Tangle - Impeaching Joe Biden.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Starting point is 00:00:19 Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we are going to be talking about impeaching President Joe Biden. Yeah, if you haven't heard the news, that's a thing. It's happening.

Starting point is 00:01:05 We're going to explain exactly what's going on, and then I'm going to share some of my take. Before we jump in, though, as always, we'll kick it off with some quick hits. First up, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News that if he were elected president, he would support eliminating the IRS and the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Education. Number two, for the second time in 24 hours, President Biden mistakenly referenced the war in Iraq while discussing the war in Ukraine, drawing harsh criticisms from Republicans. while discussing the war in Ukraine, drawing harsh criticisms from Republicans. Number three, former Marine Daniel Penny pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for his alleged role in the death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway.

Starting point is 00:01:58 Number four, former President Donald Trump filed a countersuit against E. Jean Carroll for defamation. Carroll won a civil lawsuit against Trump after a jury found him liable of sexual abuse. Number five, 11 people were killed and over 60 were injured after a Russian missile strike hit a Ukrainian pizza parlor. House Republicans will vote to send a resolution to impeach President Biden to the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. The resolution charges Biden with high crimes and misdemeanors over his handling of the southern border. The Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees are currently weighing articles of impeachment against President Biden. The House voted along party lines yesterday to refer the measure to the panels. This move sidestepped a vote on the resolution after House Speaker McCarthy and other Republicans voiced concerns that the impeachment effort

Starting point is 00:02:58 was rushed. Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced the impeachment articles Tuesday. That's why I don't want to do anything that harms the investigation we're going through right now. And I think to prematurely bring something up like that that has no background in it, it undercuts what we're doing in Comer's committee. We're finding something new every single day. Last week, Representative Lauren Boebert, the Republican from Colorado, introduced a resolution to impeach Joe Biden, citing high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the U.S. border with Mexico. Initially, Boebert used what is called a privileged resolution to force a snap vote on the impeachment, which if passed, would have sent it to the Senate for a vote.

Starting point is 00:03:49 Instead, House Leader Kevin McCarthy, the Republican from California, publicly called for Republicans to join Democrats in voting the resolution down, which then forced Boebert to negotiate in order to avoid losing a floor vote. After those negotiations, she agreed to merge her resolution with a border-related impeachment resolution aimed at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This new resolution was then passed into committee on a 219-208 party-line vote where it'll be considered by members or can languish indefinitely. Tonight, I brought a privileged motion to the floor that will force a vote on the impeachment of Joe Biden, Boebert tweeted on Tuesday. The American people can no longer be subjected to a president who refuses to secure our borders. His open border agenda has put every American at greater risk, allowed human traffickers to thrive, and given the cartel a free pass. He is not fit to remain as commander-in-chief.

Starting point is 00:04:41 Boebert's push to impeach the president caught some Republicans off guard, but there is still increasing momentum to pursue impeachment among factions of the right. Boebert celebrated the move of the resolution, saying the House is taking historic action. However, Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene reportedly got into an argument over the impeachment resolution as Greene, who called Boebert, quote, a nasty little bitch on the House floor and then repeated the insult to reporters, said she had her own impeachment resolution she was planning to introduce before Boebert went ahead on her own. Green had introduced articles of impeachment back in January of 2021 and then again in May and said Boebert basically copied my articles and then tried to leapfrog her

Starting point is 00:05:21 with the privilege resolution, Semaphore reported. Meanwhile, House leadership and many other Republicans in the caucus have expressed skepticism about pursuing impeachment against Biden, which is one of the most serious political acts a party can pursue. He's a terrible president, Representative Jeff Van Drew, the Republican from New Jersey, told the Wall Street Journal. However, before you impeach a president, there is a process of fact-gathering, building a case, making sure that you're going down the right avenues. I always prefer to change those in elected office at the ballot box. Just three presidents have ever been impeached. Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump twice, first in late 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family while using U.S.

