Impeachment witness says Biden’s brother paid him from predatory loans or money bilked from seniors
President Biden allegedly profited from his brother's fraudulent business deals, according to a new witness in the House impeachment inquiry.
Month: December 2023
GOP congresswoman defends Trump’s Nazi talking points
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York went on CNN Monday evening to defend Donald Trump’s recent fascist rhetoric. Specifically, Trump’s transparent use of Nazi references to racial impurity, saying things like immigration is “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Host Abby Phillip attempted to get Malliotakis to admit that, at the very least, Trump’s repeated use of authoritarian rhetoric was worrying, reminding her that Malliotakis’ own origin story includes being the daughter of a Cuban refugee. Malliotakis didn’t see it that way:
Abby Phillip: Let's talk for a second here about the fact that Trump continuously, repeatedly uses this rhetoric that now maybe you could say the first time he didn't know the references, the parallels to authoritarians—he knows now. Why does he keep saying it over and over again?Nicole Malliotakis: Well, look, I just think he's trying to bring attention to the issue.
Is there anyone more narrow-minded and group-thinky than a Republican lawmaker? In Malliotakis’ defense, she has maintained a rather stolid hypocrisy when it comes to immigration policy. Her 2022 campaign for the 11th District of New York consisted of attacking asylum-seekers.
What makes this an extra-special kind of hypocrisy is that Malliotakis is willing to defend the heinous rhetoric of Trump, a man she herself claimed in 2017 to have regretted voting for. Of course, that was when she was running for mayor of New York City, a place where Trump isn’t well liked.
Campaign ActionIt’s official: GOP House did a whole lot of nothing this year
The data doesn’t lie. This Republican House of Representatives passed just 22 bills that became law in 2023. In contrast, under Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi the previous House passed 85 bills in 2021, including landmark COVID-19 legislation and the infrastructure law.
In last week’s House Rules Committee hearing, Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado pointed that out, blasting Republicans for the profound waste of time they’ve been all year. “The data speaks for itself,” he said. “This will go down as the least productive Congress since 1933.”
“Think about that: the least productive Congress since the Great Depression,” he continued. ”That is what Republicans have brought the country in the form of their majority.” They’ve also brought the ridiculous and utterly baseless formal impeachment inquiry, which is what the House Rules Committee was wasting its time on when Neguse called Republicans out.
This House did manage to get the debt ceiling lifted and keep the government’s doors open. Their other accomplishments? They renamed some Veterans Affairs clinics and authorized a coin commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps.
For some unfathomable reason, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise decided it was a good idea to broadcast that shame, sending out data sheets about the dubious accomplishments of the House this year.
There is all their shame, right there in black and white. But that’s not all: Scalise also detailed all the speaker-vote drama, including the 15 votes it took to elect Kevin McCarthy in January, and then the four votes to replace him as they churned through candidates who could not win: Reps. Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer (who never made it to the floor) before settling on some guy named Mike Johnson. According to Scalise’s fact sheet, “The first time it took multiple ballots more than once in the same Congress and year to elect a Speaker.” That’s the first time in all of U.S. history.
Scalise actually trumpeted the dubious historical significance of all this. “During the October Speaker vote, it took the fourth longest time to elect a Speaker, 9 days,” the fact sheet continues. “During the January Speaker votes, it took the fifth longest time to elect a Speaker, 5 days.”
So what else did the Republican House do this year that Scalise didn’t want you to miss? They expelled a member (George Santos) for the first time since 2002, had four rule votes fail—”the most ever in a year”—and censured three members—”tied with the most in a year ever.” They were, by the way, all Democrats.
History!
RELATED STORIES:
Vulnerable House Republicans jump on Trump train with impeachment vote
Congress wraps for the year, after giving Putin a Christmas gift
Campaign ActionCheers and Jeers: Tuesday
Let’s Update the DK Ukraine Relief Tote Board
It’s been awhile since we checked in on the fund set up by Daily Kos to help relief agencies in Ukraine. With the twin threats of winter weather and Russia’s continued attacks on civilian centers making life hell, the need for basic survival essentials is still critical—thus the reason why our humble site reached out to critical relief groups that provide food, medical care, housing, education, financial aid, and animal rescue efforts. As we approach the third Christmas since the invasion began, here’s the current status of your generosity...
