The House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden has proven to be an embarrassing affair for GOP crusaders. After a year of desperate searches, assorted partisans simply haven’t been able to uncover any evidence of wrongdoing on the Democrat’s part.
But the search continues — and apparently expands. NBC News reported that two of the key Republican inquisitors are now pursuing possible communications between the White House and Hunter Biden’s lawyers.
House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, made the request in a letter to Edward Siskel, assistant to the president and White House counsel, obtained by NBC News. The GOP chairmen said they’re seeking to determine whether the president was involved in his son’s decision to not comply with a congressional subpoena.
The letter asks for all “documents and communications sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding the deposition of Hunter Biden,” as well as any records “sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding President Biden’s statement about his family’s business associates on December 6, 2023.”
The far-right congressmen, undeterred by months of failure, have no idea whether there were any communications between the White House and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about his deposition, but their correspondence said they feel compelled to explore the possibility that the president “engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress.”
Comer and Jordan added that they also consider it a possibility that Joe Biden “corruptly sought to influence or obstruct the Committees’ proceeding by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the Committees’ subpoenas.” The GOP committee chairs — one of whom spent last year refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena — concluded that “such conduct could constitute an impeachable offense.”
Even by Comer’s and Jordan’s standards, this is all a bit weird.
In case anyone needs a refresher, after House Republicans issued a subpoena to Hunter Biden in early November, the president’s son responded that he was prepared to testify and answer lawmakers’ questions in a public hearing that everyone could see.
“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” Hunter Biden’s lawyer wrote.
Republicans refused, responding that the Q&A would have to be done behind closed doors, away from public view, for reasons they struggled to explain. On the day of the deposition, Hunter Biden insisted on transparency; GOP committee chairs insisted on secrecy; and so there were no exchanges between members and the witness. That was just two weeks ago. Now, evidently, the new “impeachable offense” is that the president might’ve been involved in some way with his son’s willingness to answer questions in public instead of in private, implicating the Democrat in “a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress.” Except, as everyone — including the far-right committee chairs — already knows, there was no conspiracy. Hunter Biden’s lawyers told Jordan and Comer what he intended to do. The president was apparently aware of his son’s plans, but so too was every political observer who kept up on current events. Comer and Jordan sometimes appear in conservative media and argue that their impeachment crusade deserves to be seen as a credible and serious endeavor. They then follow such comments with absurdities that help prove just how unserious their investigation is.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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