Starting point is 00:06:03 financial and military aid as leverage. He was impeached a second time in 2021 for his actions and inaction as the January 6th riot unfolded. Many Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat from California, were initially skeptical of Trump's first impeachment before ultimately supporting it. Meanwhile, Greene and Elise Stefanik, the Republican from New York, are pushing to expunge Trump's impeachment and also planning to pursue articles of impeachment for Attorney General Merrick Garland and Mayorkas. Today, we're going to take a look at some reactions to the impeachment push from the left and the right is saying. The right is divided on the issue, with some arguing that this is the result of Democrats' reckless impeachments against Trump

Starting point is 00:07:01 and others suggesting this is badly timed and poorly thought out. Some say Democrats pursued equally questionable impeachments and have now made them a regular part of political life. Others suggest this is going to distract from more important priorities and make Republicans look divided and partisan to voters. In the Washington Examiner, Byron York said impeachment has become an increasingly regular part of American political battling. There was one impeachment in the first 200 years of U.S. history. There have been three in the last 25 years. Something has changed, York wrote. Boebert has a recent model for what she is doing, and that model is Representative Al Green, the Democrat from Texas, who worked tirelessly to impeach former President Donald Trump until he finally succeeded.

Starting point is 00:07:46 Green first filed articles of impeachment against Trump on May 17, 2017, when the president had been in office just under four months. Green's articles were a mishmash of liberal complaints against Trump, and he had several House Democrats supporting him along the way. In December of 2017, Green got 58 votes, roughly a third of the entire House Democratic Conference. He was shocked by his success. So now, is impeachment of Biden justified? Again, it doesn't really matter. Impeachment is no longer a weapon of last resort.

Starting point is 00:08:17 One could argue Republicans opened the can of worms with Bill Clinton, but they followed an old model with an outside investigator and meticulously gathered evidence that recognized the rights of minority lawmakers. Democrats threw that all out with Trump. Many people will undoubtedly wonder why some Republicans are doing it. The answer is they are just following a new but already well-worn path. In Fox News, Newt Gingrich said this probably feels good, but it is exactly the wrong approach. A knee-jerk effort to impeach the president of the United States without preparation, hearings, a full understanding of the facts, and the support of the American people will only hurt Republican efforts to lead our country toward a better future, Gingrich wrote.

Starting point is 00:08:58 For starters, the impeachment will fail. At the most elementary political level, it's not a great idea to start fights you can't win. The majority we created in 1994 fell apart 12 years later, in part because too many Republicans became willing to fail over niche ideological issues. It cost them their seats and delivered the House to Nancy Pelosi the first time. Second, a messy, clumsy impeachment effort is exactly what Democrats and the media want. It will allow Democrats to bury all positive efforts coming out of the Republican-led House. They could easily point to the hasty impeachment and paint the narrow GOP majority as one that is negative,

Starting point is 00:09:34 divisive, and totally political. Democrats already ran this playbook on Trump and got voted out. Americans want Congress to work on making their grocery and gas bills shrink and to get Americans back to work and rein in government spending. That's why the GOP majority got elected. Why would we copy a failed Democrat playbook? In hot air, Jazz Shaw criticized Associated Press reporter Stephen Groves for hand-wringing over the latest news. The latest round of accusations involves how the House GOP in particular is abusing its power to discipline people in the executive branch and even some members of the legislature. Groves specifically calls out the successful effort to censure Adam Schiff and

Starting point is 00:10:15 ongoing discussions of potential impeachment proceedings of various bad actors ranging from Merrick Garland to Joe Biden himself, Shaw wrote. This is a curious argument to make when you consider the source. Groves and the Associated Press have been big fans of impeachment when it was South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who, by what I'm sure is a total coincidence, happens to be a Republican. There was also nary a complaint at the Associated Press during the circus acts of Trump's impeachments. Still, Shaw says, I will readily admit that I too have become uncomfortable with the ease with which both parties have taken to seriously discussing impeachment and censures.

