Donald Trump urged House Republicans to begin impeachment hearings against President Biden before investigators obtained smoking gun evidence linking the distribution of son Hunter’s millions in questionable payouts directly to the president.
“Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US,” Trump posted last month on Truth Social.
The Freedom Caucus is leading the charge, and yet one of their staunchest conservatives is pushing back — Colorado U.S. Rep. Ken Buck.
Buck got both party’s attention with an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Friday titled:
My fellow Republicans: One disgraceful impeachment doesn’t deserve another
Buck’s point, House Democrats didn’t have the evidence to vote for impeachment against Trump, twice.
And now House Republicans still lack the smoking gun to impeach Biden.
But, but, but, what about all those payouts to the Biden family? What about that crooked Ukrainian prosecutor who claims he was investigating Hunter’s bosses at Burisma?
Sure, we just know the money ended up in Biden the elderly’s pocket and that he clearly orchestrated the whole payout scheme put into play by his drug-addled son.
But knowing in our hearts doesn’t translate into the concrete evidence Republicans are going to need to pursue impeachment against Biden.
Buck writes in a wake-up call to his Republican colleagues:
The GOP’s charge against Biden is that he personally benefited from his son’s deplorable business exploits around the globe. Without doubt, Hunter Biden’s shady business deals undermined America’s image and our anti-corruption goals, and his conduct was thoroughly reprehensible. What’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption.
The flimsy excuses for Biden’s impeachment right now are just as flimsy as those used by the Democrats to go after Trump, Buck argues.
I joined my Republican colleagues then in denouncing that impeachment. It was, as we argued at the time, an inversion of our own rule-of-law system. The Democrats had their man and found a pretext to impeach him.
Trump’s impeachment in 2019 was a disgrace to the Constitution and a disservice to Americans. The GOP’s reprise in 2023 is no better.
What Buck didn’t say, but we most certainly will, is that if Republicans pursue impeachment now … as much as we would love to see it — most assuredly it backfire on them all and cost Republicans the House, the Senate, and paint Biden as a victim leading to his (Gasp!) reelection.
Republicans will need rock hard evidence to convince the American people beyond a shadow of a doubt that millions also landed money in Joe’s pockets — just short of producing a video with Biden and Hunter’s Chinese and Ukraine benefactors frolicking in a hot tub full of hundred-dollar bills.
Every impeachment conducted by Republicans has backfired and resulted in election losses. To think this one is any different is naïve.
Buck is right, the unprecedented disgraceful behavior of the Democrats towards a Republican president must not turn into tit-for-tat politics, only to become business as usual in Washington, D.C.
We believe the smoking gun will eventually be found against Biden.
But Republicans need to produce that hard evidence before launching impeachment proceedings that includes bank records linking the payouts to Joe Biden, not just videos of his son wasting the money on hookers and blow.