Last week, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry against President Biden. According to AP, McCarthy’s inquiry is vastly based on an allegation against Biden during his time in office as vice president. Biden allegedly pressured the Ukrainian government into firing its top prosecutor to stop an investigation into Burisma, an oil and gas company that Hunter Biden — the president’s son — was on the board of. This allegation has been disproven for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, there are direct claims going against the narrative put forth by McCarthy.
According to RFERL, Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Center, stated that “Ironically, Joe Biden asked Shokin to leave because the prosecutor failed [to pursue] the Burisma investigation, not because Shokin was tough and active with this case.” Secondly, the claims that Biden enacted bribes to receive direct funds from Burisma are equally contested. McCarthy is calling non-incriminating dinners and phone calls between President Biden and Hunter Biden’s client’s grounds to impeach when insufficient evidence has been put forth.
Hypocrisy is also the name of the game for the announcement of this impeachment. The inquiry was made without a vote from the house, a motion that McCarthy had been vocally against before. Just two weeks ago, McCarthy told Breitbart that the inquiry would not be made without a house vote, a statement he has clearly gone against. These actions go against an argument McCarthy made back in 2019 when former speaker Nancy Pelosi launched an impeachment against former President Trump without a house vote. While a vote was eventually held, McCarthy called the action “completely devoid of any merit or legitimacy.” McCarthy has not said anything against holding his vote at a later time, but there are also speculations that the vote has not happened because it would not be passed, even with the house’s current Republican majority.
This speculation comes from the number of Republican representatives who have spoken out against the inquiry. Because of the lack of evidence presented by McCarthy, Republican representatives like David Joyce, Dusty Johnson, Don Bacon, Ken Buck and Matt Gaetz have openly challenged the grounds for the impeachment inquiry.
The basis of this inquiry is shaky at best, and the whole situation is riddled with the scent of petty revenge and helpless retaliation. The impeachment of President Biden seems to be a game of hot potato for the Republican Party, who wants to toss the potato back at the Democratic Party for the impeachment of former President Trump. McCarthy has had three committees investigate the situation for nine months prior to his recent impeachment announcement. Throughout those nine months, time and time again the committees have come up empty handed.
All that the inquiry is now is an unsupported hail mary to try and claw back at President Biden for a situation that he has nothing to do with, an action that is needlessly wasting taxpayer dollars and committee effort. In the end, the controversy might even prove beneficial for President Biden, who can use any news to steer away from the clear lack of enthusiasm for his run for a second term due to the perception around him being “too old” for office.