Starting point is 00:10:50 The last three impeachments were fully partisan in nature, and no president has ever been convicted. Impeachment is still a political act, not a law enforcement one, and impeaching a president when there is no chance of removal by the Senate remains largely a waste of the legislature's time. All right, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is unanimously opposed to impeachment, criticizing Republicans as incompetent and extreme. Some say voters gave Republicans a chance, and this is how they are using it. Others suggest this is an embarrassing episode that is ultimately all about fundraising. In the Washington Post, Dana Miliband said voters gave Republicans a chance,

Starting point is 00:11:38 and now Republicans are starting their impeachment binge. No impeachment proceedings, no investigation, no evidence, no crimes, not so much as a parking ticket, just a willy-nilly snap vote to impeach the president because Boebert dislikes Biden's immigration policies. In her mind, President Biden has intentionally facilitated a complete and total invasion at the southern border, she charged on the House floor. Then, Congresswoman Jewish Space Lasers confronted Boebert and called her a little bitch, who copied my articles of impeachment. That's according to a Daily Beast account that Greene confirmed. Enduring derision from the Democratic side, nutty, pathetic losers, House Republicans voted unanimously for what will, in effect, be the beginning of impeachment

Starting point is 00:12:19 proceedings against Biden, Milibank said. This stunt has opened the impeachment floodgates, and now Republicans can be expected to play with their new toy, using the privilege resolution maneuver to force impeachment votes against whatever Biden administration officials looks at them crossways on any given day. Green alone has introduced impeachment articles against Biden, the Attorney General, the FBI Director, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Attorney in Washington. The United States House of Recriminations is now in session. In New York Magazine, Ed Kilgore said Boebert failed to impeach Biden but succeeded in embarrassing the GOP. At a time when Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to build a case for voters to eject Joe Biden and other Democrats at the ballot box next year,

Starting point is 00:13:03 his excitable troops keep breaking ranks and cutting wild capers publicly. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The latest indictment involves a subject so inflammatory that it has drawn an embarrassing

Starting point is 00:13:40 amount of attention. Lauren Boebert's resolution to impeach Biden without hearings over his handling of immigration policy and the situation at the southern border, Kilgore wrote, Boebert tried to use a privileged resolution on the floor for the vote. This was embarrassing for McCarthy as Boebert's resolution, one, had no chance of passage given the House GOP's extremely narrow margin of control, and two, circumvented the regular order

Starting point is 00:14:04 that Republicans are supposed to revere and that Democrats observed when impeaching Donald Trump twice. Boebert's resolution dispensed with formalities like judiciary committee hearings with witnesses, debates, and solemn votes, and just cut to the chase with a floor vote to send Biden to a Senate trial. In MSNBC, Brian Tyler Cohen suggested the real reason why Greene and Boebert were fighting. Both Boebert and Greene want credit for forcing an impeachment vote against Biden. An impeachment vote that will go nowhere is completely baseless and puts on full display the extent to which the GOP is composed of woefully unserious people.

Starting point is 00:14:39 The reason these lawmakers each want to be first is twofold, Cohen said. First, so that they can use the stunt to promote their brands, because why else would Green and Boebert secure jobs to serve others when they can leverage those jobs to serve themselves? And second, because all of this is ultimately a fundraising ploy. Whoever goes first can then exploit that feat with the inevitable pitch to their supporters. I stood up for you and introduced articles of impeachment against socialist communist Marxist Joe Biden. Help me continue to hold him accountable by donating to my campaign today. The email practically writes itself, Cohen said. This isn't about getting anything done. It's about selling a narrative to the Marx. So long as Green and Boebert can squeeze

