House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continued to face questions regarding his opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Thursday. One exchange with a reporter grew tense as McCarthy challenged the notion that no evidence exists to support the move.
Flipping the script, the Speaker began to question the questioner, and that made his point better than any generic statement could have.
Kevin McCarthy calls out a reporter for nonchalantly dismissing concerns about Joe Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
“Do you have any concern?”
“Have you asked the White House ANY questions?!”
“You can’t answer that?” pic.twitter.com/qWEJRjym7X
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 14, 2023
REPORTER: Congressman Issa came out and said that both Chairman Jordan and Comer were not able to present anything that is an impeachable offense at this point. Is that an assessment that you share?
MCCARTHY: You know, an impeachment inquiry is not impeachment so what an impeachment inquiry is to do is to get answers to questions. Are you concerned about all the stuff that was just recently learned? Do you have any concern? Have you asked the White House any questions?
REPORTER: Yes
MCCARTHY: Okay, do you agree that, do you believe that the president lied to the American public when he said he had never talked to his son about business dealings? Yes or not? It’s alright.
REPORTER: I can’t answer that.
From the start, the reporter was already operating from a faulty premise. You do not have to have a proven impeachable offense to open an inquiry. In fact, the entire point of the inquiry is to further investigate an alleged impeachable offense. Through the inquiry, more evidence may be produced.
At this exact moment, is there absolute proof that Joe Biden was directly involved in his son’s corrupt foreign dealings, including selling influence? That’s debatable, but certainly, there is more than enough smoke to warrant an inquiry. Through those elevated investigative powers, Congress can then seek to answer some of the key questions currently hanging out there.
Back to McCarthy, he started to recite several direct allegations they’ll be digging into. With each question he asked, he challenged the reporter to state they were false. Each and every time, she couldn’t do it.
MCCARTHY: You can’t answer that? Do you believe when they said the president went on conference calls? Do you believe that happened?
REPORTER: That’s what the testimony says.
MCCARTHY: Okay, do you believe the president went to Cafe Milano and had dinner with the clients of Hunter Biden who believes he got those clients because he was selling the brand?
REPORTER: That’s what the testimony says.
MCCARTHY: Okay, do you believe Hunter Biden when you saw the video of him driving a Porsche, that he got $143,000 to buy that Porsche the next day? Do you believe the $3 million from the Russian oligarch that was transferred to the shell companies that the Bidens controlled after the dinner from Cafe Milano took place?
REPORTER: That’s what the testimony says.
MCCARTHY: Okay, then I go back, do you think the president lied?
REPORTER: But is that an impeachable, is lying an impeachable offense?
MCCARTHY: Well, you want to know, I’m not saying impeachment. All I’m saying is, I would like to know the answers to these questions. The American public would like to know, and that’s what an impeachment inquiry provides.
Either this reporter was purposely playing dumb, or the D.C. press corps isn’t sending its best. McCarthy stated multiple times that Biden is not being impeached yet. He made clear that the point of the inquiry is to analyze evidenced concerns that any normal person would want to see investigated, and still the reporter pretends that an impeachment inquiry requires an already proven impeachable offense.
“But is that an impeachment, is lying an impeachable offense” she asks as if McCarthy hadn’t just dealt with that by listing multiple instances where Joe Biden appeared to be involved in his family’s influence-peddling operation. It’s mind-numbing to see these reporters, who obviously got their marching orders from the White House, act like they wouldn’t be screaming bloody murder if we were talking about a Republican president’s misdeeds.
Again, this isn’t complicated. You do not open an inquiry when you already have all the evidence and the impeachable offense is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. If Republicans were at that place, they wouldn’t need an inquiry. Instead, they could just vote on articles of impeachment and be done with it. At this point, I take the press’ consternation as a sign Republicans that are on the right track.
