Big news from the Biden-Harris Administration in just the past 24 hours:
–Border crossings hit their lowest levels since we took office + down 55% since Biden-Harris executive order
–Two top leaders of the fentanyl-trafficking Sinaloa Cartel arrested
House Republicans have finally released the transcript of their own witness’ testimony — and guess what?
He confirms President Biden was not involved in his son’s business.
Q: “Did you have any knowledge of Joe Biden having any involvement with Burisma?”
A: “No.”
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, 10/5/23:
"I engage with him frequently. Alert, sound, does his homework, reads the papers, reads all the read-ahead material."
"He’s very, very engaging in issues, very serious matters"
Everyone should look at page 384 (I know it’s a lot to scroll down)
The inappropriate criticisms of the President’s memory are inaccurate, gratuitous, and wrong. We told the Special Counsel this.
You can’t make this up.
On page 72 of the transcript, it is not President Biden who admits to “misremembering” things from just moments earlier
It’s the Special Counsel himself
New in
@PunchbowlNews
:
@RepJamesComer
will say in his opening statement at Afghanistan hearing: “Today, the Taliban flag flies over Kabul … This is Joe Biden’s legacy.”
Raskin will say oversight requires a look beyond the final months of US involvement.
Days after a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020, Sec. of State Antony Blinken, then a Biden campaign adviser, reached out to a former CIA official + “set in motion the events that led” to a statement from intelligence officials say House Republicans.
Today, we wrote to leading U.S. news organizations asking them to do more to hold House Republicans accountable for their demonstrably false statements
We gave them a 14pg document refuting every claim Rs say impeachment is based on
Read it all here
Will anyone ask Speaker McCarthy *why* an impeachment inquiry is the “next logical step?”
The House GOP investigations have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS. In fact, their own witnesses have testified to that, and their own documents have showed no link to POTUS
1/
The sustained failure of the media to accurately report on the Special Counsel report is alarming
This is false. The report concluded there was NOT a case of knowing and willful retention. If it had found what NBC says, there would be charges.
For the umpteenth time, I explain:
The controversy over special counsel Robert Hur’s characterization of President Biden’s memory has obscured one of the most surprising findings in his report – that Biden knowingly kept classified materials at home for years and failed to turn them in.
Former U.S. Attorney for SDNY Preet Bharara on the Special Counsel report:
“What I don’t think is correct—and the vast majority of legal experts agree with me—is the gratuitous, superfluous statements about his memory”
“That had no place in this document”
Former RNC Chair Michael Steele on House GOP Mayorkas impeachment:
“Understand fundamentally: this is a stunt. This is not about anything Mayorkas has done.
“Yet again, impeachment is being used as a political cudgel against opponents of the Republicans that they disagree with”
This is just a shameless lie.
Their own witness appears to have actually testified that President Biden wasn't involved and didn't discuss their business dealings.
Yet the House Republicans – all the way up to the Speaker himself – have decided to just lie their way through it.
Archer’s testimony confirms that Joe Biden lied to the American People and continues to lie to the American People when he said he had no knowledge about Hunter's business dealings and was not involved whatsoever.
Monday: Grassley says bombshell tapes show Biden bribery
Since then?
House GOP Judiciary Chair: “We don’t know for sure if these tapes exist”
Oversight Chair: We “don’t know if they’re legit”
Sen. Ron Johnson: “We don’t know really if the tapes exist”
MUST WATCH >>
@MaxwellFrostFL
: When President Biden took office, did your agents stop enforcing the border and just allow everybody to come in, thus creating what we hear here is an open border?
Border chief: The answer is no.
Fox News host and former GOP Oversight Committee chair Trey Gowdy:
“I think prosecutors ought to speak through indictments… Rob Hur’s job was to write a confidential report, not do opposition research for the Republican Party.”
Bob Bauer: Hur “flagged at the beginning that sometimes he asks imprecise questions.”
“I didn’t come away from the Special Counsel’s failure to ask precise questions and think to myself, ‘He has mental acuity problems.’ I just thought he was asking bad questions.”
