The legal deposition this week from Devon Archer, a friend and former business associate of Hunter Biden, painted the president as a liar as it contradicted Joe Biden's statements from the last four years he had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings.
After that deposition, defenders of President Biden are now defending Hunter Biden's phone calls with corrupt foreign business tycoons by suggesting his then-Vice President father was being friendly and saying hello, and somehow happened to be seated nearby in 20-plus phone calls.
Democrats are also insisting Republicans have yet to directly connect Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's business deals.
In a radio interview on American Family Radio, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said constituents in his district, serving West Louisiana, are quick to remind him the House twice impeached former president Donald Trump.
“I was on impeachment defense twice for President Trump because they were completely nonsensical and frivolous. Impeachment is a power that Congress holds, not a tool to be wielded for politics,” Johnson told show host Jenna Ellis. “Democrats made a mockery of impeachment during the Trump presidency, but we have to reel that back in because that’s a danger to our underlying system itself.”
Johnson says House Republicans are committed to crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s as they prepare a sound case. And he insists they have plenty of evidence to work with.
House Oversight and Accountability chair James Comer said Archer testified that Joe Biden not only knew of Hunter Biden’s business but was an active participant as he engaged foreign business leaders on the phone more than 20 times.
Biden was so cozy with Chinese investment executive Jonathan Li that he wrote a college recommendation letter for Li’s daughter, according to Archer testimony.
Actions like that take the impeachment decision out of the House’s hands – at least those members who would follow the Constitution – Johnson said.
“Our concern has to be the Constitution. There’s mounting evidence right now of bribes, extortion, and abuses of power that could not previously have been imagined. I mean, a document (FBI Form 1023), a confidential FBI source, alleges that the president accept a $5 million bribe. IRS whistleblowers have come forward about Biden being pressured by Chinese companies,” Johnson said.
He pointed out that Article 2 of Constitution calls for the president to be removed from office if impeached for and convicted of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
“If you look at a Constitution, which is what we have to do, and that is our only concern in this capacity, Article 1 gives the House of Representatives the sole power of impeachment. Bribery is listed as a cause for impeachment in the Constitution, so if the sitting president of the United States has been involved in a bribery scheme, I do not have a choice as a member of the House Judiciary Committee about whether or not we pursue the investigation of that.
“I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, so this is not a political calculation. We have to do what's right and what the Constitution calls for, and it's just not even in dispute,” Johnson said.
Constitution aside, there are multiple offenses to consider in the impeachment question, Newsweek columnist Josh Hammer told Ellis in a separate interview.
“This is not someone who really should be in office for any number of reasons whether it’s political substance or just the sheer mental capacity,” Hammer, an attorney, said.
'Evidence' leads to impeachment
At the moment, there is no easy answer to the question about a timeline for impeaching Biden.
“This is a decision the House Republican Conference has to make in earnest, and I think quickly," Johnson said. "Not because of the calendar. Not because we’re under the Constitution, or because we’re headed into a presidential election, but because this is where the evidence leads us."
The Republican congressman called Devon Archer's deposition "one more straw" for Congress to study.
"You’ve heard Speaker McCarthy over the last week or so say that an impeachment inquiry is an appropriate step. I think now the evidence leads us to that,” Johnson said.
A House vote on a resolution for an impeachment inquiry would be the next step. If it happens, a resolution drafted by House Republicans would lay out the ground rules for public hearings, provide an opportunity for President Biden and his legal team to respond to evidence, and set out the process for considering the articles of impeachment in the Judiciary Committee and eventually the full House.
'Bribery is right there'
Among their impeachment offenses, the framers listed high crimes and misdemeanors as their “catch-all phrase.”
Alexander Hamilton described it as “the misconduct of public men or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.”
Only two other violations were listed by name: treason and bribery.
“Bribery is right there," said Hammer, referring to the firing of Ukraine's prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, at Biden's insistence. "It’s explicit, and that’s exactly what it looks like is happening here."
Impeachment of Biden can’t come soon enough for Hammer, who called for it amid the ruins of the administration’s shockingly tragic Afghanistan exit two years ago this month.
Americans witnessed U.S. servicemembers lose their lives to terrorist bombers around the Kabul airport. Reacting to that fatal attack, the Pentagon dropped a bomb on an innocent aid worker and his family but claimed a key terrorist had been eliminated. No one has been punished for that killing.
"I've been long on the record in saying that the impeachment remedy is wholly appropriate when it comes to this man [Biden], who is so clearly and tragically in the throes of finality,” Hammer told Ellis.
According to the allegations stacking up against him, long before the ailing president began showing signs of age he was the "big guy" who knowingly enriched himself from corrupt business tycoons all over the world.