Starting point is 00:15:20 some money out of the suckers on their mailing list, they'll have accomplished their goal. All right, that is it for what the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So a couple weeks ago, I wrote an entire my take section defending the way the House Freedom Caucus and some far right members had wrested power back from party leadership. In that piece, I argued that basically everything about what had happened was actually good. Party leadership has too much control, and if representatives are making Congress function from the bottom up, creating unpredictability, forcing tough votes and new coalitions, and exercising more leverage to represent the priorities of their constituents, that would be great. Two weeks later, Representative

Starting point is 00:16:11 Lauren Boebert is making me eat my words. I'm tempted to make some obvious points to soften my opinion here, like, for instance, that the border that Biden is responsible for enforcing has been a disaster, and Republicans like Boebert have a right to be angered. I'll even grant that the investigations into Hunter Biden and the Biden family may have some teeth after all. Or perhaps you want to make the argument that Biden is reaching a point where he is no longer fit for the job, an argument I'm open to. But there isn't a logic generous enough to say those grievances validate impeachment? There is no reason to soften the point. This is dumb.

Starting point is 00:16:48 It's an absurdity. And it's a reminder why both Boebert and Greene are not taken seriously by so many people. York's points under what the right is saying about Democratic Representative Al Greene are all well taken. His impeachment efforts against Trump mere months after he got elected were essentially equivalent to these. The vote he forced a year into Trump's presidency that got nearly a third of Democratic conference was an embarrassment. He literally included criticisms of Colin Kaepernick in his calls for impeachment.

Starting point is 00:17:17 And if Tangle existed at the time, I would have used this section to excoriate Green for the absurdity of that, too. Like Boebert and Greenene, I don't think Al Greene should be taken seriously as a lawmaker. But this isn't just embarrassing for Boebert and Greene as they fight like teenagers on the House floor and call each other nasty words to the press. It's also distracting and bad politics for Republicans. Democrats spent months building a case for impeachment against Trump. They had witnesses, votes, evidence, whistleblowers, all of it. And it was still barely popular. Boebert is impeaching Biden for immigration policy,

Starting point is 00:17:52 something as a member of the House she is partly in control of. She could, quite literally, spend the time she's spending on impeachment drafting a piece of legislation she thinks could get Democratic and Republican votes to address the problem, or even a sliver of the problem, or even just pretend to address it. But instead, she does this. And voters know better. That's why in her deeply dark red district, Boebert just barely eked out a victory over a Democrat by a few hundred votes. And that was after redistricting made her district more conservative. That was only less than a year ago. Does Boebert suppose impeaching Biden is something her constituents really want? Is she representing the will of a district evenly split on her

Starting point is 00:18:35 representation by introducing articles of impeachment? Is she doing anything at all for the people in Colorado's third district? It sure doesn't seem like it. As Marjorie Taylor Greene pointed out, the reason for Boebert's push isn't that complicated. It's purely for fundraising, Greene told Semaphore. It's throwing out red meat so that people will donate to her campaign because she's coming up at the end of the month and she's trying to produce good fundraising numbers. Of course, the irony of that quote is that it could also apply to plenty of Greene's actions, too. In that regard, these it could also apply to plenty of Green's actions, too. In that regard, these two might be made for each other, but I sure wish they'd spend their

Starting point is 00:19:09 time on something a little bit more realistic or, dare I say, a bit more helpful. All right, that is it for the left and the right are saying, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Hillary in Rapid City, South Dakota. Hillary said, your responses to reader questions usually seem pretty measured and calm. Is that something that comes naturally to you or is it something you have to work at? Like if you get yet another criticism of secretly being overly liberal or conservative, is your immediate response to clap back or are you kind of just zen about the whole thing? Well, I certainly appreciate you saying that, Hilary. Do I seem zen today? I

Starting point is 00:19:51 feel kind of a little worked up, to be honest. In all seriousness, doing this work for so long has definitely given me a measure of calm, and I've learned to let things roll off my back. I was not always like that, but it's the only way to do this work well, truly. I think in part, I learned this from working in the breaking news business. There are so many stories that create hysterical, over-the-top reactions when they first break, and I found that things usually aren't as bad as they initially seem. So I learned to slow roll my own reaction and wait for more information and to just take a breath before tweeting or writing. Similarly, I think I've learned to do that with readers.

