing 91 federal and state criminal charges, based on a mountain of damning evidence for a shocking range of felonies, including lying to the FBI, endangering national security by illegally keeping classified documents, and conspiring to subvert the U.S. Constitution—and President Biden, against whom there is precisely zero evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever. To the contrary, Chairman Comer’s investigation has conclusively disproven the Republican allegations against President Biden.
Raskin provides receipts:
Not only does this voluminous evidence fail to even suggest any wrongdoing by President Biden, it in fact proves the opposite. Specifically:
- None of the bank records Comer has released shows any payments to President Biden.
- None of the SARs the Committee reviewed alleges, or even suggests, any potential misconduct by President Biden, nor do the SARs show any involvement by President Biden in Hunter Biden’s financial or business relationships.
- Not one of the witness accounts provided to the Committee has shown any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, including accounts from two IRS agents and a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent, who were involved in the DOJ’s investigation of Hunter Biden.
- Former business associates of Hunter Biden who have been interviewed by the Committee—Eric Schwerin and Devon Archer—explicitly stated that they have no reason to believe President Biden had any involvement in Hunter Biden’s business deals, much less any reason to believe President Biden took any official action on behalf of his son’s business ventures.
- Mr. Schwerin, who performed bookkeeping and other administrative tasks for then Vice-President Biden and therefore had access to his bank records, stated that he was not aware of any involvement by President Biden in the financial conduct of his relatives’ businesses, much less any transactions into or out of the then-Vice President’s bank account related to business conducted by any Biden family member.
- Two IRS agents who testified before the Committee affirmed that they do not have any evidence of political interference by President Biden or Attorney General Merrick Garland.
- The Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent interviewed by the Committee rejected Republicans’ claims that prosecutorial decisions by U.S. Attorney David Weiss or his team were the result of any political interference.
So what? Dear Leader wants his revenge and he wants it now. And a compliant press is abetting the GOP by reporting the faux controversy over “bribery” and repeating “too old” stories about Biden in their accustomed “but her emails” style.
Really, the GOP should have to turn in their pocket Constitutions, American flags, and red-white-and-blue trinkets. There’s little American left of them but the branding. Just like Brand Trump.
* Before reminding me of Donald Trump’s two impeachments by Democrats, reference Donald Trump’s 91 criminal charges across four jurisdictions with more likely to come.
** For some reason, ‘X’ embeds are not working this morning.