$3,568,880.54
Not bad for a bunch of bloggers in their jammies, huh. If you'd like to add more support to the four chosen groups—the World Central Kitchen, AmeriCares, Razom for Ukraine, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare—click here and ActBlue will help you take care of the rest. Thanks for your ongoing support for Ukraine, which continues revealing Russia (and its MAGA stooges here in the States) for the incompetent, boozed-up sewer bully it is under Tsar Poopypants.
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Note: The Bill in Portland Maine Kiddie Pool series of non-fungible tokens, of which zero were produced and sold for zero dollars, sold out over the weekend in zero seconds. We’re going to now take the money we didn’t make and not retire to Myrtle Beach. Thank you. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the next full "cold moon": 7
Days 'til the New Year's Eve Walleye Drop in Port Clinton, Ohio: 12
Current expectation for GDP growth in the 4th quarter: 2%
Worldwide gross for Wonka in its opening weekend: $150 million
Prison sentence for Catholic Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu after being found guilty of fraud: 5.5 years
Estimated number of Slinkys that have been sold since their release in 1945: 360 million
Original and current price of a Slinky: $1 / $5
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Good morning…
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CHEERS to focusing on the important stuff. Now that the Republican House leadership has adjourned for the rest of the year, here's a complete summary—annotated in the most minute detail possible—of their accomplishments this year. We suggest you start a big chant of "USA! USA!" loud enough for your neighbors to hear as you read this amazing list:
❤ Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker on the 15th round of voting.
❤ Kevin McCarthy was kicked out of the Speakership after 269 days, the shortest term in 140 years.
❤ “MAGA Mike” Johnson, who shares a pornography-monitoring obsession with his 17-year-old son (who is likely watching porn on a device Dear Dad doesn’t know about) and believes he is the second coming of Moses, was elected Speaker on the 1st round of voting.
❤ Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was voted out of Congress for committing financial crimes.
❤ Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) faced no disciplinary action after she and her date were caught groping each other's lady and man parts in a theater during a production of Beetlejuice where children were present.
❤ Brawls broke out between Republican representatives.
❤ An impeachment inquiry was opened on President Biden, minus two small details: charges and evidence.
What incredible forward-thinking brainpower and resourcefulness. This is why they earn the big bucks, folks. Memo to Chuck Schumer over in the Senate: reducing the cost of health care, lowering inflation, saving the planet and filling the potholes are for losers.
CHEERS to today’s edition of Well Now I Know That Pigs Can Fly. Courtesy of Axios:
Pope Francis approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples under certain circumstances, the Vatican announced Monday.
Why it matters: The rule change affirms and expands on a progressive shift to Roman Catholic Church doctrine around blessings proposed by Francis in a letter he sent two conservative cardinals earlier this year.
This has been today’s edition of Well Now I Know That Pigs Can Fly.
CHEERS to home sweet teeth-chattering home. On December 19, 1777, George Washington parked his 11,000 troops at Valley Forge for the winter. The General knew how to rally his men:
"Look, all we need to do, guys, is invent central heating after creating a regional power grid and it'll be just like a Sandals resort! Plus I know a great caterer and he'll be along just as soon as we invent the smartphone app."
Needless to say, it was a very long winter.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS and JEERS to green shoots and brown leaves. Some holly jolly economic headlines I rounded up today to hang from the tree…
- '24 Fed interest rate cuts will be good for Biden
- Gas price decline hits 13th straight week as national average inches closer to $2.99
- U.S. economy still resilient as retail sales beat expectations, layoffs stay low
- Illicit content on Elon Musk's X draws E.U. investigation
- Workers and consumers say they're likely to favor pro-LGBTQ businesses, study finds
- Passport wait times drop to pre-pandemic lows
- Biden administration to impose inflation penalties on dozens of drugs
- Americans hit the gas on shopping, travel and restaurants
- As mortgage rates fall, homebuilders are feeling good about the housing market again
- Support for TikTok ban crumbles, even among Republicans
And some lumps of coal for the stockings…
- Older workers are a growing share of the American workforce
- US Steel, once the world’s largest corporation, agrees to sell itself to a Japanese company
- Homelessness in America surges to record high amid high rents
- BP suspends all oil shipments through the Red Sea as attacks escalate
- Escalating U.S.-China tech war could hurt American companies
And under the tree, topped with a bright red bow: a glass of champagne, a bottle of Maalox, and another year of whiplash insurance.
