Commentary
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, under pressure from former President Donald Trump and threats from right-wing members of his caucus, announced this week that the House will open an impeachment inquiry into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s family. Almost immediately, McCarthy began using that decision to raise money for his own campaign committee.
Trump has been badgering Republican congressional leaders to impeach Biden as retribution for his own impeachments, ranting on his social media site, “THEY DID IT TO US.” McCarthy gave in to Trump’s demands even though all the right-wing media ranting about Biden’s corruption has turned out to be all sound and fury. As The Hill noted:
In the months that the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has been investigating the Biden family business dealings, it has not found that the president directly financially benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings or proved that he made any policy decisions because of them.
Even some congressional Republicans think the unfounded and nakedly political move is a bad idea in the absence of any evidence that President Biden broke the law. Democrats have called McCarthy’s decision “absurd” and a “joke” and a distraction from GOP difficulties in getting agreement to fund the government.
None of that kept McCarthy from quickly trying to cash in on his move to placate Trump supporters. McCarthy for Congress sent a fundraising email Thursday morning under the headline “Biden Investigation Update.” The word “impeachment” doesn’t show up in the text of the letter, but if you click through to the donation page, you find a reference to impeaching Biden in the pre-checked box to make your contribution to McCarthy for Congress occur monthly:
McCarthy’s letter makes bold claims but doesn’t back them up.
The House is now spearheading the commitment to hold Joe Biden and his cronies accountable to you, and let me tell you – the Biden family corruption our investigations have uncovered in just a few short months is damning.
Of course, McCarthy’s letter doesn’t have a single detail about the supposedly damning evidence House Republicans have uncovered. Given the lack of real information, McCarthy has to rely on calling out the standard MAGA GOP enemies list: the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Hollywood, Big Tech, and “D.C. bureaucrats.”
“If we don’t see some immediate backup from our grassroots supporters, I fear Joe Biden and his cronies will get off scot-free with their sketchy schemes,” McCarthy wrote. Sketchy indeed.
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