Uhhhhhh
The Daily Beast found emails and documents that show James Comer was involved in a secret Chinese business deal to benefit a campaign donor when he was Agriculture Commissioner
Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes on GOP impeachment hearing:
“To say this is falling apart actually understates how horrifically bad this is. This was dumb and dumber.
“The ineptness, the absurdity was on display. The Republican members of this committee were humiliated.”
Latest in House GOP “failure theater”
New transcripts of Republicans’ own witnesses refute their baseless impeachment allegations
Both Hunter’s friend & art gallerist testified they never discussed business with President Biden and never sought or received any benefit from him
NEW >> White House Counsel letter today to Speaker Johnson:
“It is clear the House Republican impeachment is over. It is obviously time to move on.”
“There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade.”
In the middle of the night, Chairman Green shut down amendments to the Mayorkas impeachment articles
Wouldn’t even let Dems submit them for the record—effectively blocking history from a full accounting of this unprecedented stunt
Yet another example of GOP’s sham process
The Special Counsel report was ~400 pages long, meandering and confusing. That led to a lot of misreporting on its conclusions, namely that it found POTUS “willfully retained” classified docs.
That’s wrong.
I sent a letter last night to the WH press corps explaining the facts:
Quite a story here
Leaked memo proves House Rs set a committee vote to impeach Mayorkas *before* they held a single impeachment hearing
Explains why they rejected Mayorkas offer to testify
They’re rushing to ram a pre-baked outcome through on a pre-planned artificial timeline
Scoop: An inadvertently shared GOP memo shows House Homeland planned its Mayorkas impeachment markup Jan. 31.
The Jan. 10 memo came the day the GOP kicked off its impeachment hearings & raises ?s over plans for additional hearings & Mayorkas testimony.
LOL 🤦♂️
Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations.
This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment.
Call it a day, pal.
House Oversight Chair James Comer said he will invite President Joe Biden to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee at the close of this hearing
“We need to hear from the president himself” Comer said.
CNN POLL OF SOTU WATCHERS
64% had a positive reaction to Biden’s speech
62% say Biden policies will move U.S. in the right direction (up 17 points from pre-speech)
Today is my last day at the
@WhiteHouse
before I enter a new chapter
It’s been an honor to represent President Biden — a leader with character, wisdom, empathy and judgment, who has accomplished more in 3.5 years than most Presidents do in two terms
Signing off at
@IanSams46
🫡
Comer’s financial records show Joe Biden (when he was out of office, no less) giving his brother *his own money*, then his brother paying him back, and Comer claims it’s “bribery”
These extreme House Republicans have officially jumped the shark
In case that wasn’t clear already
Seriously?
This was debunked literally *4 years ago.*
A thorough
@nytimes
report found: "There is no evidence that Vice President Biden acted improperly."
@NBCNews
also dived deep and found: "There's no evidence that Hunter or his father acted improperly or violated any laws."
Reminder:
@JamesComer
has called Bobulinski the most honest, credible witness they have in their discredited impeachment probe
ABC now reports he may have lied under oath to Comer’s committee
NEW: Cassidy Hutchinson’s attorney is pushing back on Tony Bobulinski testifying that she’s a “liar” over her claim that she witnessed Mark Meadows hand a masked Bobulinski a “paper or a small envelope”
Hutchinson’s attorney provided a photo of the alleged encounter which shows
Comer on the indicted informant: He wasn't an important part of this investigation because I didn't even know who he was. All I knew was there was a 1023 that alleged bribery.
Yet another House Republican admits impeachment is over
DAN ABRAMS: “Would you agree this impeachment inquiry is basically over?”
GOP REP. TIM BURCHETT: “We’re not going to have the votes. That’s clearly the case. And I don’t think we ever did.”
Wow.
Conservative GOP Rep. Ken Buck slams McCarthy's "impeachment theater," saying it is intended to be a "shiny object" to distract far-right members and the public from his own issues passing a spending bill.
"I don't think it's responsible for us to talk about impeachment."
