(NewsNation) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is now floating the idea of impeaching President Joe Biden, so we are going to review and analyze exactly what he is relying on for this stunning escalation — not the political posturing, but the facts.
“This is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed,” McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“I believe we will follow this all the way to the end, and this is going to rise to an impeachment inquiry the way the Constitution tells us to do this,” McCarthy continued.
Let’s take a step back and evaluate the evidence McCarthy seems to believe warrants an impeachment inquiry.
The latest news that has spurred this is, of course, connected to Hunter Biden. His former business partner and so-called best friend Devon Archer, who was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma with Biden, is expected to testify under subpoena in front of the House Oversight Committee next week.
Archer is expected to testify “about meetings he witnessed” that were, according to a report from the New York Post, “attended by Joe Biden in person or via speakerphone when Hunter would call his father and introduce him to foreign business partners or prospective investors.”
Fox News and some conservative media outlets went nuts Monday with that article by Miranda Devine, suggesting that Archer’s closed-door testimony will provide the crucial link to prove Joe Biden was corrupt.
Sean Hannity said: “According to the New York Post’s Miranda Devine, Devon Archer has damning new evidence and information against the big guy himself. Apparently, we will learn from him that Joe Biden not alone learned about the sketchy foreign business deals but acted as a closer or sweetener to these foreign transactions that benefited the family in terms of millions and millions of dollars.”
Fox’s Larry Kudlow said: “He is going to spill the beans on all these phone calls that were taking place where Joe Biden made himself available at a moment’s notice.”
Fox’s Laura Ingraham shared: “If this story is true, and it sure looks like it, that he has been sitting in on these calls to help his son’s clients while he was vice president, that he was meeting with his business contacts, that is a massive scandal and a flashing neon sign that says: ‘America is for sale.’”
Let’s be clear. There are two issues here. Number one: Was Joe Biden making money off deals with his son or being bought off? And the second issue: Even if he didn’t actually do business with Hunter or make money, did he lie when he was asked how many times he has spoken to his son about overseas business dealings?
In September 2019, Biden replied: “I have never spoken to my son about it.”
In August 2019, he said: “I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else what has to do with their businesses (…) I would do the same thing we did in our administration, an absolute wall between personal and private and the government.”
In October 2019, a reporter asked Biden: “Do you stand by your statement that you did not discuss the overseas things?” Biden answered: “Yes, I stand by that.”
So, there are two issues. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed one of them Monday.
“I have been asked this a million times. The answer is not going to change. The answer remains the same. The president was never in business with his son,” she said.
Some media outlets highlighted that. The New York Post’s Miranda Devine tweeted: “So we’ve gone from: ‘I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings’… To: ‘The president was never in business with his son.’ Big difference. Soon they will be parsing the meaning of ‘in business.’”
That’s true. There’s a distinction. But, of course, the really important question, the one that could lead to an impeachment inquiry, would be or should be whether Biden during his time as vice president was making money, working with his son, taking bribes, or was he corrupted?
Even on question two of did Joe Biden lie, and even if Devon Archer, who was convicted and sentenced on a $60 million fraud scheme, is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe he won’t do that, nothing in the New York Post report proves that Biden was discussing Hunter’s overseas business dealings with him. It would show that Hunter called his dad to show off to his business contacts, which is something Hunter should be condemned for if it’s true.
And when it comes to meetings, Fox News reports that: “Biden personally met with several of Hunter’s business associates from the U.S., Mexico, Ukraine, China and Kazakhstan over the course of his vice presidency.”
When it comes to a call Hunter had with Ukrainian business associates and called his dad, the New York Post reports: “VP Biden greeted the Ukrainians but spoke only in vague pleasantries during the short call, and in other such interactions with Hunter’s overseas business partners, Archer is expected to testify.”
“Short interactions and vague pleasantries.” So, Hunter asks Dad to say “hi” and he does it? Does that prove he was involved with the businesses? Of course not.
