Two days ago, MAGA Republicans announced their intent to impeach President Biden. Today, a Republican special counsel announced his intent to prosecute Biden’s son, Hunter.
Trumped-up charges fueled the announcement in each case. That’s self-evident.
Why Republicans are impeaching Biden
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced Tuesday that Republicans in the lower chamber are launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The inquiry comes as Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., have long alleged that Biden was improperly involved in his family’s business dealings. GOP lawmakers have particularly targeted the work of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
The White House immediately dismissed the inquiry, with special assistant to the president Ian Sams calling the move’ extreme politics at its worst.’
(USA Today, September 13, 2023)
It’s “extreme politics at its worst” because Republicans are doing Trump’s bidding. The aim is to help Trump get elected president, not to seek justice according to the rule of law.
Of course, the rest is propagating a big lie that rivals the one about Trump winning the 2020 presidential election. The lie in this case is that Biden’s impeachment makes him just as corrupt as Trump, a twice-impeached, four-times indicted, gilded-tower grifter.
Why Republicans are indicting Hunter
I suppose all’s fair in politics, like love and war. That explains Republicans being so hellbent on imputing the sins of the son onto the father.
‘As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case,’ Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
‘The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA Republicans’ improper and partisan interference in this process.’
(Reuters, September 14, 2023)
The facts and circumstances make clear that no fair-minded prosecutor would’ve filed these charges. I commented on the politics that compelled this special counsel to do so in “Judge Balks at Hunter Biden Plea Deal as GOP Hunts the ‘Biden Crime Family‘” on July 26, 2023.
This is not the Biden, but his son will do. And, coupled with the impeachment, this indictment will give Trump cover to project gaslighting claims that Biden is just as corrupt as he is.
Kangaroo impeachment and indictment
I cannot overstate that no Republican believes Biden has done anything that warrants impeachment or that his son has done anything that warrants indictment. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Because here is how no less a person than McCarthy, mentioned above, explained the trademark political ploy afoot:
‘Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?’ McCarthy asked. ‘But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.’
(The Washington Post, September 30, 2015)
Granted, it’s hard to imagine Biden’s numbers dropping any lower than they already are. But Republicans won’t rest until they gaslight Americans into thinking Biden is no better than Trump in any respect. “The Biden crime family” or the Trump crime family — who are you going to choose?
But the bottom line is that Republicans are merely showing what they showed on January 6. A majority of them voted to endorse the treasonous aims of the insurrectionists. And they remain willing to destroy American democracy to help their cult leader, Donald J. Trump, acquire authoritarian power.
MAGA mascot and Jesus actor Jim Caviezel (of “The Passion of the Christ” fame) thinks Trump was chosen by God to rule as a latter-day King David. That’s politically laughable. But MAGA Republicans think so, too. That’s politically flammable.
Calls for Biden to retire
Acclaimed pundits like David Ignatius of the Washington Post are finally calling on Biden to retire, citing his old age. But this is like fans pleading for an old, beaten-down Muhammad Ali to retire. The humiliation was done.
That’s why Biden will regret not heeding the call some of us made nearly a year ago for him to announce that he will not run for reelection. If he had done so, he would have been spared his impeachment and his son’s indictment.
But Biden faces the likelihood now of being forced to retire under political and legal duress. He missed the opportunity to retire gracefully. And that’s a damn shame.
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