Brutal
CNN: “Comer could not specify what direct actions Joe Biden took while in office that benefited his son’s business dealings”
That’s because there aren’t any
After more than a year of this
#FailureTheater
, the only thing Comer’s turned up is evidence disproving his lies
House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they've turned up no evidence of wrongdoing
His own GOP members have said so
He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip flopped because he doesn't have support
Extreme politics at its worst
The Atlantic: How Hur Misled the Country on Biden’s Memory
“The transcripts of Hur’s interviews with Biden illuminate Hur’s summary as uncharitable at best” and “misleading”
The transcript is “entirely incompatible with the conservative refrain” on Biden
This isn’t surprising about
@Jim_Jordan
. He has a long, well-documented history of highly misleading leaks to manipulate media to advance his partisan political goals
Well-chronicled by
@karoun
&
@rachaelmbade
I guess the question is why some in the media keep falling for it
This is an embarrassingly false assessment by Elie Honig, amplified by Ken Dilanian, both of whom are smart and can read but apparently haven’t
All these theories are raised in the report then thoroughly dissembled by facts & evidence
I laid it all out in a letter to the press:
Former federal prosecutor
@eliehonig
: “Biden knew he had highly classified documents in his home, kept them for a reason, and held on to them for years. He knew, all along. He arguably broke the law, and he definitely misled the American public.”
NBC: Have you seen any evidence that President Biden has committed high crimes and misdemeanors?
GOP SEN. ROMNEY: No. Before you begin an impeachment inquiry, you ought to have *some* evidence. So far there’s nothing of that nature. If I were in the House, I’d vote against it.
Last summer, as Comer threatened to hold the FBI Director in contempt over the false bribery claims, I wrote a memo with a warning:
“Having Repeatedly Proven His Lack of Credibility, Don’t Fall For James Comer’s
Stunts”
Rings especially true this week
Re-read the memo here:
Former President Trump released 5,000 Taliban fighters in a deal where they could attack U.S. troops if we didn't withdraw
As Trump cut troops to the lowest number in decades
And left the Biden Admin with no withdrawal plans
And had all but stopped processing Afghan ally visas
"If you don't have a plan, you plan to fail."
WATCH CHM
@RepMcCaul
break down why the committee is holding a hearing today on the Biden administration's catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal, which left 13 U.S. servicemembers dead and abandoned our Afghan allies ⬇️
This is a complete lie
There was no “Middle-East related transaction”
Joe Biden loaned his brother some money. His brother paid it back a few weeks later.
Comer and
@GOPoversight
know this yet they shamelessly smear anyway
Anything to distract from their own Speakerless chaos
Absolutely brutal for
@JamesComer
POLITICO: "Comer fails to link president in Biden family probe"
Comer "doesn’t show any way Biden's decisions were influenced" or "that he had direct knowledge"
"No link has publicly emerged, and that didn't change"
Bauer: “This is a report that went off the rails.”
“It starts with a legal conclusion that was foregone from the very beginning. Along comes this flood of characterizations, factual misstatements, pejorative comments about POTUS that are inconsistent with DOJ policy and norms.”
Jim Jordan lied to Fox this afternoon and repeated this lie on Hannity tonight
The Special Counsel’s own report refuted this
Page 207: The classified documents “played no role in Promise Me, Dad” and “there is no reason to believe” Biden intended to use them for his book
A) Jordan after Hur hearing: Joe Biden willfully intentionally deliberately retained and disclosed classified information. I think he did so because he wanted that information for his book and he shared it, shared it with the ghost writer
Lots of misreporting on the allegation POTUS “willfully retained” documents
The Special Counsel report itself refutes this
(which makes sense—he decided he couldn’t make a case of willfully retaining documents)
Look at page 215
“There is in fact a shortage of evidence”
Oh my
James Comer on Fox Radio shares his new theory for why his impeachment inquiry failed:
“Garland’s working with the Deep State who’s working with the liberal mainstream media to try to indoctrinate into people’s minds that there’s no evidence”
They’re basing it on lies
(LEFT)
Comer today: If the President and administration were cooperating with this investigation, we wouldn’t have to do impeachment
(RIGHT)
Also Comer: Every subpoena I signed as chairman of the Oversight Cmte, we’ve gotten 100% of what we requested
Weissmann: “What the report says over and over again is, in spite of the fact there was possession of these documents, there was either a lack of knowledge or intent or knowing they were classified, or there was no willfulness.