JEERS to running out of time. Just a little reminder that if you have a flexible spending account as part of your health insurance plan, it's likely that you'll lose whatever money you have socked away if you don’t spend it within the next 12 days. Some things that are usually eligible: birth control, smoking cessation, cold remedies (NyQuil: humankind's greatest gift to itself), contact lens solution...stuff like that. But if your remaining balance is sizable enough, we'd advise you to buy something that'll deliver the most bang for your pre-tax buck: conservative Supreme Court justices.
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Ten years ago in C&J: December 19, 2013
JEERS to the Kum By Yah mirage. Watching the fawning and crowing and marveling at the "new birth of bipartisanship" on Capitol Hill makes it sound like the House and Senate are full of babies who just performed their first solo poopies. "Yaaaay! You did it! Good widdle boys and girls! You made a happy doody tootsie roll, yes you did!" Jeebus…they're acting like they deserve the freakin' Nobel Peace Prize. It's just a mundane budget, and not a very good one at that. If anyone cares, the screw-the-long-term-unemployed piece of sausage passed the Senate yesterday 64-36, and President Obama will sign it. It's a budget. A center-right budget. Whee.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to 72 seconds with America's future. Zander Moricz is a student at Harvard, and before that he went to school in Sarasota, Florida. That county's school board includes book-banning, MAGA loon Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of "Moms for Liberty." Same lady who just got caught having three-ways with her husband (the chair of the Florida Republican party now being accused of rape) and another woman. Last week at the last school board meeting of the year, Zander took advantage of the public-comment period to give Bridget a good talking to. And viral it went…
Moral of the story: people like Zander Moricz are why people like Bridget Ziegler avoid reality-based humanoids at all cost. Here endeth the lesson.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“You know what? I wouldn’t splash in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool now if Bill in Portland Maine gave me a million dollars.”
—Cher
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Hunter goes shopping with Joe Biden days after defying congressional subpoena
Hunter Biden was photographed Monday afternoon shopping in Delaware with his father, President Biden, just days after he defied a congressional subpoena to attend a closed-door deposition.
Hunter and the president together visited a jewelry store in Greenville, Delaware, and, hours earlier, were spotted at St. Joseph's on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, for mass. The president's embattled son has faced heavy criticism and calls to be held in contempt of Congress in recent days after he refused last week to sit for the deposition requested by House investigators.
"Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings," House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a joint statement on Dec. 13. "We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden."
"As our committees were today prepared to depose Hunter Biden, he chose to make a public statement on Capitol Hill instead where he said his father, Joe Biden was not financially involved in his family’s business dealings," they continued. "Exactly how was Joe Biden involved? Evidence shows Joe Biden met with Hunter’s business associates and his name was at the center of the family business strategy."
COMER DEFENDS PRIVATE DEPOSITION OF HUNTER BIDEN, VOWS TO RELEASE TRANSCRIPT AND HOLD PUBLIC HEARING
Hunter ultimately refused to sit for the deposition in a press conference last week, where he accused Republican lawmakers of attempting to "dehumanize" him and embarrass his father. The younger Biden said his father had never been financially involved in his business dealings, including his work with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings or Chinese firms.
And after he defied the subpoena, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters President Biden and first lady Jill Biden were "proud" of their son for "continuing to rebuild his life." The White House has repeatedly said that President Biden did nothing wrong and had no knowledge of his son's business dealings.
Later that evening, the House voted along party lines to formalize its impeachment inquiry into the president over his family's business dealings.
NOTORIOUS MOBSTER STUNNED BY LATEST HUNTER BIDEN ALLEGATIONS: ‘MIND-BLOWING'
Since taking control of the House, Republicans led by Comer have pursued a sprawling investigation into the Biden family and whether the president participated in questionable deals Hunter was involved in. The probe gained momentum this month after Comer released subpoenaed bank records showing an entity owned by Hunter had made "direct monthly payments to Joe Biden."