Even if he did talk to Hunter about them, which maybe he did, Hunter himself has not been charged with any crime for his shady business dealings and it sure seems he won’t be.
Are we actually suggesting that lying to the media in interviews would be an impeachable offense? Really? We want to go there?
I am going to say it again. I have long said the Hunter Biden story is a real one and an important one that the left, to their peril, ignore. But the right-leaning media has an unhealthy obsession trying to make every tiny detail into a smoking gun until it’s not.
But here is the important piece that’s getting conflated with the relatively unimportant one. This comes on the heels of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, releasing the much-hyped FBI investigative form in connection with the Biden investigation. It’s a form some Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail to make public that allegedly shows how corrupt Joe Biden was.
That document from 2020 outlines notes of an interview with a confidential FBI source relaying a claim from someone else.
It involves Mykola Zlochevsky, the CEO of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy firm where Hunter Biden served as a consultant for five years, the same firm on whose board Devon Archer sat with Hunter. The FBI source claimed Zlochevsky said he had essentially been shaken down by both Hunter and Joe Biden to the tune of $10 million.
The investigative form says: “Confidential human source or CHS asked Zlochevsky whether he was concerned about Burisma’s involvement with the Bidens. Zlochevsky stated he didn’t want to pay the Bidens and he was ‘pushed to pay’ them.”
The source further claimed he was told: “It costs five (million) to pay one Biden and five (million) to another Biden.”
Furthermore, the confidential source told the FBI that Zlochevsky claimed to have recordings proving his allegations.
CHS then stated: “I hope you have some back-up (proof) for your words. Zlochevsky replied he has many text messages and ‘recordings’ that show that he was coerced to make such payments.”
The alleged motivation for these payouts? The source told the FBI informant it was to ensure the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor named Viktor Shokin who had supposedly been investigating Burisma, the idea being that the firing of Shokin would more or less shut the investigation into Burisma down.
Now, we can go down an entire rabbit hole about Shokin again. But to summarize what is already clear, ousting Shoken was not a Biden decision alone, it was an administration and European Union decision.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden had the full support of the international community, President Barack Obama and even Senate Republicans to oust Shokin. Not because he was some crusader who was trying to shut down corruption in Ukraine, but for the exact opposite reason. He was allowing corruption to thrive.
If Biden was taking secret bribes to do it, would he really be publicly bragging about having done it? It just makes no sense.
Hunter did his dad no favors by using his name to get a lucrative consulting position for a potentially corrupt company like Burisma while his dad was tasked with cleaning up corruption in that same country. At the very least, it looks really bad and it would not be surprising if Burisma was trying to pay people off.
Just hiring Hunter sure seems like an effort at impacting U.S.-Ukraine policy. But as of now, there are no tapes, no texts, no credibility to the claim made by Zlochevsky apparently after meeting with Rudy Giuliani during his trip to dig up dirt on Biden in 2019.
And by the way, Zlochevsky himself has said in the past he denies ever speaking to the Bidens.
So, in addition to the fact that the allegations in that FBI form, in which the FBI has said is basically just a written record of a conversation with a confidential source, are beyond unverified and there are no audio or text messages that we know of, the Department of Justice examined and dismissed or ignored these very allegations during the Trump administration. So, this is what McCarthy’s talking about for possible impeachment?
But, what about the testimony of two IRS whistleblowers who claim Hunter references being in the presence of his father seemingly in an attempt to pressure a Chinese businessman during business negotiations?
In a message to a Chinese company, Hunter reportedly said: “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.”
Hunter’s lawyers claim the message isn’t real but let’s assume it is. First, you have to believe Hunter that his dad was there and then you have the whistleblowers claiming they were not allowed to pursue this “lead” because they allege the investigation into Hunter was stymied by political bias within the DOJ in favor of Biden. Except, Biden wasn’t even president when those original decisions were being made. Trump was. Plus, Trump-appointed Bill Barr was the attorney general.