Starting point is 00:20:30 I've learned to expect people hurling accusations or frustrations. Having two older brothers also helped me learn to deal with provocation. For instance, on Tuesday, I took a measured tone about John Durham's testimony before Congress. Yesterday, I wrote very strongly in favor of the Supreme Court's decision on the independent state legislature theory. Today, I harshly criticized two Republican members of Congress. So naturally, I expect this week I'm going to lose some conservative readers and get accused of being a liberal or worse. Sure, I could be snarky and clap back by pointing out that I'm simply taking Durham at his word and not buying into either partisan narrative, or that it was a conservative Supreme Court that delivered the ruling I support, or that Greene and Boebert are also loathed by many Republicans. But it's better to just say, this is my opinion, I'm being honest with you, here is why I think what I think.

Starting point is 00:21:21 I found that is a lot more effective. And frankly, it's a lot healthier. Earlier this month, I was defending RFK Jr.'s right to debate vaccines and showering the House Freedom Caucus with praise, which I know cost me some liberal support. Ultimately, my take isn't supposed to be the final word, but one view among many. All I can do is hope that the folks who stick around end up seeing the value of this work and respecting my attempts at fairness and open-mindedness. All right, that is it for your questions answered, which brings us to today's Under the Radar section. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there will be no

Starting point is 00:22:01 elections until the war in Ukraine is over. Zelensky made the comments during an interview with BBC explaining that the Ukrainian constitution does not allow elections when martial law is declared and that the country is currently under martial law because of the war. Parliamentary elections are supposed to be held in 2023 and presidential elections are scheduled for 2024. However, suspending elections drew criticism from some political commentators, including those who say the move undermines claims that Ukraine is a democracy. Tucker Carlson challenged Zelensky to prove Ukraine was a democracy, while Bradley Devlin and Glenn Greenwald both criticized the announcement. Some polling suggests roughly 77% of Ukrainians want Zelensky to remain president. All right, that is it for our Under

Starting point is 00:22:49 the Radar section, which brings us to our numbers section. The record number of arrests by U.S. Border Patrol on the southern border last year was 2.2 million. Of those arrests, the percentage that was of single adults, many of whom were repeat offenders, was 70%. The percentage of Americans who believe Trump's request to Ukraine's president to investigate Biden was wrong was 70%, according to a 2019 poll. The percentage of Americans who believe those actions were cause for him to be impeached and removed from office was just 51%. The percentage of respondents who said the GOP should impeach Biden if they retake the House, according to a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll from May of 2022, was 34%. The total number of votes by which Lauren Boebert won re-election in the 2022 race was 546.

Starting point is 00:23:41 All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day story. A concert director in Los Angeles is composing a solution to an increasing problem in American society, a lack of generational connection. Through the Heart of Los Angeles, or HOLA, Eisner Intergenerational Orchestra, Daniel Suk is providing opportunities for senior, middle-aged, and young musicians to connect through a shared love of music. Together, orchestra members discuss classic novels, graphic novels, how to use the orchestra's communication app, and, most of all, music. Gerson Gautames, a 27-year-old with a doctorate in daryntology, joined the orchestra because he had seen how playing music can help form bonds between people from different generations. The arts really are the way to do it, Gautamez said, calling the orchestra a canvas for connections. The Los Angeles Times has this unique story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, it is Thursday, which means

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Starting point is 00:25:20 off monday and tuesday for the fourth of July weekend. And we'll be back here in your ears on Wednesday. So enjoy the long weekend. We'll see you then. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by John Long. Our script is edited by Ari Weitzman, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bukova, who's also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more on Tangle, please go to retangle.com and check out our website. We'll see you next time. in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes

Starting point is 00:26:25 a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.

Tangle - Impeaching Joe Biden.

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