Those Old Impeachment Blues

Republicans are opening an impeachment inquiry against President Biden even though they have no evidence he has done anything wrong.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

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There is hypocrisy … and then there is this.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he is directing House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, amid pressure from some hard-right members of the Republican caucus to do so.

The inquiry would center on whether Biden benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, among other issues, McCarthy said.

“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption and warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning. “That’s why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.”

Think about all the allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption against Donald Trump that Republicans consistently swept under the rug and refused to investigate. Think about the excuses that GOP leaders constantly made for Trump’s behavior — from his pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden and his ostentatious violations of the Emoluments clause to his efforts to obstruct the Mueller investigation and, of course, trying to overturn the 2020 election. House GOP members waved every Trump scandal away. Now, without a shred of evidence, they are opening an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

Republicans have been investigating the president for nine months. They’ve found nothing to justify an impeachment investigation — no culture of corruption, no abuse of power, and no profiting off the presidency. But because Kevin McCarthy is under constant pressure to appease his far-right jihadist caucus, he is nakedly politicizing the impeachment process by opening this investigation. It is beyond reprehensible.

It’s also bad politics.

This move will undoubtedly appeal to the GOP’s MAGA wing, but it’s precisely the kind of political stunt that will remind voters of how extreme the modern Republican Party has become. I suspect that the White House is secretly thrilled by this news. If they want to run against MAGA extremism, House Republicans have given them another powerful arrow for their quiver.

Moreover, the inquiry is almost certainly going nowhere. There’s a reason why McCarthy ordered an investigation and didn’t put the issue to a floor vote … it would have failed. McCarthy has an incredibly narrow majority, and there’s little evidence that an impeachment vote would win the support of a majority of his caucus. Even far-right Republicans like Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado are warning against impeachment (and are, not surprisingly, getting threatened with a primary challenge).

So this is almost certainly a political stunt that will temporarily satisfy extremist Republicans but ultimately disappoints them when it likely goes nowhere. It’s yet another example of both McCarthy’s chronic short-term political thinking and the extent to which the inmates are running the asylum in the House.

The Hypocrisy It Burns

By the way, this is what McCarthy said about impeachment 11 days ago.

“To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives,” McCarthy told Breitbart News. “That’s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”

Here’s what he said four years ago about an impeachment inquiry directed at President Trump.

Ashton Pittman/Twitter

It would be a helluva thing if Republican members of Congress were capable of feeling shame … or if their supporters held them accountable for their rank hypocrisy.

We Love The Unborn … the Born, Not So Much

Here’s your chart of the day.

The increase in child poverty is overwhelmingly the result of the Senate refusing to extend the child tax credit. I wrote about the child tax credit expiration more than a year ago … the subsequent increase in child poverty was a completely foreseeable event. While West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin opposed the extension and ultimately killed it, he wouldn’t have had that power if all 50 Senate Republicans did not share his view.

So keep this chart in mind next time you hear Republicans talk about how much they care about children and preserving life. If you’re actively opposing measures to keep innocent children out of poverty, you don’t love kids … you’re a monster.

Things That Aren’t Going To Happen

Every day, it seems, there are news stories pitching far-fetched political outcomes that simply aren’t going to happen. Here’s a quick debunking of a few from the past couple of weeks.

• Joe Biden will not drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Barring a health situation, he will be the Democratic nominee in 2024.

• Biden will not win Ohio.

• Trump will not be thrown off the presidential ballot because of the 14th Amendment.

• Biden will not be impeached, and I’m increasingly skeptical that Wisconsin Republicans will impeach the newly elected Democratic member of the state’s Supreme Court.

• The Jets will not win the Super Bowl.

I’m wondering if I should make this a regular Truth and Consequences feature … and if readers want to know why I think these things won’t happen, you can ask, and I’ll explain why.

What’s Going On

• Great and brave piece by Hadley Freeman on the highly dubious conventional wisdom accusing Woody Allen of pedophilia.

• Yet another reminder that the greatest divides in American politics are along racial and ethnic lines.

• Hussein Ibish has a theory as to why the Biden administration is pushing so hard for Israel-Saudi normalization.

Musical Interlude

Bassist Richard Davis passed away last week. He was a true musical giant who appeared on 600 albums. But, for me, nothing will surpass his work on Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” one of the greatest albums ever produced.