In addition, in June, the House Ways and Means Committee, which has also participated in the investigation, released 2017 messages in which Hunter Biden excoriated Chinese business partner Henry Zhao for not fulfilling a "commitment" and said his father was sitting beside him.
"I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight," Hunter Biden wrote in a WhatsApp message to Zhao, the CEO of Beijing-based asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, on July 30, 2017, according to documents released by House Republicans.
FORMER UKRAINE PROSECUTOR MAKES EXPLOSIVE CLAIMS AGAINST JOE AND HUNTER BIDEN IN NEW INTERVIEW
Days after that message, on Aug. 4, 2017, Chinese firm CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s law firm Owasco, according to a 2020 report published by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Days later, on Aug. 8, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a firm Hunter Biden opened with Chinese associates.
And the 2020 Senate report revealed that, beginning on Aug. 14, 2017, Hunter Biden initiated a string of 20 wire transactions from Owasco to Lion Hall Group, a consulting firm linked to President Biden's brother, James Biden, and his wife, Sara. The transactions continued through Aug. 3, 2018, and totaled $1.4 million.
The payments between Hunter Biden and his father, which Comer released earlier Monday, were sent from an account linked to Owasco.
Last week, Fox News Digital reported that a bank investigator raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s receipt of an additional $5 million wire from a Chinese company in August 2018 to his bank account, Hudson West III.
Hunter Biden transferred $400,000 to his Owasco PC account. Funds were then transferred to a business account belonging to James Biden and later transferred to a personal account belonging to James Biden and Sara Biden.
Comer claims they used those funds to then cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000. That check was labeled as a "loan repayment."
MTG explodes at Lindsey Graham for admitting there’s no “smoking gun” in Biden impeachment stunt
‘There’s no there there’: Democratic lawmaker hits House impeachment inquiry into Biden
Rep. Debbie Dingell says she has yet to see any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden after House Republicans voted to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into the president.
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Republicans can’t run fast enough from the abortion issue.
GOP struggles to outrun Texas, Supreme Court abortion cases
Across-the-aisle tensions on abortion have been on full display over the last week after the Texas Supreme Court blocked Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition, from having an abortion. Cox left the state to obtain an abortion just hours before the Texas court rejected her challenge.
Biden has already sought to wield the case as a cautionary tale against Republicans in power and against the GOP presidential front-runner, former President Trump.
“I don’t think they can escape it,” Republican strategist Liz Mair said of next year’s White House candidates, adding that the recent Texas case underscores the salience of the issue.
Alabamain Sean Lulofs and Iowan Steve Deace have a convo, which Nicholas Grossman frames beautifully:
Let it sink in everywhere.
Greer Donley/New York Times:
What Happened to Kate Cox Is Tragic, and Completely Expected
As someone who has been studying state abortion definitions and exceptions in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s demise, I was not shocked.
The Texas anti-abortion law that went into effect shortly after Roe was overturned was drafted to ban the care needed by Ms. Cox and other women with similar cases: It does not include an exception for fetal anomalies, unlike laws in a handful of other states. The law does have a narrow exception allowing abortions in some medical emergencies, but it is written in such a vague and confusing way that it is difficult for even experts on this topic, like myself, to parse.
What is clear to me is that the Texas Supreme Court would have needed to make a broad and compassionate interpretation of the law for Ms. Cox to meet the high bar of that exception. Instead, the court interpreted the law narrowly — which is exactly what the state lawmakers who passed the legislation were hoping for. And the results have been tragic.
Jonathan V Last/The Bulwark:
The Case for Why Biden Will Win
We're all gonna make it.
I’ve been feeling more pessimistic than usual, because let’s be honest: Things are not great.
There’s a yawning disconnect between voter sentiment and economic reality.
The most successful first-term president since either Clinton or H.W. Bush has an impeachment proceeding against him for [reasons] and voters don’t seem to care.
Republicans are going to nominate a guy who attempted a coup and now expressly says he’d like to be a dictator.
This aspiring dictator is leading the incumbent president in most polls.
Ukraine has bogged down, Russia is making small gains, and America is wavering in its support for the most consequential European war since WWII.
But last night on TNB our economist friend Noah Smith made a pretty radical argument:
Even though it feels like we’re in a moment that is outside of historical norms, the long-running dynamics of economics and politics are still at work. And these dynamics suggest that Joe Biden is likely to win reelection.
