{"id":592547,"date":"2023-09-29T00:57:51","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/"},"modified":"2023-09-29T00:57:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:57:51","slug":"gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"#GOP struggles to find footing in first Biden impeachment hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a239ca74eb5a\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a239ca74eb5a\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/#Republicans_star_witnesses_not_always_a_help_for_GOP\" >Republicans\u2019 star witnesses not always a help for GOP<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/#Republicans_lay_out_their_goals_%E2%80%93_but_say_theyve_got_the_goods\" >Republicans lay out their goals \u2013 but say they\u2019ve got the goods<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/#Democrats_say_its_%E2%80%98an_impeachment_hearing_about_nothing\" >Democrats say it\u2019s \u2018an impeachment hearing about nothing\u2019<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/#Republicans_refuse_to_call_in_Rudy_Giuliani\" >Republicans refuse to call in Rudy Giuliani\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/09\/biden_impeachment_092823gn01._wjpg.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Republican impeachment inquiry into President Biden got off to a rocky start on Thursday as the GOP sought to stress a need for the investigation while Democrats argued they had done little to advance the specter of wrongdoing by the man they aim to remove from office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Republicans sought to draw attention to evidence as sprawling as the probe itself, bouncing back and forth between reviewing Hunter Biden\u2019s business dealings, communications with family members and associates, and the ongoing Justice Department investigation into his failure to pay taxes.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Still, the bulk of what they reviewed dealt only with Hunter Biden, not his father, even as Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said \u201cour investigation is now focused on whether President Biden engaged in impeachable offenses under the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Comer wr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed the hearing saying the panel would issue a subpoena for Hunter Biden\u2019s personal bank records as well as those of his companies.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats vacillated between drawing attention to the looming government shutdown \u2014\u00a0passing an iPad with a countdown clock from member to member \u2014 and what they deem holes in connecting any wrongdoing to President Biden.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Republicans_star_witnesses_not_always_a_help_for_GOP\"><\/span><strong>Republicans\u2019 star witnesses not always a help for GOP<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Even as Republicans sought to convince the public of the need for an inquiry, GOP-invited witnesses at turns undercut their message, saying there was not currently enough evidence to back an impeachment resolution.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Turley, a go-to witness for conservatives in Congress, at one point told lawmakers that some of the details they\u2019d gathered \u201creally do gravitate in favor of the president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment,\u201d Turley said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>At another point, when asked to weigh in on GOP claims that Hunter Biden was engaged in \u201cinfluence peddling,\u201d Turley said Congress has failed to do needed work to connect it to President Biden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe key here that the committee has to drill down on is whether they can establish a linkage with the influence peddling, which is a form of corruption, and the President whether he had knowledge, whether he participated, whether he encouraged it. We simply don\u2019t know, and we don\u2019t even know if this was an illusion or not. But you can\u2019t find the answers to that,\u201d Turley said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut without that type of nexus, then no, I don\u2019t,\u201d he added in response to whether he would back a vote to impeach President Biden.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant also invited to testify by the GOP, said the party had not yet laid out enough evidence to even suggest there is wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing. In my opinion, more information needs to be gathered and assessed before I would make such an assessment,\u201d he said in his opening statement.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) later repeated some of Turley\u2019s comments in his own line of questioning.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cBoy, that\u2019s awkward,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a former Director of Emergency Management, I know a disaster when I see one.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Republicans_lay_out_their_goals_%E2%80%93_but_say_theyve_got_the_goods\"><\/span><strong>Republicans lay out their goals \u2013 but say they\u2019ve got the goods<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The GOP offered an inconsistent message about the status of their investigation, at some turns suggesting they have gathered significant evidence that shows Biden family corruption while at others saying they had launched the investigation in order to determine whether there was any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>In his opening remarks, Comer suggested they already have such evidence, saying the committee \u201cwill examine over two dozen pieces of evidence revealing Joe Biden\u2019s corruption and abuse of public office.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>But he later hedged that, saying he has no predetermined conclusions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe title of this hearing is an impeachment inquiry. I think that Mr. Turley has done a good job explaining the basis for why we need to take the impeachment inquiry and go forward. We have led this investigation and now we need the inquiry status as we move forward to get the information,\u201d Comer said, adding they will need information from the Biden family.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) pushed back on Democrats\u2019 claims they have \u201cno direct evidence\u201d linking Hunter Biden\u2019s business to his father, pointing to photos of the president at dinners with associates of his son.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHere is the pattern. You have crooked foreigners who deliver pallets of cash to the Bidens and they have dinner with Joe, and apparently Joe Biden is an expensive dinner date, and if that is not selling political access, I don\u2019t know what is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But other Republicans cast the evidence they\u2019ve gathered as a rationale for continuing their search rather than proof of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) flashed a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of texts from different Biden family members, asking witnesses if those were worth looking into further.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\"><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cDo you think this text message would lead this committee to get further information about the business dealings of Hunter Biden and how that links to Jim Biden the president\u2019s brother?