House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's opening of a Biden impeachment inquiry was treated with maximum cynicism on the front page of The New York Times. The labeling began right in the headline and lead sentence of Wednesday’s story: “McCarthy Opens Inquiry of Biden, Appeasing Right.”
New York Times reporters Carl Hulse, Luke Broadwater, and Annie Karni fed more fuel to the “far-right” smearing of House Republicans after they dared extend their ongoing investigation into how deeply President Biden was involved in his son Hunter’s business dealings, into a formal impeachment inquiry.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, working to appease far-right lawmakers who have threatened to oust him if he fails to accede to their demands for deep spending cuts that would force a government shutdown at the end of the month.
Mr. McCarthy’s decision to unilaterally announce an impeachment investigation with no formal House vote entwined the Republican investigations into Mr. Biden with the funding fight that is rattling the Capitol. It appeared to be a bid to quell a brewing rebellion among ultraconservative critics who have accused the speaker of not taking a hard enough line on spending, by complying with their demands to more aggressively pursue the president.
Mr. McCarthy said he would task three committees -- Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means -- with carrying out the inquiry into the president and his family as Republicans hunt for evidence of financial wrongdoing or corruption. After months of digging, Republicans have found no such proof, though they argue they have enough information to warrant more investigation.
In case readers hadn’t gotten the point yet, the reporters offered more warnings about Biden’s “far right” enemies.
His broadside illustrated the precarious position Mr. McCarthy finds himself in as he seeks to placate his far right while finding some spending accommodation with the Democratic-controlled Senate and the White House that avoids a politically dangerous shutdown….
Far-right Republicans were also promising to withhold their votes for any temporary spending bill that continues funding at current levels, and even a Pentagon spending bill that usually draws bipartisan support was in trouble in the House. After Mr. McCarthy’s impeachment announcement, members of the far-right Freedom Caucus reiterated that they would not support a stopgap measure, meaning Mr. McCarthy might have to turn to Democrats to help pass one or face a shutdown and the ensuing blame.
(Now let's go back to four years ago, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi authorized the first impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump over Hunter Biden and his Ukrainian influence-peddling. There was no "appeasing" a "far-left" bloc, or a "left" of any kind. The front-page headline on September 25, 2019: "Pelosi Will Open Formal Impeachment Inquiry, Accusing President of ‘Betrayal’ of the Nation." In fact, reporter Nicholas Fandos implied Democrats weren't aggressive enough: it came "after months of reticence by Democrats who had feared the political consequences of impeaching a president many of them long ago concluded was unfit for office.")
House Republicans are only taking up a task the mainstream press refuses to undertake: looking for “proof” of “financial wrongdoing or corruption.”
In brief remarks at the Capitol, Mr. McCarthy accused Mr. Biden of lying about his knowledge of his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, and he raised questions about the millions that Hunter and other family members made from overseas firms. Mr. McCarthy also accused the Biden administration of giving the president’s son “special treatment” in a criminal tax investigation against him.
But “lying” by Biden about Hunter’s sleazy business deals isn’t just a Republican accusation. It has been confirmed by the Times itself, albeit belatedly and reluctantly.