So let’s unpack Noah’s thesis.
Ronald Brownstein/The Atlantic:
Biden’s Economic Formula to Win in 2024
Could this be the president’s new strategy?
President Joe Biden and Democrats cannot win the debate over the economy without fundamentally reframing the terms of the choice they are offering voters, an extensive new research study by one of the party’s prominent electoral-strategy groups has concluded.
The study, scheduled to be released today, seeks to mitigate one of the party’s most glaring vulnerabilities heading into the 2024 election: the consistent finding in surveys that when it comes to managing the national economy or addressing inflation, significantly more voters express confidence in Republicans than in Democrats.
To close that gap, the study argues, Biden and Democrats must shift the debate from which party is best equipped to grow the overall economy to which side can help families achieve what the report calls a “better life.” The study argues that Democrats can win that argument with a three-pronged message centered on: delivering tangible kitchen-table economic benefits (such as increased federal subsidies for buying health insurance), confronting powerful special interests (such as major corporations), and pledging to protect key personal liberties and freedoms, led by the right to legal abortion.
Republican strategist Jeff Roe quits pro-DeSantis super PAC amid turmoil
Roe announced his resignation late Saturday.
[Ron] DeSantis has been heavily leaning on Never Back Down to oversee his campaign’s functions, including its field deployment.
Why it matters: DeSantis was trying something new—using an outside group and not the campaign for basic campaign blocking and tackling. To abuse a football analogy even further, outsourcing your offensive and defensive lines means there’s no team coordination whatsoever (pretend it’d be illegal to coordinate), and you can imagine how that plays out on the field.
Well, it didn’t work. And DeSantis is is big trouble without a game plan just as Nikki Haley threatens to eclipse him altogether.
See also from Politico: DeSantis on the ropes
David French/New York Times:
To Support Ukraine, Persuade the Elephant
One of the most interesting explorations of the art of persuasion comes from New York University’s Jonathan Haidt, who several years ago described the process of persuasion as well as anyone I know. In his book “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom,” he compares people’s relation to their emotions to a “rider on the back of an elephant.”
The rider is our rational mind. It’s the part of our brain that deals with facts and reason. It acknowledges, for example, that two plus two equals four, the sky is blue and the Southeastern Conference is the greatest college football conference in the history of the universe.
The elephant is basically everything else about us. As Haidt later explained in an excellent podcast discussion, the elephant represents “99 percent of what’s going on in your mind that you’re not aware of.” By controlling our emotional and social aspects, the elephant controls us far more than we might like; we are, after all, only riders. If the elephant doesn’t want to move, it won’t move. But if the elephant wants to move, as Haidt said on the podcast, “then it is effortless to persuade the rider to go along.” Thus the best way to persuade the elephant and rider to change course is to “reach the elephant first.”
Tom Sullivan/Hullabaloo:
Those Left-To-Right Sliders
What spurs some to lurch right is rejection by the left. Trust me, I’ve heard that one. Some new volunteers are quickly discouraged at not being elevated to positions of prominence and authority in political campaigns that are mostly grunt work directed by the more experienced. Grunt work is beneath their dignity. They are “big ideas” people.
We see something similar among better-knowns of the post-left.
Cliff Schecter & Stephanie Miller:
Sunday Four-Play: Lindsey Graham admits there’s no ‘smoking gun’ in GOP’s fake impeachment push
It’s keenly ironic that House Republicans acted on a raft of sketchy, Rudy Giuliani-exhumed allegations to launch a presidential impeachment inquiry in the very same week that he was ordered to pay $148 million for lying on Donald Trump’s behalf. But that’s the difference between our courts and our Congress. In court, you have to tell the truth.
Of course, every House Republican—to a person—is now doing what Rudy did years ago: Appeasing their ocher overlord by conjuring nonsense in a cynical bid to put the faux stink of corruption on President Joe Biden. We’ll have to wait to find out if those congressional fiends eventually get their comeuppance. In the meantime, we’ve got Sunday show clips! So let’s get on with it, shall we?
1.