\u201d he asked, noting the text presumably referred to the need to protect President Biden.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He flashed another text showing Hunter Biden\u2019s daughter Naomi Biden texting her father and making a comment about how she would not ask for half of his salary like \u201cpop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWould you be looking for information related to money going from son to father,\u201d Donalds\u00a0asked.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats were dismissive of Republicans who said the inquiry was a jumping off point for gathering more evidence that would answer the questions they\u2019ve laid out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this hearing have questions, but questions are not the basis for an impeachment. Evidence is,\u201d Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Democrats_say_its_%E2%80%98an_impeachment_hearing_about_nothing\"><\/span><strong>Democrats say it\u2019s \u2018an impeachment hearing about nothing\u2019<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Democrats on the panel largely used their time to showcase the gaps in connecting activities of the two Bidens.<\/p>\n<p>Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) at one point quipped the hearing was like a Seinfeld episode, calling it \u201can impeachment hearing about nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today. They\u2019ve got nothing on President Joe Biden. All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump launched five years ago. The Burisma conspiracy theory, a fairytale so preposterous that one of the main authors, Lev Parnas, has now disowned and repudiated it,\u201d Raskin said, nodding to a former associate of Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Most argued Republicans couldn\u2019t meet the standard for high crimes and misdemeanors required for impeachment, saying they were unable to tie the president to their complaints about his son.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear a lot about the Biden family. This is an impeachment inquiry about President Biden. I would try to discern what the allegations are for the president because they are nonexistent at this point,\u201d said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.).<\/p>\n<p>Michael Gerhardt, a Democratic witness who has addressed Congress multiple times on impeachment, said Republicans\u2019 focus on Hunter Biden would not help make their case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is that the dots are not connected. The name that\u2019s been repeated most often in this hearing is Hunter Biden, not President Biden. And the point of an impeachment inquiry is not about a president\u2019s son, it has to be about the president himself. And I don\u2019t think those dots have been connected. There have been lots of assumptions, lots of accusations, but not evidence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Several Democrats argued the Republicans\u2019 goal was to drag down Biden to dilute focus as Trump faces four ongoing criminal prosecutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the case of President Joe Biden, [Republicans] decided to start the impeaching now and figure out the whole evidence thing later, and you still haven\u2019t figured it out,\u201d Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis inquiry is a cynical attempt to tar everyone, to make everyone look suspect, to make everyone look corrupt, so that voters just give up and say, \u2018There\u2019s not much difference here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Moskowitz said Republicans efforts to launch a legitimate inquiry were undercut by Republicans who raced to file numerous impeachment inquiries at the start of the new Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery single member, many on this committee, pre-judging their filing articles\u2026 They\u2019re all one upping each other in the Donald Trump friend Olympics trying to get invited to the sleepover at Mar-a-Lago. \u2018I filed articles of impeachment against Merrick Garland.\u2019 \u2018No, I filed articles of impeachment against Kamala Harris. It is ridiculous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Republicans_refuse_to_call_in_Rudy_Giuliani\"><\/span><strong>Republicans refuse to call in Rudy Giuliani\u00a0<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Republicans on the panel twice quashed efforts by Democrats to bring in Rudy Giualani, and in one case an associate who worked alongside him as he <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a>ed to Ukraine to further allegations that President Biden improperly intervened to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor to benefit his son.<\/p>\n<p>Raskin first made the motion, calling Giuliani and his associate Lev Parnas \u201cthe origins of the lie on which this sham impeachment is based and who worked to spread it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was Giuliani that sought to raise allegations that Biden sought to force out a Ukrainian prosecutor to benefit his son \u2013 despite backing from the international community and the State Department that the prosecutor should be removed due to a failure to address corruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I walked into this hearing room, my first question was, where is Rudy Giuliani?\u201d Lynch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is supposed to be an inquiry on the facts against the president for potentially articles of impeachment. The one person, the one person, who was an agent of President Trump [who] was sent to Ukraine to dig up some dirt, find some dirt on Joe Biden\u2026.We do not have him here. We are not allowed to ask him questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both motions to bring Giuliani before the panel were blocked by subsequent motions from Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) held up a sign asking \u201cWhere is Rudy?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis committee is afraid to bring him before us and put him on the record. Shame!\u201d he said.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2023 Nexstar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. 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Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/4229059-gop-struggles-to-find-footing-in-first-biden-impeachment-hearing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Republican impeachment inquiry into President Biden got off to a rocky start on Thursday as the GOP sought to stress a need for the investigation while Democrats argued they had done little to advance the specter of wrongdoing by the man they aim to remove from office.\u00a0 Republicans sought to draw attention to evidence&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":592548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/09\/biden_impeachment_092823gn01._wjpg.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[134353,141609,90482,70867,138358,143907,23261,115,134345],"class_list":["post-592547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-court-battles","tag-evening-report","tag-house","tag-hunter-biden","tag-james-comer","tag-jonathan-turley","tag-lgbtq","tag-news","tag-state-watch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}