This is how desperate some have gotten in trying to somehow link Joe Biden to Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The New York Post reported that photos on Hunter’s abandoned laptop taken on the same day as the message “show Hunter posing in the driver’s seat of Biden’s 1967 Corvette Stingray with two young girls in bikinis in the driveway of his father’s Wilmington, Delaware, home. The photos call into question whether both Bidens were in the same house during the time of the July 30, 2017, discussion.”
If they were in the same house, does that mean they had to have been discussing Hunter’s business dealings? And that he had to know what his adult son was doing with his businesses?
By the way, the article doesn’t give any indication whether we know for sure that Joe Biden was even home at the time. As for whether he was involved in that apparent but unverified pressure tactic against the Chinese businessman, the president said this last month.
A reporter asked: “How involved were you in your son’s Chinese shake-down text message? Were you sitting there? Were you involved?”
Biden replied: “No, I wasn’t.”
The reporter asked: “Were you?”
Biden yells: “No!”
Again, what we sure seem to know is that at the very least, if the messages are true, shady Hunter was using his dad as a bargaining chip. But none of it shows that Joe Biden knew about it or was complicit or even that he knew details of his son’s businesses.
But the question of influence peddling is a real one. If you’re really going to talk about influence peddling by presidential offspring with the Chinese, how do you not also address Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner? It seems some would rather conveniently ignore that.
After all, the Chinese government seems to have fast tracked trademarks Ivanka Trump applied for after Donald Trump took office and then additional ones right before and after then-President Trump reversed sanctions on Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. The reversal was also within days of the Chinese government agreeing to provide $500 million in loans to an Indonesian theme park the Trump Organization was involved with.
Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince, a close ally during the Trump administration. It was an investment that an advisory panel at the fund had actually recommended against but were personally overruled by the crown prince.
As it turned out, Kushner helped broker $100 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia during his time in the administration. former President Trump even vetoed two bipartisan measures that would have banned Saudi weapons sales.
There are also allegations that Kushner may have leveraged his position in his father-in-law’s administration as a senior adviser focusing on the Middle East to secure a bail out from a company partly owned by the Qataris for his family’s debt-ridden tower in midtown Manhattan. Kushner, during his last days of the Trump presidency, helped lift a blockade of Qatar by its Arab neighbors. Kushner initially supported the blockade, according to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
I am not saying “let’s investigate the Trumps and the Kushners.” I am not. But if you demand to pursue influence peddling allegations against Hunter Biden and want to know about every person Joe Biden ever met with who did business with Hunter, then you must look into the Trumps, as well.
Which brings us back to leader McCarthy and impeachment talk. Let’s assume that what Devon Archer may say is true and that Hunter had his dad on speakerphone in conversations with business associates including the Ukrainians and briefly met with others — How does any of that lead to charging Joe Biden with high crimes and misdemeanors?
To hear House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer tell it, he thinks Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he knew nothing about his son’s business dealings. So, that’s what’s leading to a potential impeachment inquiry?
“Joe Biden was a lot more involved in Hunter’s shady business schemes than he has ever admitted,” Comer told Fox News.
I don’t know if Joe Biden lied about ever having conversations with Hunter about his businesses. While it certainly may be the case, there is evidence to suggest that claim from Biden isn’t true. But even if Biden was inaccurate or even lied about what he knew of some of his son’s business stuff, if lying to the American people is an impeachable offense, then my goodness, is that the standard that Trump has to live by, too? Trump was never impeached or even in discussion of impeachment for simply lying, or any other political leader for that matter.
That isn’t close enough to even use the word impeachment. There is simply no credible evidence that Joe Biden made money during his vice presidency or even after for that matter or changed any policy as a result of any of it.
So, let’s tamp down the hysteria and stick to the facts. When and if there is factual or credible evidence proving Joe Biden was involved with corruption, whether it was taking a bribe or otherwise, I will be the first to call it out.
This isn’t about politics. It’s about evidence and I always follow it, wherever it takes us.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not of NewsNation.