It’s been glaringly obvious for some time now why House Republicans are trying to impeach President Biden: It’s because Donald Trump wants them to. They’re wholly in thrall to a lifelong punchline who steals top secret government documents and sounds like Hitler slipped on the basement stairs and can’t get up.
Fortunately, some still see the current Republican Party for what it truly is: a pathetic cult of personality.
Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen appeared on “The Katie Phang Show” to discuss the GOP’s fake Biden impeachment, and he very quickly got to the crux of the matter.
PHANG: “Let’s start first … with the absurd impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Republicans on three House committees have been investigating President Biden and his son for months now with zero evidence of wrongdoing being discovered. Can you share with our viewers why there was a unanimous vote by House Republicans? Did you hear anything from your Republican colleagues on why they would do, across straight party lines, a vote in favor of this baseless inquiry?”
COHEN: “Totally political. Unfortunately, we have a child speaker. He went down to see his daddy, Donald Trump, at Mar-a-Lago, and he told him, ‘Go back to Washington and impeach Joe Biden. That will make me feel good because I was impeached twice, and I want to say he was impeached, too.’ So this is juvenile. It’s unfortunately an inexperienced speaker who’s dealing with an irrational man, and the Republican Party basically is responding to that as well. The MAGA Republicans do what Trump tells them to. So they’re going to do that, and they’re doing that with Ukraine, too. To keep his deal going with Putin that was so successful, him getting elected president, that he’s … [he doesn't want] to give Ukraine any money because he wants Putin to win the war and he wants Putin to help him in 2024. Trump’s looking at 2024 and Putin’s looking at posterity, and working together.”
Wow, that sure makes Republicans sound cynical and soulless, doesn’t it? But when you’re right, you’re right. And Rep. Cohen is most definitely right.
RELATED: Sunday Four-Play: The fake Biden impeachment rolls along, and J.D. Vance forgets Mike Johnson exists
2.
If anyone knows about selling his soul to appease Trump, it’s Sen. Lindsey Graham. So it’s particularly noteworthy that even he can’t figure out what House Republicans are impeaching Biden over.
Graham joined Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” and was asked to weigh in on the GOP’s disingenuous impeachment push. It looked like he would have preferred to discuss just about anything else.
WELKER: “Okay, let’s turn to the other big story on Capitol Hill, the impeachment, of course—the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Your colleague Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that he does not see any evidence, quote, that the president is guilty of anything. Do you agree with him? Is there any evidence so far?”
GRAHAM: “You know, I haven’t really been paying that much attention to it. They have to prove that President Biden somehow financially benefited from the business enterprises of Hunter Biden. We’ll see.”
WELKER: “Have they done it yet, in your mind?”
GRAHAM: “If there were a smoking gun, I think we’d be talking about it ...”
Look, it was obvious from the outset that Republicans would try to impeach Biden for something. But this is really a stretch—particularly since Trump continually took money from foreign interests while he was cosplaying as president, and did so out in the open.
RELATED: Sunday Four-Play: DeSantis-bot glitches out, and ex-Trump aide says the former guy is 'slowing down'
3.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tells the truth on exactly one topic: Donald Trump. And he didn’t start doing that until Trump decided he’d try to garrote American democracy. He was fine with Happy Meal Hitler trying to kill him and turning our country into a WWE cage match, but lying about the election and trying to overthrow the government were the final straws. Which is good, of course. He’s ahead of the curve as far as Republicans go. That said, as the following clip shows, Christie always knew about Trump’s strong affinity for indiscriminate murder enthusiast Vladimir Putin, and he still tried to get Trump reelected.
Go figure.
Christie joined Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” to warn America about Trump’s increasingly authoritarian rhetoric.
TAPPER: “Gov. Christie, you just heard Donald Trump approvingly quoting Vladimir Putin about American democracy, about the American legal system, attacking the criminal charges against him and the ‘rottenness’ of the American political system, quote, unquote. What’s your reaction?”