“The problem is it should have said that on page 1”
CNN Congressional Reporter:
“This hearing is shaping up to be far more spectacle than substance. One of the Republican witnesses is appearing remotely from federal prison.”
“Not an ideal situation for House Oversight chair James Comer who is under growing pressure”
Secretary Mayorkas:
“I served as a federal prosecutor for 12 years. The responsibility is to investigate, learn the facts, and apply the law. He did that and made a conclusion: Case closed.”
“Then made gratuitous, unnecessary, inaccurate personal remarks and those are improper”
Former Acting FBI Director:
“I oversaw many, many investigations of individuals who had classified info in their residences. Most of them end up this way.”
“You have to have explicit evidence of willful retention of those documents, and that is just not present in this case.”
Jim Jordan totally lying and misleading Americans
The Hur report found there were "innocent" explanations for the documents being mistakenly taken. It found Biden "did not let others access" his notebooks. It says the "evidence does not show" Biden knew passages were classified.
Brutal
House GOP leadership aide in Punchbowl calls Comer and Jordan “the chairmen who cried wolf,” slamming their failed impeachment stunt
“I do believe we need to bring this to a conclusion,” says former Republican Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa
Fallout of Hur hearing flop
Meanwhile in *other* polling news, NBC finds that people oppose House Republicans’ impeachment stunt by nearly 20 points (39% support, 56% oppose) - and by 13 points say backing impeachment makes them less likely to support their Congressperson…
🚨 Republican Congressman Ken Buck is a NO on Mayorkas impeachment
“This is not a high crime or misdemeanor. It’s not an impeachable offense. This is a policy difference.”
“It’s wrong and we should not set this precedent.”
REMINDER: After an entire year of investigating, they have turned up zero evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden — and a mountain of evidence disproving their lies.
NEW: House GOP nearing a decision on pursuing Biden impeachment articles. They want to wrap up nearly all depositions this year and make call as soon as January.
Sets up a high-stakes 4-6 weeks. Centrists still not convinced but right flank ready to go:
Reminder:
GOP Oversight chairman
@JamesComer
pushed a conspiracy theory that Zelensky was in on the fake Biden “bribery scheme” and that’s why the U.S. is supporting Ukraine against Russia/Putin
Comer used this lie to try to cast doubt on Ukraine aid
Rep. Jim Himes, Ranking Member of House Intel Committee:
“I am a little puzzled why the Special Counsel chose to make statements that he had no business making.”
“The President was cleared of wrongdoing.”
Fox’s Steve Doocy:
“A lot of Republican lawmakers say they have seen zero evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. After dozens of interviews and over 100k documents released to the Committees, the Republicans have yet to produce any direct evidence of misconduct by Joe Biden."
Chairman Comer could have had any of the TWO DOZEN Republican witnesses who have testified that President Biden did nothing wrong at today’s hearing
But of course he isn’t
He’s relying on the discredited ones for his Hannity Hearing
But don’t worry, we have the receipts:
Axios: The Mayorkas impeachment failure “delivered an especially humiliating blow” to Speaker Johnson
Fox News: “Major blow to GOP”
WSJ: “An embarrassment for the party”
WashPost: “A stunning rebuke of a months-long investigation”
As much as
@JamesComer
hopes people forget it, he’s on camera saying witnesses can be brought in for depositions or committee hearings, “whichever they choose”
Hunter Biden chose the latter, offering to testify publicly
Comer then did a 180 so he could hold this political stunt
“Though some Republicans may blame House oversight committee Chair James Comer for their failure to impeach President Biden, the real reason is simple: The whole party bought into long-debunked conspiracy theories peddled by their leader, Donald Trump.”
Nine days ago,
@JamesComer
went on Laura Ingraham and declared that Devon Archer was “going to be able to come under oath and tell us exactly what role Joe Biden played”
Well, I guess he got his answer:
Ouch.
