The “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were up to their usual hijinks Wednesday morning during their flagship morning news shows defending President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and Hunter’s life of ruin, proclaiming there’s “no evidence of wrongdoing” by the President or “hard evidence” to connect Hunter’s foreign business dealings to actions by Joe.
On NBC’s Today, Capitol Hill correspondent Garrett Haake explained that, despite “the Republican’s razor thin majority, it likely will pass, but barely with only one Republican saying out loud that he’ll vote against it.”
“Now, House Republicans have been investigating whether President Biden has committed any impeachable offense or crimes relating to his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings,” Garrett added, “but they’ve been doing this for months and have, so far, found no hard evidence linking the two.”
No evidence? Guess those bank records, Café Milano visits, rides on Air Force Two, and voicemails meant nothing.
Haake noted that Republicans “argue that this impeachment inquiry — formalizing it — will force the administration to be more responsive to their questions and to their subpoenas” while Democrats “see this entire effort as just a distracting political stunt”.
Haake and co-host Savannah Guthrie then went through the minutiae of why Hunter Biden and his team only want a public hearing while Republicans want both. Hilariously, Haake repeatedly Team Hunter’s demands for a public-only hearing would be “to prevent the committee from twisting his words with what they release.”
If that’s the case, what would you call the entire Trump presidency and House Intelligence Committee under Adam Schiff?
ABC’s Good Morning America enlisted senior White House correspondent Selina Wang to play defense. She fretted that “House Republicans are set to vote to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden even though some admit that there’s no evidence of wrongdoing”.
Wang piled on, saying nothing about the dozens of new allegations from this year alone: “They allege the President abused his power to benefit his family, but nearly a year of investigations has, so far, come up empty.”
Wang didn’t have any direct quotes from Republicans, but she did tout part of a statement from White House hack Ian Sams that called the impeachment inquiry a “baseless stunt...not rooted in facts or reality but in extreme House Republicans’ shameless desire to use their power to smear the president.”
And, on CBS Mornings, co-host Nate Burleson proclaimed that the GOP’s “months-long investigation has not found evidence of wrongdoing by the President and the White House denies that there is any.”
Congressional correspondent Nikole Killion was more muted, except for the brief nod to Donald Trump’s support for impeachment to insinuate this is all partisan (click “expand”):
Last week’s indictment of the President’s son, Hunter Biden, gave Trump’s allies here in Congress the push to move forward. Now, the House was already investigating whether President Biden improperly benefited from foreign business dealings allegedly involving his son, Hunter and other family members. The White House calls it a fishing expedition that lacks evidence. Today’s vote is on a resolution that tells the committee’s that we’re already investigating Biden to keep going and determine whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach.
Many Republicans hoped that making the investigation more official will help them enforce subpoenas. The House Oversight Committee, which is leading the impeachment probe, has subpoenaed Hunter Biden and asked him to testify behind closed doors this morning, but his attorney says he won’t appear unless it’s public. A committee spokesperson says if he doesn’t show, the panel will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings. Former President Trump has pushed for impeachment proceedings against President Biden. Politically speaking, this vote will put House Republicans on record as we get closer to 2024 when all of these members will be up for re-election.
To see the relevant transcripts from December 13, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