CHRISTIE: “My reaction is that he gets worse and worse by the day, Jake. And voters better start paying attention to exactly what he’s saying. He has always been approving of Putin right from the beginning of his presidency. That was something that he and I had regular arguments about going all the way back to 2017. And the fact is that—Vladimir Putin as an expert on democracy? This is a guy who doesn’t even know what democracy is and, quite frankly, has spent most of his life trying to undercut democracy all over the world, and Donald Trump is citing him as his expert witness that he’s being persecuted and is innocent. Look, this is a guy who just believes ‘woe is me, woe is me, I can’t believe that I got caught.’ But let’s remember something, and everyone needs to know this. It’s not going to be Vladimir Putin on the witness stand in Washington, D.C., this spring. It’s not going to be some left-wing prosecutor making the case. Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, has accepted immunity. I did this for seven years, Jake. The reason he’s accepted immunity is because he has admitted he had committed crimes himself, or he wouldn’t need immunity. And he’s going to testify that Donald Trump committed crimes on his watch—a founder of the Freedom Caucus, his former chief of staff who he called the next James Baker. Donald Trump realizes the walls are closing in. He’s becoming crazier. And now he’s citing Vladimir Putin as a character witness, a guy who’s a murderous thug all around the world. It’s time to send Donald Trump back to Mar-a-Lago permanently.”
Hey, thanks for piping up, Chris! Better late than never, right?
Then again, it’s kind of soothing to hear an ex-prosecutor describe exactly how much legal peril Trump is in these days. Hopefully, at least one of the four criminal cases against Trump sees the light of day before he has a chance to send his tank columns into Fulton County, Georgia.
RELATED: Sunday Four-Play: Biden delivers results, Christie swats at Trump, and Musk tanks Twitter
4.
Speaking of Putin, his American Super PAC—aka the GOP—is doing all it can these days to support his Ukrainian war effort. House Republicans are holding up aid to Ukraine so they can play political games with our southern border—a cynical tactic that could help them get elected, which in turn would help Putin, who would then further interfere in our elections on their behalf, and on and on into infinity.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen joined Jon Karl on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss this ongoing betrayal of our ally on Putin’s behalf.
KARL: “What do you think of this idea of having significant changes to the border tied to funding for Ukraine and Israel? Among the changes that Republicans have been demanding are changes to our asylum laws—making it harder for people to declare asylum, restricting that. And even, you know, Republicans want a return to Remain in Mexico, the policy of the Trump administration, which is ‘ask for asylum before you come to the United States and come after, or if, it’s been granted.’”
VAN HOLLEN: “Well, first of all, I think it’s essential that we provide military assistance to Ukraine. This is a pivotal moment in American leadership and history, and we need to make sure that we help our Ukrainian friends against Putin’s aggression—not just to protect their freedom, but because it would send a terrible signal around the world to our allies who would no longer trust us, and to our adversaries, who would be emboldened if we’re not doing that. In terms of border security, I have to look at the details, and the big question, Jon, is, who’s at the table on the Republican side? I don’t mean the individual, but are they really working with the president to try to get border security? Because the president has proposed historical increases in resources for border security.”
KARL: “And they’re asking for policy changes more than resources.”
VAN HOLLEN: “So we have to look at it, you know.”
Well, Republicans ask for a lot of things. Most of those requests are either disingenuous or downright bonkers. After all, Republicans’ proof that Biden favors open borders is that his administration keeps arresting record numbers of border crossers and sending them back. Try to make sense of that one.
Meanwhile, comprehensive immigration reform would go a long way toward solving our problems at the border, but Republicans prefer they remain unsolved so Fox News can continue scaring its viewers with caravans of brown people. Because if conservatives can’t frighten people, all they’ve got left is a Hitler See ‘n Say as their putative presidential nominee and undisputed standard-bearer.
But wait! There’s more!
- Sen. Van Hollen says Israel is using “very loose rules of engagement” in Gaza, noting that they’re “way looser than anything the United States would exercise.” (ABC’s “This Week”)
- “State of the Union’s” expert panel discusses a new CBS News poll showing Nikki Haley within 15 points of Trump in New Hampshire.
- Former DNC Chair Donna Brazile says Trump’s primary opponents don’t have the “guts or the gall” to state the obvious: that Trump is unfit for office. (ABC’s “This Week”)
- Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova says “time is of the essence” when it comes to providing additional support to Ukraine. (“Face the Nation”)
That’s all for now! Note: Sunday Four-Play will be on hiatus next week in honor of my annual holiday sugar coma. Hope to see you all again on the cusp of a new year.
Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.