"It was obvious from these first two attempts at oversight that House Republicans have absolutely nothing. Their strained efforts to prove there is a 'there' there are backfiring spectacularly and raising serious questions about the basic competence of Jordan and Comer."
Comer was on Hannity tonight. He was on Hannity’s radio show earlier today. He was on Hannity Wednesday. He was on Hannity 3 times before that in the past month.
The man’s congressional directory entry may as well read Rep. James Comer (R-Hannity) since he basically lives there.
Former GOP Rep. Ken Buck calls Comer/Jordan effort to hold AG Garland in contempt a “political stunt”
“They released the transcript. They have the information. They’re just looking for something for political purposes.”
After SCOTUS decision on presidential power, Americans may ask: “But does it impact me?”
Yes. Presidents can use their power to help themselves, or they can use it to help you.
President Biden uses his to help you. And he has the wisdom, judgment and character not to abuse it.
Former Republican Congressman David Jolly on the Mayorkas impeachment:
“This is really a violation of the sanctity of the House. They’re now using their powers for this very political, unwarranted move and tool. It is sad to see how unserious it is under the Republican majority”
🔥 Bennie Thompson: “History will judge what Republicans are doing here today, and it won’t be favorably.
“This impeachment scheme is a dangerous attempt to distort the Constitution and the Secretary’s record to cover up their inability and unwillingness to work with Democrats.”
This.
Every reporter should remember this revelatory exchange on Fox primetime tonight when, tomorrow, House Republicans pretend to care about the Border Patrol during their made-up Mayorkas impeachment stunt.
Attacking the integrity of the Border Patrol Union because they endorsed what NBC News calls “the most aggressive border security bill in decades” is extremely low, and a sign of true desperation.
@SpeakerJohnson
needs to stop delaying border security for the sake of politics.
How baseless and shamelessly politically motivated is the illegitimate House GOP “impeachment” stunt against President Biden?
LEFT: Mike Johnson today
RIGHT: Mike Johnson 3 weeks ago, where he admitted there is NO EVIDENCE to support a formal impeachment
They can’t answer because there isn’t an answer
It’s an impeachment about nothing
They aren’t pursuing anything real, they are just using it as a political stunt to go to places like Hannity to relentlessly attack a good, honorable man with lies
👀 Former Bush aide Ari Fleischer warns
@SpeakerMcCarthy
:
Once you open an impeachment inquiry, “there’s no stopping it.” It could “unleash an internal Republican civil war” because they “may not have the votes” and it could lead to “the worst, biggest backfire for Republicans.”
Bartiromo: Gives of your sense of what the most the damning evidence is. Where is the evidence?
Jordan: The most damning evidence is what we got from Devon Archer
They’re basing it on lies
Comer: “The Bidens received over 20 million dollars”
Fact checked as FALSE by the
@washingtonpost
- quoting Comer’s own report!
🚨The Bidens received over 20 million dollars.
My question to the White House: What did they do to receive that money?
No one has answered that question.
@POTUS
continues to lie about his knowledge and participation in his family’s influence peddling schemes.
@SeanHannity
Hallie Biden is the widow of the President's deceased son Beau
Elizabeth Secundy is her sister
Melissa Cohen is the President's daughter-in-law
They're all private citizens
He won't be, but Comer should be ashamed of desperately resorting to nasty personal smears like this
As I scooped that subpoenas to Biden family were coming today, here is full list of subpoenas/voluntary interviews from House Oversight
Subpoenas
Hunter Biden
James Biden
Rob Walker
Voluntary interviews
Sara Biden
Hallie Biden
Elizabeth Secundy
Melissa Cohen
Tony Bobulinski
NEW >> Bipartisan former DHS Secretaries urge Speaker Johnson not to impeach Mayorkas
It “would jeopardize our national security”
“Policy differences are not Constitutionally permissible impeachment offenses”
“We urge you to set aside this groundless impeachment effort”
AP: “The full transcript could raise questions about Hur’s depiction of the 81-year-old president as having ‘significant limitations’ on his memory”
“The transcript also offered a rare window into the mind of a sitting president, revealing his his humor”