America's Talking - Republicans Kick off President Biden’s Impeachment Inquiry

Episode Date: September 30, 2023

U.S. House Republicans launched the first impeachment inquiry Thursday into President Joe Biden, who faces an array of allegations around bribery and financial impropriety related to personal business dealings spearheaded by his son, Hunter Biden. Republicans say they have significant evidence to back allegations that Hunter Biden received more than $20 million from several overseas entities in China, Ukraine, Russia and more. Hunter also faces gun and tax-related legal difficulties. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me today is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey, how are you, Casey? Doing good, Dan. How are you? I am doing well, thank you. It has been a crazy week in Washington, D.C., Casey. First, let me say we're recording this on Friday, September 29. Thursday, Republicans in the U.S. House launched their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and his connections to his son Hunter Biden's business dealings overseas. We live webcast the proceedings at the center square.com. Democrats arguing Republicans have no evidence and are just trying to distract from former

president and current GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's own legal problems. You covered this first hours-long impeachment hearing. Casey, what say you? I say hours long is definitely what is most in mind for me. It was a six-hour-long hearing. I do want to just briefly, you know, say that Senator Dianne Feinstam has reportedly passed away. Our thoughts and prayers with her and her family. Yeah, our condolences to her family and closest friends.

Back to the news at hand. I mean, this hearing was the first, you know, hearing where a lot of lawmakers could kind of share their thoughts on a public national stage about this issue. Because so far, it's been just a few, like House Oversight Committee Chair, James. Comer, of course, the White House, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Just a few of these lawmakers or officials have been driving this narrative, right? But this opened it up to everyone for the six-hour hearing to share what they thought, how they thought this should go. And some themes definitely emerged. So one is that from the Democrat side is really twofold. One, they say there's no evidence. And we even were critical, you know, we're examining.

I think on this podcast, before that some media outlets were saying there was no evidence that Joe Biden was involved, right? And that idea of what is no evidence versus, okay, evidence, but not enough evidence, right? And that's, there is a big difference, right? The Democrats say there's no evidence that Joe Biden was involved. This is all just about Hunter Biden. And they also say, hey, by the way, isn't the Republican frontrunner facing something like 100 charges and four indictments? Can't even remember how many states and federal government and all this. And so isn't it convenient that this impeachment comes right when the Republican frontruder is about to go to jail? Right.

So that's the, that is the essentially what Democrats echoed again and again during this hearing. Now, Republicans push back and said, hey, no evidence. How can you say no evidence? And actually, there's a really funny exchange between Comer, who I mentioned and Representative Summer Lee, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. So I'll read this exchange. I just think it's really emblematic. It sums up so much of the back and forth between Republicans and the slong hearing and Democrats. So the Democrat Lee said, I think that if my Republican colleagues had a so-called smoking gun,

they would have presented it by now and would have talked about it. And then Comer jumps in and interrupts her, which is a bit unusual when she has her time. He said, can the general lady read a bank statement, an email, a text message? I think referring to a lot of the evidence they have. and Representative Lee, the Democrat, you know, reclaiming my time, she kind of rebuffed him. She said, instead, we're sitting here with no fact witnesses and no evidence in this sham so-called impeachment to distract for their inability to fulfill their basic duty.

So that little kind of unusual testy exchange sums up so much of it, even as Comer says, refers to the bank statements, the emails, and the text messages. She uses the phrase, no evidence. So the evidence, of course, you know, these bank statements, Siemens that show the oversight committee's released, they show more than $20 million came from several entities in adversarial nations like China, Russia, Ukraine, to the Biden family, you know, James Hunter and their business associates through about 20 shell companies. The money was reportedly just kind of moved around in these companies to mask what was going

on. That's kind of the line of the allegation. There's over 150 suspicious activity reports from the Treasury Department. Republicans have pointed to that again and again. There's an FBI confidential informant document where this confidential informant said that an executive at a Ukrainian company called Burisma claims to have bribed the president. The IRS whistleblowers who testified about this $20 million or more than $20 million. They say that the Biden's DOJ actually interfered and slowed down their investigation. So they did. didn't really try to defend the president too much. They just kind of hammered the evidence again and again and said, well, hey, that's why we need

this impeachment inquiry, Dan. We have to find more evidence, but hey, we actually do have some. So this might be a good time, Casey, briefly, to just talk to the procedural nature of this and the semantics involved with this. This is an impeachment inquiry to gather evidence to see if a formal impeachment process should be gun. This is not the same as the impeachment process, for example, against President Donald Trump, the Democrats, when they control the House launched. This is just an inquiry right now. Looking at that ends. Right.

This is not the same. Yeah, not the same as articles on impeachment. Right. So out of this inquiry, we don't expect to vote on whether or not the House should impeach President Biden. It's should the House perhaps begin impeachment proceeding. So this is just an initial step. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I think there's something about winning the American mind on this.

There's about laying the groundwork. You know, you could make the case that impeachment inquiry, these committees might have more power to get information, though it's always kind of dubious how much power Congress really has to get documents and things. I think if it went to court, then an impeachment inquiry hearing could say that they have a greater need than just a regular House oversight here, a committee.

You know, they said this is an impeachment inquiry. This is serious. We need these bank records. So, for instance, they subpoenaed Hunter Biden and James Biden's personal bank records for this inquiry. So to see, you know, how the money was moving. So if that goes to court, they could argue that because it's an impeachment inquiry, they have more right to this kind of information. But you're right. It's not the same thing as voting to impeach the president. So in the brief amount of time that we have left, Casey, tell us what's next. Can we expect more impeachment inquiry hearings? Is there going to be more behind the scenes, sort of a combination?

Yes, I think you definitely can expect more hearings and more evidence to come out. I think Republicans are being kind of strategic with how they're releasing the evidence. Actually, they released more evidence just this week before the hearing. I kind of thought we had it all. But then going into the hearing this week, you release what they call the bombshell. And it was pretty interesting that Hunter Biden allegedly received a quarter of a million dollars from a Chinese national. And guess whose address was listed on the bank wire transfer?

none other than President Joe Biden himself, right? Although he was running for president at the time, he was not president. But, you know, that's a pretty interesting piece of evidence that was just released this week. So I think there's going to be more coming. If there are any more whistleblowers, that could be huge. I mean, not to mention the subpoenas that are coming out. So I think there'll be more evidence and more hearings. And I think that's what Republicans want.

They want a steady drumbeat of evidence to make Biden look bad going into the next election. I think that's ultimately more of the goal than the impeachment itself. Thank you for your insight to this story, Casey. But we are out of time. Listeners can keep up with more on the impeachment inquiry and the President Biden at the centerscore.com for Casey Arbor. I'm Dan McAulip. Please subscribe.

Thank you for listening.